academicworks-cuny-edu-3385	----	"RESIST: a Controversial Display and Reflections" by Stephanie Beene and Cindy Pierard Home Search Browse Colleges, Schools, Centers My Account About Digital Commons Network™ Skip to main content Urban Library Journal Home About FAQ Contact My Account     Home > Urban Library Journal > Vol. 24 > Iss. 1 (2018)   Article Title RESIST: a Controversial Display and Reflections on the Academic Library’s Role in Promoting Discourse and Engagement Authors Stephanie Beene, University of New Mexico - Main CampusFollow Cindy Pierard, University of New Mexico - Main CampusFollow Abstract Libraries engage communities in a variety of ways, including through exhibitions and displays. However, librarians may not always know how to promote critical discourse if controversy arises surrounding exhibits or displays. This article reflects on one academic library’s experience hosting a controversial display during a divisive political time for the library’s parent institution, its broader urban community, and the United States as a whole. The authors contextualize the display, created by a local art collective, against the backdrop of creative activism, and consider implications for library displays and exhibits within similar environments. Rather than retreating from controversy, libraries have an opportunity to frame exhibits and displays by engaging in challenging dialogues. Professional guidelines developed by both museums and libraries are beneficial to practitioners looking toward best practices in planning, managing, and promoting exhibits and displays in the face of possible controversy. Recommended Citation Beene, S., & Pierard, C. (2018). RESIST: a Controversial Display and Reflections on the Academic Library’s Role in Promoting Discourse and Engagement. Urban Library Journal, 24 (1). Retrieved from https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ulj/vol24/iss1/6 Download Included in Art Practice Commons, Library and Information Science Commons, Museum Studies Commons Share COinS     To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, you may Download the file to your hard drive. NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.       Journal Home About This Journal Editorial Board Editorial Policies Author Guidelines Browse All Issues Submit Article Most Popular Papers Receive Email Notices or RSS Select an issue: All Issues Vol. 26, Iss. 1 Vol. 25, Iss. 2 Vol. 25, Iss. 1 Vol. 24, Iss. 1 Vol. 23, Iss. 2 Vol. 23, Iss. 1 Vol. 22, Iss. 2 Vol. 22, Iss. 1 Vol. 21, Iss. 2 Vol. 21, Iss. 1 Vol. 20, Iss. 1 Vol. 19, Iss. 1 Vol. 18, Iss. 1 Vol. 17, Iss. 1 Vol. 16, Iss. 1 Vol. 15, Iss. 2 Vol. 15, Iss. 1 Vol. 14, Iss. 1   Search Enter search terms: Select context to search: in this journal in this repository across all repositories Advanced Search ISSN: 1944-9682     Digital Commons Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement Privacy Copyright 
academicworks-cuny-edu-8262	----	"Neoliberalism and Library & Information Science: Using Karl Polanyi’s " by Jonathan Cope Home Search Browse Colleges, Schools, Centers My Account About Digital Commons Network™ Skip to main content CUNY Academic Works Home About FAQ Contact My Account < Previous Next >   Home > College of Staten Island > Publications and Research > 4   Publications and Research Title Neoliberalism and Library & Information Science: Using Karl Polanyi’s Fictitious Commodity as an Alternative to Neoliberal Conceptions of Information Authors Jonathan Cope, CUNY College of Staten IslandFollow Document Type Article Publication Date Winter 2014 Abstract This paper examines the Library & Information Science (LIS) and Knowledge Organization (KO) literature on neoliberalism and argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the neoliberal conception of information’s relationship to the market. After an examination of the LIS and KO literature on neoliberalism, the key claims of neoliberalism with regards to information and markets are scrutinized and the role of the Internet is discussed. Karl Polanyi’s concept of the fictitious commodity is used to examine the ways in which markets are embedded within society and to provide an alternative to neoliberalism. Comments This work was originally published in Progressive Librarian. Download Included in Library and Information Science Commons Share COinS     To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, you may Download the file to your hard drive. NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.       Browse Colleges, Schools, Centers Disciplines Authors Search Enter search terms: Select context to search: in this series in this repository across all repositories Advanced Search Notify me via email or RSS Author Corner Author FAQ Submission Policies Submit Work Links College of Staten Island CUNY   Digital Commons Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement Privacy Copyright 
acrlog-org-2690	----	You Can’t Die of Impostor Syndrome, Right? – ACRLog Skip to content ACRLog Blogging by and for academic and research librarians Menu Home ACRLog Guidelines Who We Are Why An ACRL Blog Special Features Academic Freedom Quiz Answers Posted Remarks From The Great Information Literacy Debate Interested in Writing for ACRLog? You Can’t Die of Impostor Syndrome, Right? Like a good old millennial I was Gchatting with a friend, a fellow old millennial, and asked, “Can a person die of imposter syndrome?” And yes, I did misspell “impostor” in that question. I was met with a “hahahahahaha” and some emojis, along with a much needed pep talk. No, it didn’t end that feeling of panic that was making my shoulders ache and my throat tight. I still felt my stomach flipping and my face heating up. My particular flavor of Impostor Syndrome manifests physically, and is a strong mix of embarrassment, anxiety, shame, and excitement. I once asked Library Twitter if it ever goes away, and was met with a resounding NO from the women I idolize. It may change, but it never goes away. I’ve been told to own my expertise, fake it ’til you make it, and remind myself that I belong here. I’ve tried to replicate the actions and approaches of colleagues and friends I greatly respect in hopes that I’ll manifest some of their confidence and air of authority. It’s not me. It feels false and a bit painful, honestly. Articles and books abound to help women and people of color, my own intersection of identity, thrive despite impostor syndrome, deal with it, and even cure it. I’ve tried them all, but the feeling persists, and I am starting to wonder if it really is such a terrible thing. I mentioned shame making its way into my Impostor Syndrome expression, and I think that shame is less related to “feeling like I’m not good enough” and more related to feeling the Impostor Syndrome. When I teach I try to encourage students to embrace confusion, ask questions, and generally feel ok not knowing answers to things. I need and want to do the same, but often feel as though there is no room for this kind of “novice culture” for women of color in the workplace. Our Western workplace culture tends to conflate vulnerability with weakness, a desire to learn with incompetence, and questioning with a lack of knowledge. So when self-doubt and “not knowing the answer that I feel like I should know” make their way into my brain, I feel weak, unworthy, and even more down. My feminist brain screams: EVERYONE HAS FEELINGS AND NOT ACKNOWLEDGING THEM IS AN INSIDIOUS SIDE EFFECT OF THE PATRIARCHY. FEEL YOUR FEELINGS. My work brain chimes in with: You need to be more confident or no one will take you seriously. But then I think back to some of the leaders and colleagues I’ve most admired, and what stands out is their ability to say, “Wow, I don’t know anything about that. How can I learn?” Or, “You know I am feeling a lot of self-doubt today and could use some encouragement.” They were/are strong enough to fully own and express those feelings and use them to grow as people. So maybe it’s not Impostor Syndrome that’s the problem, but the way that it is vilified. Yes, it’s important to not continuously drown in a pool of your own self-doubt and anxiety, but part of swimming out of that pool includes sharing those feelings and acknowledging that it’s ok to feel that way. It was so encouraging to hear expressions of “me too!” and “same here!” from my heroes online, and I want to do better about expressing those feelings, too. I want to stop worry about it impacting my professional image (whatever that means) and embrace the range of emotions I want all learners to feel. Feel your feelings, y’all.   Author Veronica Arellano DouglasPosted on January 16, 2019Categories Just Thinking, Professional image, TeachingTags feelings, impostor syndrome, poc, woc, women One thought on “You Can’t Die of Impostor Syndrome, Right?” Laura Krier says: January 31, 2019 at 7:08 pm Yes! I totally agree that owning what you don’t know is a sign of strength. I’ve always admired leaders who can admit their weaknesses and mistakes. That’s authenticity and it matters. It certainly builds trust, at least for me. Let’s stop buying into patriarchal notions of leadership and strength. 🙂 Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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acrlog-org-5553	----	Low Self-Esteem and the Academic Librarian. Maybe it is just me. It is probably just me. – ACRLog Skip to content ACRLog Blogging by and for academic and research librarians Menu Home ACRLog Guidelines Who We Are Why An ACRL Blog Special Features Academic Freedom Quiz Answers Posted Remarks From The Great Information Literacy Debate Interested in Writing for ACRLog? Low Self-Esteem and the Academic Librarian. Maybe it is just me. It is probably just me. Until I actually started writing my FYAL entry for January my plan was to write about academic interviews – how they are horrible (they kind of are!) but also what I like about them. However, I am really focusing on something else right now, still related to getting and keeping a faculty position: the curriculum vitae (vita or CV for short). It’s on my mind because I’m busy putting mine together. Honestly, it isn’t all that different from a traditional resume. Pretty much what you’d expect in academia – it is heavily focused on scholarly achievements rather than just work experience. The most difficult part about writing mine is that it is giving me a bit of low self-esteem.   In order to get a good feel for what is included in a vita I went snooping around on my colleague’s faculty webpages (note to self: I need to get my faculty profile on the website asap). And then I went back to the faculty directory of the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science to get a sense for what the CV of teaching faculty should look like. And I am humbled. My little vita is so…concise. So…well, lacking much beyond education and work experience. And if I’m honest, I actually feel pretty good about how my resume stacks up against other professional librarian’s resumes. I started working in libraries before attending grad school, did multiple internships while in grad school and then have been incredibly fortunate finding jobs that allow me to do what I love – which is to say, jobs working as a librarian. So my resume is pretty good, no employment gaps to explain or toxic workplaces to gloss over, plenty of experience to highlight since all of it applies to jobs in the library world which are the only jobs I’m interested in. Turning my two-page and totally sufficient resume into a three-page and rather insufficient CV is giving me low self-esteem, though. Last September, just a couple of months after starting out at UNT, one of my colleagues scheduled a webinar on “Imposter Syndrome” that I attended. The full title was actually “Managing the Imposter Syndrome in Academia: How to Overcome Self-Doubt.” At the time, I was skeptical. ‘Why’, I thought to myself, ‘would there be enough self-doubt in academia to warrant a webinar?’ Academics are educated, respected, published…so why wouldn’t they be confident? ‘I am certainly feeling confident,’ I continued thinking to myself; ‘I’ve got this academia thing in that bag,’ I might have muttered. Well, clearly that was before I knew how much I didn’t know. I have been gradually getting a better view of what is expected of academic librarians since then – the publishing, the outreach, the service, the presenting, the research, etc. Yes, it is challenging – but I am thrilled to be so challenged! I can do this! I still felt confident, not just of my ability to manage the workload and fulfill my job duties but to do so by working hard but not so hard that I forget how to enjoy my weekends. Until now, until writing my first CV and comparing it to the CVs of other academic librarians made me suddenly realize that I am barely even out of the gate in this race. SO, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m overwhelmingly intimidated I have to admit that I’ve wondered more than once in the past few days how I even got here in the first place. I mean…I’ve never been published in even one peer-reviewed journal…I attend conferences but never bothered to present at them…my vita is only two and half pages long for gods sake most of the CVs I’ve looked at are at least – at least ten pages long. ‘Oh, wow,’ I’ve thought to myself, ‘what if somebody notices that they hired a non-academic?’   And suddenly it hit me – this is what people mean when they talk about Imposter Syndrome. This is a totally new feeling for me and I have to think it is a “syndrome” that is fairly common in academia, partly because I’ve never experienced this sense of being less-qualified-than-most before. But also because I never heard about the Imposter Syndrome in the public library, library vendor and school library communities that I worked in previously. So now my question is, how do I make this realization work for me instead of against me? I think just being aware of the phenomena is helpful – to know that this imposter syndrome thing is not uncommon, it is not “just me” and it isn’t even really about low self –esteem. Imposter syndrome can hold people back for years. In my case it would probably tend to “hold me back” by making me work ten times as hard as I actually need to in order to succeed. Working too hard or working just to fulfill the perceived expectations of others results in missed opportunities, not to mention how it diminishes the enjoyment that you should be getting out of your work. So, success is, for me at least, about setting reasonable goals that meet or exceed expectations but are definitely attainable. No, I’m not going to publish 5 papers, present at 10 conferences and write a book chapter this year. But I can work toward doing what I need to do to attain those goals. I can write some reviews and present at 2 or 3 conferences. I can learn as much as possible about the research/publication process and look for opportunities. Recognizing that I am a beginner is helpful. In some ways moving into an academic position is like starting over as a librarian, as one of my colleagues pointed recently. You might have 10 years or more of professional library experience but – here you are, on square one in the tenure process. And that’s okay; being a beginner has advantages. It is exciting and you have many paths open to you because you haven’t chosen a track yet. I have been reminding myself that I am fully capable of doing the things I need to do to achieve tenure (someday, some faraway day from now…), it’s just that I haven’t done them yet. I even looked at the dates on a few highly accomplished CVs to get a feel for a timeline and I noticed that many people started working in an academic library one or even more years before they starting adding significant scholarly achievements to their work history. Nobody comes into this with a 30 page CV, everybody starts exactly where I am – at the beginning. Author Erin MillerPosted on January 15, 2015Categories Uncategorized 5 thoughts on “Low Self-Esteem and the Academic Librarian. Maybe it is just me. It is probably just me.” the sympathetic librarian says: January 15, 2015 at 10:33 pm Thanks for the honesty. You rock. And I can relate . Totally. Pingback: But Am I Really an Activist? Dealing with Impostor Syndrome | APALA Pingback: Don’t Write the Comments? | ACRLog Pingback: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome through Outreach and Observation | Information Literacy, Illustrated. Pingback: Imposter Syndrome as a Student | hls Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Post navigation Previous Previous post: An Open Letter Regarding the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Next Next post: Moving Beyond Standards: A Response to the Open Letter Regarding the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Search for: Search Recent Comments Privacy and surveillance in the classroom: Responding to new information literacy challenges – Information Literacy Website on Privacy, Consent, and the Virtual One-Shot Judi Lansky on Librarianship in the Time of COVID Learning About Learning – Dean Vendramin's Blog on Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid Behaviorism? Cognitivism? Constructivism? Connectivism? – Tracy Krenbrink on Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid Emily Hampton Haynes on Performance Categories CategoriesSelect Category Academia ACRL Chapters ACRL News ACRLog News Administration/Leadership Assessment Authority Books Buildings Collections Commercialization Community Colleges Conference Blogging Copyright Events Faculty First Year Academic Librarian Experience Gaming Google Graduate Students Higher Education Idiocy In The Disciplines Information Ethics information industries Information Literacy Innovation Instructional Design International Just Thinking Librarians in Film Libraries and Community Libraries and Learning library careers LIS Education Marketing Mentorship Open Access Open Education Peer Review Plagiarism Political political Privacy Professional Development Professional image Public Services Research Issues Scholarly Communications Simplicity vs. Complexity Student Issues sudden thoughts Teaching Technical Services Technology Issues Top Issues Uncategorized UX Where Are They Now? Former FYALs Reflect Wikipedia Worth Reading Tags acrl conference ala conference blogging careers collaboration communication conferences covid-19 critical pedagogy Facebook Faculty First Year Academic Librarian Experience framework fyal Information Literacy information literacy information literacy standards Innovation instruction job search leadership library as place library instruction new librarian Open Access open educational resources outreach pedagogy presentations professional development publishing reference reflection research scholarly journals social networking student engagement students technology tenure time management twitter work-life balance workshop writing Archives Archives Select Month November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 Meta Log in Entries feed Comments feed WordPress.org Home ACRLog Guidelines Who We Are Why An ACRL Blog Special Features Academic Freedom Quiz Answers Posted Remarks From The Great Information Literacy Debate Interested in Writing for ACRLog? 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acrlog-org-5988	----	Finding my footing and imposter syndrome – ACRLog Skip to content ACRLog Blogging by and for academic and research librarians Menu Home ACRLog Guidelines Who We Are Why An ACRL Blog Special Features Academic Freedom Quiz Answers Posted Remarks From The Great Information Literacy Debate Interested in Writing for ACRLog? Finding my footing and imposter syndrome Like Quetzalli, who started blogging for ACRLog a few years ago, I am dipping my toes into the world of academic libraries by starting with a residency position. While there is some discussion to be had on critiques of residencies and whether a residency is a good choice for any given individual, for my own part, I was drawn to a residency position because it offered me room to explore as well as a little more support. Luckily for me, my institution has also been very receptive about working with my interests and I have no regrets about choosing a residency. That said, at almost exactly three months in, I am starting to take stock of what I have learned and accomplished so far. With the new semester fast approaching, I am also looking for ways to work better and to prioritize all the various projects that could take up my time. As a subject librarian, a large focus of my work is on liaisonship, which, it turns out, is something of a challenge for me. As I see it, my challenges are twofold: getting my name out there and establishing myself as someone capable of and willing to work with faculty members. I’m in a new position, so faculty members and students in my subject areas aren’t necessarily primed to come looking for me. To combat this, I’ve sent the usual introductory emails and have been working on meeting faculty members when they’re interested and have the time. I’ve also attended as many events as possible, both to become more familiar with academic focuses on campus and to make sure I’m seen and can participate in informal conversations as they arise. As for my second goal of demonstrating that I’m capable of the job I’m doing, this has come slower. I’m working as the liaison for Southeast Asian studies and South Asian studies, and my background is solely in Southeast Asian studies, which means I’m working to get up to speed on South Asia. Now, I know that to be an effective liaison you do not need to have extensive knowledge of your subject areas. This is true, too—I’ve successfully answered the South Asia reference questions that have come my way. All that said, I still find myself feeling inadequate, which leads me to an oft-discussed topic: imposter syndrome. Erin has already written a great post about imposter syndrome, especially tied to comparing your CV to others’. I find myself performing a similar sort of comparison, looking at librarians in my institution and in similar positions beyond my institution and wondering how they do so much, how they are so involved. I know this is similar to Erin’s own struggle and that I’m only seeing things from the outside, but it’s one thing to know that and another to internalize it. I brought up my position as a resident at the beginning of this post because I think it also plays a factor in this feeling of imposter syndrome. As a resident, maybe I am an imposter, or at the very least, maybe people see me as an imposter. But I know that this, too, is also just my insecurities talking. While it is true that residents (including myself) do have to explain their positions and do have to face skepticism, it is also true that residents are as qualified as any other new librarian. As Erin lays out in her post, it is perfectly acceptable to be a beginner. Luckily for me, I am part of an organization that supports me and all its new librarians and recognizes that we are all beginners in one way or another. One of the support systems my library has in place is a new liaisons group that meets once a month. These meetings provide a place to discuss our work and formulate strategies to become more effective liaisons, as well as simply to discuss challenges we may be having. At a recent meeting, when I brought up how I sometimes feel nervous approaching faculty members, a more established librarian offered a piece of advice that really resonated with me: we are faculty members too, so there’s no reason to feel lesser. Now, librarians are not faculty members everywhere, but no matter the institution, we are professionals, and in liaison work as with librarianship in general, there is no reason to feel lesser, even if you are new. For now, I’m going to make an effort to understand that I am a beginner and to not apologize for it, while I continue to learn and grow and develop the relationships that will help me to become a better liaison. What are some situations you’ve found yourself facing imposter syndrome? Do you have any tips to share that have worked for you? Author Zoë McLaughlinPosted on November 28, 2018November 27, 2018Categories First Year Academic Librarian ExperienceTags imposter syndrome, liaison Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Post navigation Previous Previous post: Valuing Student Experience Next Next post: Thank You, Next? (Consortia Edition) Search for: Search Recent Comments Privacy and surveillance in the classroom: Responding to new information literacy challenges – Information Literacy Website on Privacy, Consent, and the Virtual One-Shot Judi Lansky on Librarianship in the Time of COVID Learning About Learning – Dean Vendramin's Blog on Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid Behaviorism? Cognitivism? Constructivism? Connectivism? – Tracy Krenbrink on Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid Emily Hampton Haynes on Performance Categories CategoriesSelect Category Academia ACRL Chapters ACRL News ACRLog News Administration/Leadership Assessment Authority Books Buildings Collections Commercialization Community Colleges Conference Blogging Copyright Events Faculty First Year Academic Librarian Experience Gaming Google Graduate Students Higher Education Idiocy In The Disciplines Information Ethics information industries Information Literacy Innovation Instructional Design International Just Thinking Librarians in Film Libraries and Community Libraries and Learning library careers LIS Education Marketing Mentorship Open Access Open Education Peer Review Plagiarism Political political Privacy Professional Development Professional image Public Services Research Issues Scholarly Communications Simplicity vs. Complexity Student Issues sudden thoughts Teaching Technical Services Technology Issues Top Issues Uncategorized UX Where Are They Now? Former FYALs Reflect Wikipedia Worth Reading Tags acrl conference ala conference blogging careers collaboration communication conferences covid-19 critical pedagogy Facebook Faculty First Year Academic Librarian Experience framework fyal Information Literacy information literacy information literacy standards Innovation instruction job search leadership library as place library instruction new librarian Open Access open educational resources outreach pedagogy presentations professional development publishing reference reflection research scholarly journals social networking student engagement students technology tenure time management twitter work-life balance workshop writing Archives Archives Select Month November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 Meta Log in Entries feed Comments feed WordPress.org Home ACRLog Guidelines Who We Are Why An ACRL Blog Special Features Academic Freedom Quiz Answers Posted Remarks From The Great Information Literacy Debate Interested in Writing for ACRLog? 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adainitiative-org-7825	----	Impostor Syndrome training | Ada Initiative Ada Initiative Supporting women in open technology and culture 2011–2015 Menu Skip to content About the Ada Initiative Our legacy Founders Sponsors 2011–2015 Sponsorship policy Awards Press Continue our work Ally Skills Workshop Impostor Syndrome training Anti-harassment work AdaCamp toolkit Writing Example advisory board guidelines Speaking Blog archives About Ada Lovelace Impostor Syndrome training Impostor Syndrome is the feeling that you aren’t actually qualified for the work you are doing and will be discovered as a fraud. It is prevalent among women in open tech/culture, many of whom have been socialised to value other’s opinion of their work above their own, and to do things “by the book.” Impostor syndrome is a common reaction to doing publicly visible and publicly criticised work like that done in open technology and culture. CC-BY-SA Adam Novak The Ada Initiative has several resources to address Impostor Syndrome: In-person training Guide to fighting impostor syndrome Writing exercises Video training with text transcript In-person training We ran several in-person training sessions on how to overcome Impostor Syndrome, including at all seven AdaCamps. Below are the slides, facilitator’s guide, and handout, all licensed CC BY-SA. You are welcome to reuse, modify, or sell these materials. Slides and presentation notes (ODP) (PPT) (PDF) Handout Facilitator’s guide Guide to fighting impostor syndrome Our USENIX blog article Impostor Syndrome-Proof Yourself and Your Community has a number of weapons against impostor syndrome! We released this article Creative Commons BY-SA so that you can modify and re-distribute them in your community. Writing exercises Ada Initiative advisor Leigh Honeywell created a values exercise to combat Impostor Syndrome, which we used at AdaCamp San Francisco. Leigh’s exercise is based on Miyake et al’s finding that writing about one’s values helps combat stereotype threat. Participants identify five values that are important to them, and write about one value. The worksheet also asks them to describe a time when they were asked for advice or treated as an expert. With this short simple exercise, students are primed for a more realistic, positive assessment of their own ability and achievements. The worksheet is available online under Creative Commons Attribution. Contributions are welcome! Video training with text transcript Dreamwidth co-founder Denise Paolucci wrote a talk on Overcoming Impostor Syndrome, presented at several conferences. Denise’s talk has great strategies for both sufferers of impostor syndrome and for allies and leaders to help people realistically judge their own work and to seek help and support when they need it. You can find the text transcript of the video here as well as included with the video. This talk transcript is based on the caption file for the video of Denise’s talk, prepared by Mirabai Knight of StenoKnight CART Services. Share this: Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Blog at WordPress.com. Post to Cancel 
bannedbooksweek-org-268	----	Banned Books Week | September 27 – October 3, 2020 Skip to content Banned Books Week Home About The Coalition Contact Us Latest News Promotional Tools Events Add An Event Virtual Read-Out Videos Resources Celebrate Banned Books Week Handbook Banned Books Week Program Kits Facebook Twitter YouTube Pinterest Instagram Latest News ICYMI: Gene Luen Yang, Portugal The Man, and Alex Gino Talk Censorship We were delighted to host three amazing virtual events this week, with free expression superstars Gene Luen Yang, Cody Miller, Jung Kim, Portugal The Man, Alex Gino, and Peter Coyl! … Read More Wrap Up Banned Books Week Virtually! It may be the last day of Banned Books Week, but it’s not too late to take part in the fun! You can write your favorite banned author (here’s a … Read More BBW Events Spotlight: October 2 We’re telling “Scary Stories” with today’s Banned Books Week events spotlight, which includes a watch party with Cody Meirick, the director of the documentary that digs into the impact of … Read More BBW Events Spotlight: October 1 Happy Banned Books Week day 5! The celebration of the right to read might be heading toward it’s end, but censorship never stops! Learn about censorship in the comics industry … Read More BBW Events Spotlight: September 30 We’ve hit the midway point of Banned Books Week, and we’re hitting a high point today with our Alex Gino (George) Facebook Live event! Today is packed, with an ALA … Read More More News Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2019 Like Banned Books Week on Facebook #BannedBooksWeek Tweets by BannedBooksWeek Contact Us This website is maintained and updated by the Banned Books Week Coordinator and the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom in partnership with the Banned Books Week Coalition. For questions concerning the website, please e-mail coordinator@bannedbooksweek.org Banned Books Week is the annual celebration of the freedom to read. The event is sponsored by a coalition of organizations dedicated to free expression, including American Booksellers Association; American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of University Presses; Authors Guild; Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE); Freedom to Read Foundation; Index on Censorship; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; PEN America; People For the American Way Foundation; and Project Censored. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Banned Books Week also receives generous support from DKT Liberty Project and Penguin Random House. ©2020 Banned Books Week 
capalibrarians-org-3426	----	Microsoft PowerPoint - AcademicFreedom_CAPAL.pptx First, I would like to acknowledge that we are on Treaty 4 Land as guests and colonizers. My name is Meghan. I use she/her pronouns. I’m a librarian at Beloit College in Southern Wisconsin where I teach the course, Information Economy, in the Interdisciplinary Studies department. I am also a PhD student at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Information Studies. If you’re tweeting the conference, here are a couple hashtags to use. This research was conducted over the spring semester of 2018 and is personal in that I am a staff librarian at a liberal arts college. A liberal arts college in the United States is typically a 4-year residential school with students graduating with a BS or BA, although some of graduate programs. The faculty focus is on student-professor research collaborations rather than research output. This is my first pass at the data collected and the results are not exhaustive. An overview of the AAUP and ACRL statements on academic freedom. A brief overview of neutrality in librarianship. The questions that drove the research. My findings. And finally my recommendations. The AAUP is the American Association of University Professors and in their 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure the following three points are outlined under Academic Freedom. In 1970 they made the clarification that teachers also includes investigators who are attached to an academic institution but do not have teaching duties. The AAUP encouraged disciplinary associations to adapt the policy to fit the populations they serve. This is why we have the ACRL’s Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians. The document acknowledges the multifaceted roles academic librarians play within their institutions, including the teaching of for-credit courses, informal instruction and advising to students and other faculty. However this document clearly states faculty status for librarians which is why… In 2011 the ACRL Guidelines for Academic Librarians Without Faculty Status was drafted. The document outlines nine guidelines for academic staff librarians. They are: professional responsibilities, governance, contracts, compensation, promotion and salary increases, leaves and research funds, academic freedom, dismissal or nonreappointment, and grievance. Under Academic Freedom it states that “Librarians are entitled to the protection of academic freedom as set forth in the AAUP 1940 Statement”. I will remind us at this time that the AAUP does not specificially name librarians. In The Creed of a Librarian, Foskett states, this is a direct quote, the gendering is his own, “during reference service, the librarian ought to virtually vanish as an individual person, except in so far as his personality shreds light on the working of the library. He must be the reader’s alter ego, immersed in his politics, his religion, his morals. He must have the ability to participate in the reader’s enthusiasm and to devote himself wholly”. As recently as ALA Midwinter in January 2018 the President’s Program was titled, “Are libraries neutral? Have they ever been? Should they be?” Two presenters on both the affirmative and negative side, with a panel of responses to those presentations. While I was not physically at the session, Twitter allowed for me to follow the commentary of the event. As you can imagine, or perhaps know, it was polarized between neutrality doesn’t exist and of course we should be neutral. And to clarify my own bias, libraries are not neutral, nor should they be. There were several questions that guided me through this paper: - What is the employment status of liberal arts librarians? - Does employment status change the understanding of academic freedom? - Does length of employment change the understanding of academic freedom? - If reference interactions are considered teaching spaces, do librarians feel free to express their views? For this case study I used Kandiuk and Sonne de Torrens’ 2015 research on Canadian academic librarians for the shape of the questionnaire. While I collected data on social media, this paper will focus face-to-face engagement, so I added questions to include understanding of teaching spaces and self-reported definitions of academic freedom. Kandiuk and Sonne de Torrens expanded this research and it was published earlier this year in CRL. I received 78 responses in the 4 weeks the questionnaire was open. The questionnaire was distributed through listservs and Twitter. There are over 200 liberal arts institutions in the US. While this data is not significantly significant in can inform practice and recommendations. I analyzed the data using critical domain analysis. Within the 78 responses the breakdown fell almost 50/50 with half being employed over 10 years and half less than 10 years. The largest populations are greater than 15 years and 6 to10 years. We are looking at mostly mid to late career librarians. The largest proportions of academic staff librarians fell within 0-5 years and greater than 15 years of employment. As hypothesized, half of the respondents are classified as academic staff. The 20% of “other” include the write-in responses of: director, professional staff, and administrative staff. When asked if the reference desk and classrooms were teaching and/or learning spaces, the answer was overwhelmingly yes. Only 2 people responded “sometimes” to the reference desk as a teaching space. I asked this question to tie back to the AAUP’s definition of academic freedom which states that “teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject”. However, are we discussing “our subject” at the reference desk? Even though the respondents feel that the reference desk is a teaching space, less than 40% feel free to express their views during reference interactions. Of this 39% only 17% are academic staff. I then asked the responding librarians if they feel ownership of the instruction space during one-shot instruction, the results were close to evenly split between yes and sometimes or no. When they expanded on their answers it depended on the librarian’s relationship with the faculty member and the location of the classroom – meaning if they traveled to the faculty member’s classroom or used a space in the library. Alternatively when asked the same question about feeling ownership of the lesson 79% of the respondents said yes. The folks who responded with no or sometimes reported again relationships with faculty – in the given examples faculty remained in the room, would interrupt a lesson or outline specific databases to be covered to complete an assignment. When asked to give their own definitions of academic freedom the responses fell into three categories. Those summarizing AAUP (in fact, several people told me to read the AAUP in their response), those summarizing the first amendment, and those defining academic freedom by their job function. Additionally, I was interested in where their institution’s statement on academic freedom was located. About half of the respondents have a publicly found statement. However 31% of these librarians do no know where their statement lives – this question was derived from my experience when I went to find my institution’s statement. I did not find it until I asked a faculty member what they reference. First an example of a definition closely tied to the first amendment. And an example of a definition closely tied with job function. The final question was to ask if the librarians felt protected in their work. Again we see a 50/50 split between yes and sometimes or no. When folks followed up on their answers of sometimes or no, they were still unsure if their policy covered them, even though they knew the definition of academic freedom and where to find their institution’s policy. I then filtered for academic staff and two-thirds of the respondents said sometimes or no when asked if they felt protected compared to a quarter of faculty who responded sometimes or no. The following examples are all from academic staff librarians. An example of a “Yes” rationale: Many others stated the support of their director, provost, or supervisor when explaining why they feel protected without faculty status. An example of a “Sometimes” rationale: A recognition that while others have full freedoms, this might not apply to their classification. An example of a “No” rationale: Simple, and to the point. During my MLIS program, I graduated in 2012 from Long Island University, there was no conversation about academic freedom in any of my classes. It wasn’t until I was employed as a librarian and heard junior faculty were afraid to speak out that I considered my work to be at risk. The institution’s senior administrative staff should publicly support academic freedom and be inclusive of those who it covers. Institutions should have publically available statements on academic freedom. They should not be only on password protected websites. Current and future employees should be able to quickly find this information to evaluate and understand their place of work. Thank you and I welcome any questions. 
chrisbourg-wordpress-com-4759	----	The unbearable whiteness of librarianship | Feral Librarian Feral Librarian Research libraries & higher education. Sometimes music, sports, & other stuff. Blog About Chris Publications and presentations « Working on the “pipeline problem” in librarianship Some research on gender, technology, stereotypes and culture » The unbearable whiteness of librarianship Published March 3, 2014 Library stuff 90 Comments Tags: diversity, librarians, race, social justice Yep, I’m still harping on that theme of the stark lack of diversity in librarianship. For a profession that claims Diversity as  a core value and declares that “We value our nation’s diversity and strive to reflect that diversity by providing a full spectrum of resources and services to the communities we serve” to be so lacking in diversity is embarrassing. How far from reflecting our nation’s diversity are we in terms of credentialed librarians? Using the ALA Diversity Counts data and comparing it to US Census data for 2013, and US Census projections for 2060, it is clear to me that we are nowhere close. There are a few different ways to illustrate the disparities between the racial make-up of credentialed librarians and the current and future US population. For the visual crowd, a simple bar chart comparing percentage of librarians by race (2010, based on ALA Diversity Counts data), with percentage of US population by race in 2013, and projected percentage of US population by race in 2060: Racial composition of Librarians vs US Population (2013, 2060) For those who like pie (and who doesn’t like pie?) try these: Racial composition of librarians, 2010 Racial composition of US population, 2013 Projected racial composition of US Population, 2060 Another way to grok just how far we are from reflecting our nation’s diversity is to engage in a simple statistical thought experiment about what it would take for us to achieve a racial composition that reflected the US population. Let’s look at the total number of credentialed librarians as reported by ALA, and see what those numbers would look like if our racial composition reflected our nation: Total credentialed librarians (2010, ALA Diversity Counts): 118,666 Total White librarians: 104,392 US Census data tells us that whites make up 63% of the US population, so if librarianship reflected the nation’s diversity, there would be only 74,760 white librarians, or nearly 30,000 fewer white librarians than our current numbers. Total African-American librarians: 6,160 The US Population is 15% African-American, which would translate to a total of 17,800 African-American librarians if we were representative. That’s 11,640 more African-American librarians than we have currently. Total Latino/a librarians: 3,661 A representative librarianship would be 17% Latino/a, which would equal 20,173 Latino/a librarians, or 16,512 more than our current numbers. Total Asian/Pacific Islander librarians: 3,260 Asian/Pacific Islanders make up 5.3% of US Population, so we need 6,289 Asian Pacific/Islander librarians, or 3,029 more than we currently have, to be representative. Total librarians of 2 or more races: 1,008 People of 2 or more races make up 2.4% of the US Population, which would equal 2,848 librarians or 1,840 additional librarians of 2 or more races. Total Native American (including Alaskan Native) librarians: 185 The US Population is 1.2% Native American (including Alaskan Native), meaning a representative librarianship would include 1,424 Native American (including Alaskan Native) librarians – an increase of 1,239 over current numbers. Here’s a table comparing the actual racial composition of librarianship with a hypothetical world in which we “reflected our nation’s diversity”, with an extra column to show the sheer change needed to get there: Racial composition of librarians vs Representative librarianship Another way to look at it is to consider a 10 year plan to diversify librarianship. Even pretending that the US population would wait for us to catch up (i.e. if the racial composition of the US stayed steady) we would need to replace nearly 3,000 white librarians every year with over 1,000 African-American librarians, 1,650 Latino/a librarians, 300 Asian/Pacific Islander librarians, 180 multi-racial and 120 Native American/Alaskan Native librarians. A 5 year plan would require double those numbers. This is not all I have to say on this topic, but it is all I got for today. P.S. This post is not about the gender disparity in librarianship. That is a whole other topic, and not the one I’m talking about here. Please don’t ask me about gender here. Pretty please. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Email Tumblr Pinterest Reddit Pocket More Print Like this: Like Loading... 90 Responses to “The unbearable whiteness of librarianship” Feed for this Entry Trackback Address 1 Anonymous April 29, 2020 at 5:35 am So you are only talking here about race not sex. I think if men were 83% of librarians you would be talking about racial and gender diversity. Orwellian. LikeLike Reply 2 Chris Bourg April 29, 2020 at 5:36 am ok LikeLike Reply 3 paula fortune February 22, 2019 at 12:17 am Excellent article. Thank you for providing this data. It’s perfect for my defense agreement at my grad school. LikeLike Reply 4 Tom Krynicki November 12, 2016 at 2:40 pm I am troubled by the under-representation of gay white men in the trash collection industry!! I am equally alarmed in the almost total lack of black representation as owners in the Chinese restaurant industry. OMG people, and here I thought librarians where supposed to be smart…… STOP!! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply 5 John September 20, 2017 at 2:19 pm Then the library schools need to stop preaching the lie of diversity to incoming college LIS students. Because we all know the truth is that Equal Opportunity is a huge farce. Females, especially white middle age females dominate the Library field. THEY make it that way, THEY hire that way. Then we wonder why Boys are reading at such a low level compared to girls. Its not because girls are smarter, its because all boys see in libraries are females. No male role models reading to them, and then you have all of the books, materials, and media for libraries chosen and managed BY females. No programs suited for boys in libraries either. Diversity is a big fat joke. LikeLike Reply 6 Tommy White February 21, 2019 at 12:53 pm I feel these numbers are misleading, they should be broken down into ethnicity and the identifying gender to provide a more accurate representation. It would be more accurate to say that the Librarian profession is predominately white female. LikeLike Reply 7 Steve February 22, 2016 at 4:34 am I oversee the Census Bureau Library and we have 3 excellent Librarians, two of whom are black. Very proud of them all. LikeLike Reply 8 Michael Huntington October 3, 2018 at 10:32 am all both of them? LikeLike Reply 9 Henry Quon December 7, 2015 at 5:49 pm As a Canadian of Chinese ancestry, I entered the librarian profession in 1988 after graduating with an MLS degree and I pursued this career path for the next four years before finally deciding to give it up in 1992 to pursue a career change. My reasons for doing so were two fold: the institutional discrimination back then made it difficult for librarians who did not come from the dominant anglo-canadian culture to pursue this career path and the second was a lack of mentoring support structure to encourage non-anglo librarians to stay on. When I left this field in 1992, I wrote letters to both the head of the library school that I had attended and also to one of the professors I had treated as a confidant. Both men seemed genuinely surprised that I had encountered headwinds in my pursuit of this field but I can understand their reactions because it was something they themselves had never experienced. Looking back now, I am still glad that I did choose librarianship as my initial career path after leaving university but I had never realized that I would have to pay such a high price for doing so. LikeLiked by 3 people Reply 10 mikengo.ca November 8, 2015 at 1:42 pm Reblogged this on and commented: Relevant to my recent writing, librarianship still has a long way to go in regards to diversity, even though diversity is a core mantra of the field. I find that it may have been incorporated in good faith but there truly hasn’t been much to increase diversity within the field (yet) and that many librarians coming out with a MLIS are still hateful, problematic people that need to check their privilege at the door and be more critical of their own actions towards others. LikeLike Reply 11 Charley Seavey November 9, 2015 at 9:49 am “a MLIS are still hateful, problematic people that need to check their privilege at the door and be more critical of their own actions towards others.” Perhaps you would like to provide some evidence for this astonishing statement? LikeLike Reply 12 mikengo.ca November 12, 2015 at 10:46 am Observed from other students in my program that have said very harmful things about racial stereotypes, the subtle homophobic slurs used on gay students as well as not providing services for Aboriginal or Black patrons just because of their skin colour are just some examples… check your privilege. LikeLike 13 klmccook November 20, 2015 at 1:29 pm This disregards the people who have worked so hard over the years and while they may not have been successful, they deserve some support for work like Arizona’s programs. LikeLike 14 indieblack August 9, 2015 at 1:29 pm Reblogged this on indieblack and commented: Some good reading for you while I am away. It’s a year old, but a year in librarianship? What’s that? LikeLiked by 1 person Reply 15 Heather July 28, 2014 at 10:34 am All thoughts about the history and state of this issue aside, are there other fields or even large organizations (such as higher ed institutions or hospitals) that have successfully implemented a 10-year or x-year plan to bring more ethnic diversity in a profession? Particularly those that require advanced degrees? This great five-year plan from VCU will be coming to an end next year: http://www.inclusive.vcu.edu/docs/FiveYearDiversityPlanFinal.pdf I’d be interested to know how successful this plan, or a similar one, has been. LikeLike Reply 16 Ethan Fenichel (@EthanDF) July 27, 2014 at 5:58 pm I agree that this is an issue that should continue to be reviewed as the statistics you site are very compelling. As a newbie (male, white-looking, though not self identifying as white) to the field, is your suggestion that libraries and library schools are doing something to exclude non-Whites or is it a pipeline problem as JP suggests? I think it is an important distinction as one suggests we aren’t doing enough in the field to draw all people in but if we’re excluding then that seems far more unbearable. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply 17 Chris Bourg July 27, 2014 at 6:32 pm I think it is both. And I think a profession that says it strives for diversity and is 88% white needs to be significantly more active than simply not doing things that are blatantly exclusionary or discriminatory. LikeLike Reply 18 cseavey July 27, 2014 at 6:53 pm Folks, trust me on this, I spent 20 years in library education, and *nobody* is doing anything to exclude minorities, quite the opposite. Consider Arizona’s Knowledge River program, among others. The problem is, and will remain, salaries. As long as libraryland cannot compete, salary-wise, with other professions, we are not going to attract the best and the brightest minorities who can make a whole lot of money elsewhere. charley LikeLike 19 Chris Bourg July 28, 2014 at 8:59 am http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansplaining LikeLiked by 1 person 20 Shalom July 27, 2014 at 3:29 pm This was an issue addressed during my master’s coursework, but most of us got the impression it was preaching to the wrong choir; most of the LIS grad students I met (read: the overwhelming majority) were white females. So the issue is apparently somewhere before grad school? Perhaps look at reasons why not-a-white-female refrains from even applying to grad school for an LIS degree? – I suppose the question I’m asking is, ‘at what point in the Process of Becoming A Librarian does everyone else get somehow weeded out’? LikeLike Reply 21 Rian Reynolds February 24, 2015 at 11:06 am I think the issue is that if you don’t see yourself reflected in a position why explore that field? If you have people telling certain groups to choose certain fields, they may not know it is something they can explore. LikeLike Reply 22 Charley Seavey July 8, 2014 at 1:37 pm Hmm. Perhaps it has to do with our less than stellar salaries. Any minority getting an MA degree can find fields that pay considerably better than does libraryland. What’s the return on investment? Just asking. LikeLike Reply 23 danielachesney March 14, 2014 at 1:20 pm I think we do ourselves a disservice to try and worry so exclusively about the percentages of racial groups holding jobs within the profession. Librarianship is not a comparably high paying position with other master level jobs. If you were from a low socioeconomic group and were going to put in the effort to rise above your situation and attain a master’s degree, don’t you think you would be more likely to pursue a higher paying career path. As long as we are not creating racial barriers to enter into the library field, and are making sure that we offer our services in as equitable a manner as possible across all racial groups, I think we are doing pretty good as an organization. I don’t think convincing a lot of black and hispanic kids to be librarians instead of engineer’s is really the right way to do that. Instead let’s empower them to meet their goals/ dreams whatever they may be. LikeLike Reply 24 Rino Landa (@rinolanda) July 27, 2014 at 9:05 pm Your post reminded me of an article regarding the difficulty of recruiting and retaining teachers of minority descent: http://stemwire.org/2013/05/22/the-paradox-of-minority-teacher-recruitment/. As you mention in your post, the article notes that poor salaries and perceived lack of prestige for teachers adversely affects minority recruitment; the same can be said for librarians. Furthermore, I would consider the point you pose about recruitment being deterred by the fact that other masters degrees offer better return on investment valid. The teacher article notes that a lack of salary and prestige is further “exacerbated in minority communities, especially when the student in question is the first in their family to attend college.” What we can expect in terms of recruitment from those least likely to join librarianship when they take a look at the requirements for academic librarian positions that “prefer” a subject master’s degree (let’s not even mention the ones that one PhDs or professional degrees)? Yes, academic libraries pay better, but then we also have to deal with the fact that studies have shown that minority students are less inclined to feel comfortable using their college’s library; again, adding another barrier to recruitment via viability/role models. Amanda Machado’s article in the Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/why-teachers-of-color-quit/282007/ is another fine example of the thought processes behind why recruitment and retention can be so difficult. I’ll leave with her quote: “When I saw myself, with an Ivy League degree that she and my father had worked hard to make possible, in the same profession as her, I felt I had done pretty poor job of repaying them.” LikeLike Reply 25 Melissa Arnett July 28, 2014 at 8:33 pm I really agree with what danielachesney says here: perhaps convincing alot of black/asian/hispanic/other people to join libraryland (with its low salary and slowly growing job rate) is not the answer here; instead let’s educate and empower people to do what they want to do, no matter what their race. If that involves librarianship for any race (whites included), then great! If not, why force a 10 year plan to diversify and get rid of white librarians in order to replace them with nonwhites? LikeLiked by 1 person Reply 26 Chris Bourg July 30, 2014 at 7:30 am Not how you made leap from “thought experiment” to “forcing a plan”. LikeLike 27 Anonymous July 30, 2014 at 8:38 am I am using your words: “a 5 year plan would require double those numbers” LikeLike 28 Chris Bourg July 30, 2014 at 9:43 am Ok, fair enough. I intended that as part of the thought experiment described above: “Another way to grok just how far we are from reflecting our nation’s diversity is to engage in a simple statistical thought experiment about what it would take for us to achieve a racial composition that reflected the US population.” But perhaps that wasn’t clear. Let me clarify here: the description of what a 5 or 10 year plan would take was meant simply to illustrate just how far we as a profession are from achieving the “reflection of our nation’s diversity” that our core values say we strive for. The whole post is actually intended to illustrate that problem. No where do I intend to offer or force any particular plan for increasing the diversity of our profession. It is actually becoming increasingly clear to me that many in our profession are not convinced that is a worthwhile goal. LikeLiked by 1 person 29 Crow March 12, 2014 at 2:04 pm I worked at a large urban college library where the visual (racial) diversity of librarians was better than the statistics. Library assistants and student workers (a traditional pool of potential future librarians) were mostly all minorities. Several were quite dedicated and were planning on going on with their education. All were going after careers that paid better and not interested in librarianship despite enjoying library work. I’d wonder to what extent better options for those willing to go onto a master’s degree come into play. All we can do is grow our own as best we can (people working in libraries already have a certain level of interest) and expect all librarians to be welcoming and encouraging–while I’ve seen people say that seeing someone who looks like you is important to some folks considering a future career, experiences matter too and that is something the people who have self-selected themselves to be in librarianship can control, unlike their own personal demographics. Diversity does mean diversity–besides the lack of minorities in librarianship, if they are all clustered in certain cities or areas, that is not serving the community well as they don’t get to know the people who don’t look like them (also important). LikeLike Reply 30 James Mcauslan July 27, 2014 at 12:36 pm perhaps they pretended a lack of interest in library school because they knew they could never make the grades necessary to even apply! LikeLike Reply 31 Chris Bourg July 27, 2014 at 12:53 pm Note to readers: Approving a comment for publication on my blog does NOT in any way imply I endorse the content of the comment. In this case, I leave the above comment here simply as a reminder to all of the immense amount of work that remains in combatting destructive stereotypes held by too many among us. LikeLiked by 2 people 32 Jaclyn March 12, 2014 at 12:05 pm I have a game I play called, “Spot the non-white person.” More often than I’d like at library-related events, it’s just me or a handful of others. (Luckily my current library is quite diverse.) LikeLike Reply 33 JP March 12, 2014 at 11:29 am Part of the issue that you are missing is that this isn’t JUST a *librarian* problem, per se. This is an AMERICAN problem: I bet if you compared a pie chart of *the diversity of ALL American professions that require a Master’s* to this pie chart, we’d probably look at least slightly better. And while you can say “other profession’s problems aren’t our problems”, the *systemic* “whiteness” of higher education is a huge hurdle for librarianship to just magically hop over. We’re getting there. LikeLike Reply 34 Chris Bourg March 12, 2014 at 11:40 am I’m not really sure I understand your point. I assure you I am well aware that structural racism is not limited to librarianship, and I’ve never advocated that we magically hop over anything. But thanks for reading. LikeLike Reply 35 JP March 12, 2014 at 11:55 am 2008, Table 27a: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf Average over 25 with a Masters: 7.5% White over 25 with a Masters: 8.4% Black over 25 with a Masters: 4.9% Hispanic over 25 with a Masters: 2.9% Asian/Pacific Islander over 25 with a Masters: 14% American Indian/Alaska Native over 25 with a Masters: 3.6% The American higher education system seems to be failing ALL not-white demographics (other than Asian/Pacific Islander). Before we can solve the problem in your blog post, the systematic American problem of “not enough not-white people are getting degrees” needs to be solved. LikeLike 36 JP March 12, 2014 at 12:02 pm or, to put it another way: It is hard to be a diverse profession that requires a master’s degree when we have a higher education system that so blatantly excludes POC. or, to put it another way, the title could be “the unbearable whiteness of higher education” LikeLike 37 Andromeda March 10, 2014 at 9:50 am I did some counts of (visible) speaker diversity over the last few LITA Forums which might interest you: http://andromedayelton.com/blog/2013/08/20/when-you-walk-into-a-room-count-diversity-and-lita-forum/ LikeLike Reply 38 Shawn P. Calhoun July 28, 2014 at 6:14 pm “maybe replicating ourselves is what we know how to do, maybe that’s how homophily works, maybe caring isn’t good enough.” Well said Andromeda. LikeLike Reply 39 Chris Bourg March 4, 2014 at 4:08 pm Your memories notwithstanding, the latest Pew surveys indicate that Blacks & Hispanics are more likely than Whites to say public library services are very important to them http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/12/11/section-2-public-libraries-importance-and-impact/ LikeLike Reply 40 Sandy March 4, 2014 at 4:44 pm Hopefully that feeling will translate to an increase in Black and Hispanic librarians as the children grow up loving the library. LikeLike Reply 41 Sandy March 4, 2014 at 10:18 am The “pipeline problem” post from a couple of days ago, and yesterday’s “whiteness” post, evoked memories which speak to the root cause of the problem of lack of diversity in the library profession. As a (white) child growing up in an integrated community in Michigan, my playmates were primarily black, and I remember them thinking it was very strange that I liked to read all the time. As a young adult living in base housing when my husband was in the Navy, my best friends were the Hispanic couple in the next housing unit. Both of them were puzzled by the fact that we didn’t own a TV and that we spent so much time reading books. My point is that there might be a direct link between a childhood spent around libraries and books and the ultimate decision to go into the library profession. Making non-whites feel welcome and comfortable in libraries at an early age might help address the situations described in these blog posts. LikeLiked by 2 people Reply 1 What if paying library staff and teachers to read IS part of the anti-racist work we could, and should, be doing? — @TLT16 Teen Librarian Toolbox Trackback on June 17, 2020 at 5:19 am 2 Racism and White Fragility at #ALAMW19 – PragmaticMom Trackback on February 1, 2019 at 3:24 am 3 Seeking a diverse candidate pool – Angela Pashia Trackback on November 25, 2018 at 4:38 pm 4 Do you want to dance? Inclusion and belonging in libraries and beyond | The Library Lab Trackback on June 7, 2018 at 8:38 am 5 bat dong san duoi 150 trieu tai binh thuan Trackback on May 16, 2018 at 1:32 am 6 FLIP Interviews…Jen Bayjoo of DILON – Future Library and Information Professionals Network Trackback on May 11, 2018 at 2:11 am 7 Searching For Jobs is Terrible, So How Do We Change It? – hls Trackback on May 10, 2018 at 8:00 am 8 Privilege among Information Professionals | Diversity Inclusion Community Equity Trackback on April 25, 2018 at 9:32 am 9 For the love of baby unicorns: My Code4Lib 2018 Keynote | Feral Librarian Trackback on February 14, 2018 at 3:21 pm 10 Debating y/our humanity, or Are Libraries Neutral? | Feral Librarian Trackback on February 11, 2018 at 8:32 pm 11 What to do with the, “What I didn’t learn in library school…” conversation. | Abigail Leigh Phillips Trackback on September 21, 2017 at 11:31 am 12 Pipeline as Meat Grinder | At The Intersection Trackback on September 13, 2017 at 10:31 am 13 Revisiting reel librarian totals « Reel Librarians Trackback on August 2, 2017 at 5:07 am 14 NC is a no-go: bathrooms, libraries, and the limits of welcoming | Feral Librarian Trackback on July 28, 2017 at 8:45 am 15 Post-ALA Fatigue and “Nice White Ladies” – WTF is a Radical Librarian, Anyway? Trackback on July 3, 2017 at 12:12 pm 16 Report from 2017 ARLIS/NA Annual Conference in New Orleans – ARLIS/NA Mid-Atlantic Trackback on April 20, 2017 at 2:05 pm 17 Carla Hayden’s mother | Feral Librarian Trackback on April 11, 2017 at 3:13 pm 18 Learning Journal Post 9: Let’s get Intersectional | Call Number Ninja Trackback on March 20, 2017 at 1:57 pm 19 Advocate. – Just a Pipe Dream Trackback on March 13, 2017 at 11:34 pm 20 Seeking a diverse candidate pool – Fieldnotes from the library Trackback on March 12, 2017 at 8:58 am 21 Watching whiteness work. | Anna-Sophia Zingarelli-Sweet Trackback on February 16, 2017 at 5:56 pm 22 What We Can Be: An Ethos of Hospitality – Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe Trackback on November 12, 2016 at 9:46 pm 23 alternate futures/usable pasts « Bethany Nowviskie Trackback on October 25, 2016 at 7:22 am 24 Whiteness, Librarianship, and Me – Checking out Whiteness Trackback on October 20, 2016 at 9:15 pm 25 Whiteness, Librarianship, and Me – Checking out Whiteness Trackback on October 20, 2016 at 9:04 am 26 Talking at Harvard about Libraries and Social Justice | Feral Librarian Trackback on September 17, 2016 at 6:32 am 27 Are you only comfortable working with teens who are like you? | KaeK YA Trackback on September 7, 2016 at 10:34 am 28 Le surprenant pouvoir politique des bibliothèques – Mighty Engine : Cogitations sur la littérature, la bibliothéconomie, etc. Trackback on August 18, 2016 at 9:28 am 29 LIS Programs & the Need for Dialogue | hls Trackback on July 6, 2016 at 8:01 am 30 Tech-ing to Transgress: Putting Values into Library Practice Trackback on June 19, 2016 at 4:51 pm 31 A year of Pan-American LIS: some thoughts – Natalie M. Baur Trackback on May 17, 2016 at 1:45 pm 32 everywhere, every when « Bethany Nowviskie Trackback on April 29, 2016 at 5:51 am 33 diversity, inclusion, social justice and libraries: proposing a framework | Feral Librarian Trackback on April 16, 2016 at 2:56 pm 34 A Nation of Immigrants – Morrisroe: J2150 Trackback on April 16, 2016 at 2:27 pm 35 Prioritizing Diversity and Inclusion | Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe Trackback on March 15, 2016 at 10:00 pm 36 Archives, Diversity and Leonardo DiCaprio – Recorded Thoughts Trackback on January 14, 2016 at 5:28 pm 37 whiteness, social justice and the future of libraries | Feral Librarian Trackback on January 9, 2016 at 3:43 pm 38 BCALA Asked and I Answered | Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe Trackback on January 6, 2016 at 10:56 am 39 In the Library with the Lead Pipe » White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS Trackback on October 7, 2015 at 3:01 am 40 an if-I-was-going-to-SAA hypothetical schedule | library blerg Trackback on August 21, 2015 at 11:44 am 41 feminism and the collective collection | Feral Librarian Trackback on June 2, 2015 at 12:41 pm 42 Welcoming the Massachusetts Black Librarians Network to MIT | Feral Librarian Trackback on April 11, 2015 at 10:43 am 43 Freedom Mentor Trackback on February 27, 2015 at 10:59 am 44 Never neutral: Libraries, technology, and inclusion | Feral Librarian Trackback on January 28, 2015 at 9:00 pm 45 Librarianing to Transgress: Closing Keynote ACRL OR/WA 2014 | Feral Librarian Trackback on October 25, 2014 at 10:29 am 46 The Diversity Façade « A / K / L Trackback on July 27, 2014 at 6:56 pm 47 The unbearable whiteness of librarianship | Feral Librarian | MiscEtcetera v2 Trackback on March 14, 2014 at 1:01 am 48 The unbearable whiteness of librarianship | Fer... Trackback on March 10, 2014 at 6:27 am 49 The Unbearable Whiteness of Librarianship | Librarian to be. . . Trackback on March 6, 2014 at 7:42 pm Leave a Comment Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (Address never made public) Name Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. « Working on the “pipeline problem” in librarianship Some research on gender, technology, stereotypes and culture » Feral Librarian Close the library Libraries in a computational age hiatus Follow Feral Librarian by Email Enter your email address to follow Feral Librarian by email. 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coco-net-org-6363	----	The "Problem" Woman of Colour in NonProfit Organizations - COCo About Us Our Mission and Theory of Change COCo Team Our Members Our Bylaws Our Structure Annual Reports Our Funders Services Services Organizational Support Information Sessions Anti-Oppression Communications and Technology Support Conflict Resolution Resources Toolbox Legal Information FAQs Community Jobs Job Postings Add a Community Job Posting Projects Learning Organizations Lab Ateliers C Conflit à l’Oeuvre: Conflict and Diversity Diversité d’Abord Quebec on the Move By & For Us?: The Community at the Head of the Organization Communities Connecting the Digital Dots Portes Ouvertes In the Know: Identifying multiple aspects of Quebec’s community sector Contact Us Search en fr Menu Menu The “Problem” Woman of Colour in NonProfit Organizations March 8, 2018/7 Comments/in COCo Highlight, Front Page, ToolBox, ToolBox Document /by Kira Page Table of Contents The “Problem” Woman of Colour in the Workplace How does this relate to COCo’s research on racism in nonprofits? How to Use the Tool in Your Nonprofit Organization A few notes Overview The “Problem” Woman of Colour in the Workplace A couple of years ago, COCo discovered an earlier version of this tool, which depicts a common experience for women of colour (and especially Black women) working in the nonprofit sector. The diagram, which was originally developed in the United States, really struck us. It spoke to many of the stories employees in the nonprofit sector had told us about their own experiences; it also told the ‘story’ of much of the data we were reading from other research into racism in nonprofit organizations, not to mention the data we were collecting ourselves as part of our Diversité d’Abord research project (more on that in a minute). About a year after we started using it in trainings and discussion groups, it went viral on social media, with thousands of shares- another sign of its continuing relevance in 2018. Since then, we’ve been inundated with interest and inquiries about this tool and what it means. How does this relate to COCo’s research on racism in nonprofits? In the coming months, COCo will be releasing our own research into the question of racism in the nonprofit sector. In the meantime, there has been so much interest in this tool that we felt it was time to make it publicly available. Our own research involved 2 online surveys and a series of focus groups. From what we already have seen in the data we collected, much of the survey findings support empirically what the tool depicts about the experience of women of colour in nonprofits. For example, within the last 3 years, ~30% of our racialized survey respondents said they had left a job due to an unwelcoming racial environment. At the same time, the data also shows that white respondents gave different reasons why their racialized colleagues had left their jobs, for example, thinking their colleagues had left because “they got a better job,” or “they want to spend more time with their family,”. Overall, white respondents underestimated how many people of colour were leaving their jobs because of discrimination by 15%. In contrast, the rate at which people of colour working in nonprofits reported witnessing their racialized peers leaving the sector because of unwelcoming racial environments was pretty much on par with the actual rate of people leaving. How to Use the Tool in Your Nonprofit Organization Throughout our workshops, we have asked: What is the impact of this dynamic on the woman of colour in the organization? What is the impact of this dynamic on the organization? What is the impact of this dynamic on the community sector at large? These questions can be a great starting point to start discussing this tool within your own organization. The tool can be used for workshops or discussions of different lengths, broadly to discuss race dynamics in an industry or area of work, or to explore specific policies and practices within your organization. If the environment you are working in is supportive enough, talking about the specifics of this pattern in your nonprofit, rather than in general, can make it a lot easier to identify real changes. We are experimenting with developing worksheets that can help people deepen their analysis, name their experiences, and use this tool more effectively in their workplaces. Most importantly, the tool invites women of colour to share their stories and to be believed BECAUSE it centres their experiences. A few notes We adapted this tool with permission from the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for NonViolence. One of the changes we made was to have the “woman of colour” be represented as wearing a hijab. While we understand that women who wear hijab can have many different racial backgrounds, we felt that this image allows us to make an explicit connection between racism and Islamophobia in Quebec- a connection that many women live every day. We also know that while our own work centres in Quebec, and on nonprofits, this tool is also relevant outside of the nonprofit sector, and we’re totally happy to see people using this wherever it feels appropriate. Overview Below is an overview of the outlined trajectory in the “Problem” Woman of Colour in the Workplace tool. This narrative begins when a racialized woman is hired into an organization where the leadership and/or staff are predominantly White. She is excited to explore her new position and feels welcomed in her new workplace. This is also known as the honeymoon period. However, soon the hire is experienced as tokenism. Even if she was employed because of her skills and qualifications, the hiring process may be perceived as such by colleagues, community members, etc. Further, how her racial identity is used in the context of her position will impact this perception. After a period of time in her new position, where weeks, months or even days, the reality of a white dominant space becomes apparent. The racialized woman experiences recurring microaggressions and structural barriers. For example: heightened surveillance of her work and interpersonal relationships repeated comments about her body and physical presentation expectation of her addressing internal race dynamics These dynamics are further complicated by the fact that if she were to explicitly name her experiences with race, both the organization as a whole and individuals within it will deny her experiences of racism. In fact, her attempt to address these dynamics can often become the arsenal for retaliation: the racialized woman becomes the source of the problem. She is viewed as no longer being “a good fit” or “not qualified”. She is then targeted and attacked by the organization by both formal and informal mechanisms (comments by co-workers, HR practices). In response to these experiences, the racialized woman leaves the organization, having been fired, quitting, finding a new job or going on sick leave. Download (PDF, 61KB) Tags: anti-oppression, antio, coco publication, nonprofit, Quebec, race, racism, women, women of colourShare this entry Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Tumblr Share on Vk Share on Reddit Share by Mail https://coco-net.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-03-08-at-2.03.57-PM.png 313 570 Kira Page https://coco-net.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/COCo-Logo-No-Text-300x165.png Kira Page2018-03-08 14:11:302019-12-12 12:31:59The “Problem” Woman of Colour in NonProfit Organizations You might also like Dos et donts The Black Community Resource Guide 2010-2011 Barriers and Solutions to Anti-Oppression Practice in Community Groups Resource: Indigenous Ally Toolkit Does it Work? Feminist Analysis and Practice at Inter Pares Anti-Oppressive Social Work: History and Practice Surveillance Self-Defense: Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications Les Panthères Roses de Montréal 7 replies Funke says: March 9, 2018 at 6:29 AM This was really interesting to read and it’s a good diagram of a black woman’s experience in a company. Irie L. Session says: March 9, 2018 at 6:08 PM This was my life for 14years and 4 months. Thank you for posting this diagram. I was not crazy. Naomi Cromwell says: March 9, 2018 at 9:18 PM Hi! I’m interested in learning more about your research abotu racism in the nonprofit sector and whether it extends beyond Quebec to other Canadian provinces. I was interested in mounting a similar project in BC focusing on the arts sector. Would love to learn more about your process of collecting data and possibly collaborate if it feels appropriate for both of us. Cheers 🙂 Tea says: March 13, 2018 at 9:37 PM What is the solution?? Jenna says: March 15, 2018 at 4:00 PM @Tea, as a white person in a nonprofit setting, I see many places to help find a solution. Can the “all white leadership” change? Can we not make tokenzing hires? Can we not make it women of colour’s responsibility to point out inequity and issues? Can we not respond defensively when they do bring these up? Every step of the way on this path, there are places to make changes. Jae says: March 16, 2018 at 11:07 AM Diversify leadership. Cheree says: March 18, 2018 at 4:36 PM Thank you for sharing this. I am First Nation Australian and recently went through this in a feminist NGO. Racism is a huge problem in Australia. Would love to be included and learn more about your research. Comments are closed. Recent Posts Help us launch the LabOA Social Innovation Hub An Update On Our Services We’re hiring! Communications Coordinator and Organizational Health Consultant We’re hiring! Fundraising Coordinator and Organizational Health Consultant Video: Women and Femmes of Colour in Community Organizations Archives Archives Select Month November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 Upcoming Events Sun 29 Chargé.e de projet : Immobilier communautaire @ La petite Maison sur Laprairie November 29 @ 6:00 PM Organizer: La petite Maison sur Laprairie Mon 30 Chargé.e de communications @ La Coalition des familles LGBT+ November 30 @ 11:30 PM Organizer: La Coalition des familles LGBT+(514) 878-7600 Dec 15 Bilingual Communication Agent @ Afghan Women’s Centre December 15 @ 11:30 PM Organizer: Afghan Women’s Centre514-321-2194 Dec 18 Marketing and Communication Specialist @ Hear Quebec December 18 @ 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM Organizer: Hear Entendre Québec(514) 488-5552 Dec 22 Intervenant de proximité – salle de consommation supervisée @ Cactus MTL December 22 @ 11:30 PM Organizer: Cactus Montréal View More… Contact Us info@coco-net.org By Phone: (514) 849-5599 | toll free: 1 (866) 552-2626 By Fax: (514) 849-5553 | toll free: 1 (866) 560-2626 Opening Hours 3680 Jeanne-Mance, #470 Montreal (QC) H2X 2K5 Monday – Thursday 10am – 4:00pm Please make an appointment with us by phone or email, as we are not able to receive drop-ins. March 2018 E-Bulletin You’re invited to COCo’s 2018 Annual General Meeting! Scroll to top By continuing to browse this site, you accept our use of cookies to track your usage and improve your experience. OKLearn more Cookie and Privacy Settings How we use cookies We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website. Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. Essential Website Cookies These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. 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community-wealth-org-3469	----	The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth | Community-Wealth.org Skip to main content Toggle navigation About Newsletter Calendar Blog Map Our publications Our team Contact us democracycollaborative.org Community Wealth Cities Community Wealth Graphics Community Wealth Interviews Community Wealth Map Community Wealth Videos Anchor Institutions The Cleveland Model Community Development Corporations (CDCs) Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) Community Land Trusts (CLTs) Cooperatives (Co-ops) Cross-Sectoral Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) Green Economy Impact Investing Individual Wealth Building Individual Wealth Preservation Local Food Systems Municipal Enterprise New State & Local Policies Outside the U.S. Reclaiming the Commons Social Enterprise State Asset Building Initiatives State and Local Investments Transit Oriented Development University & Community Partnerships Worker Cooperatives Strategies and models strategies/models The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth Overview Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative, in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, the  City of Cleveland , and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Other cities nationwide have begun the process of replicating and adapting this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. More on The Cleveland Model... Videos Essential reports Overview Articles and Publications Featured in The Cleveland Model: Video: Evergreen Cooperatives program to help worker-owners purchase homes in their community highlighted by PBS & CNBC's Nightly Business Report Publication: Impact to Last: Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Enterprise Publication: Owning Your Own Job is a Beautiful Thing: Community Wealth Building in Cleveland, Ohio Video: Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work About Mission Contact Search Blog Videos CW Interviews CW Cities Calendar Map Newsletter Resources Strategies and Models Support Organizations Best Practices and Featured Projects Research Resources Articles and Publications Policy Guide Toolbox and Howtos Stay up to date    Support this site A project of: Our publications Our team Evergreen Cooperatives Gar Alperovitz The Next System Project Learning Action Lab for Community Wealth Building Anchor Dashboard Learning Cohort Strategies and models: Anchor Institutions The Cleveland Model Community Development Corporations (CDCs) Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) Community Land Trusts (CLTs) Cooperatives (Co-ops) Cross-Sectoral Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) Green Economy Impact Investing Individual Wealth Building Individual Wealth Preservation Local Food Systems Municipal Enterprise New State & Local Policies Outside the U.S. Program Related Investments Reclaiming the Commons Social Enterprise State Asset Building Initiatives State and Local Investments Transit Oriented Development University & Community Partnerships Worker Cooperatives 
crl-acrl-org-2038	----	Untitled-16 528 College & Research Libraries November 1997 Post-Master’s Residency Programs: Enhancing the Development of New Professionals and Minority Recruitment in Academic and Research Libraries Julie Brewer Two of the greatest human resource concerns in academic and research libraries are the preparation of new library professionals and the re­ cruitment of underrepresented minorities. The lack of practical experi­ ence and the changing competencies required of new graduates are discussed frequently at professional meetings and in the library litera­ ture. Diversity initiatives on college and university campuses and within the ALA also have raised awareness of the underrepresentation of mi­ nority librarians. Post-master’s residency programs are one approach that academic and research libraries have used to address these con­ tinuing human resource concerns. This article examines post-master’s residency programs from the perspective of former residents. The sur­ vey findings present important information for libraries that currently host residency programs or are considering implementing new resi­ dency programs in the future, as well as for library educators. cademic and research libraries began experimenting with post-master’s work experience programs in the 1940s in an ef­ fort to better prepare new library profes­ sionals. Two of the longest continuing post-master’s programs are those hosted by the Library of Congress and the Na­ tional Library of Medicine. The purpose of post-master ’s residency programs is to recruit highly talented graduates from li­ brary education programs and to prepare them for accelerated careers in academic and research libraries. Some residency programs provide advanced education and training for specialized careers in ar­ eas such as medical librarianship or con­ servation administration. Because profes­ sional positions in academic and research libraries often are highly specialized, most new librarians are unprepared to assume the level and depth of these responsibili­ ties immediately following graduation. Many large academic and research librar­ ies do not hire entry-level librarians. This practice restricts access to library careers Julie Brewer is Associate Librarian at the University of Delaware Library; e-mail: jbrewer@udel.edu. 528 mailto:jbrewer@udel.edu Post-Master’s Residency Programs 529 in these areas and limits the pool of quali­ fied candidates available for upper-level positions. Approximately twenty years ago, a group of library educators and practitio­ ners met to establish cooperative efforts in placing new library school graduates.1 The outcome of those meetings was a pro­ posal to expand the availability of post­ master’s work experience programs. The joint subcommittee of the Association of American Library Schools (AALS), pre­ decessor of the current Association for Li­ brary and Information Science Education (ALISE), and the ACRL Personnel Admin­ istrators and Staff Development Officers Discussion Group proposed that each ma­ jor research library create at least one per­ manent entry-level intern position. Al­ though the proposal was not widely imple­ mented, more than two dozen academic and research libraries have been identified as currently hosting a post-master’s field experience program or as having hosted one in the past.2 In addition to preparing new profes­ sionals for careers in academic and re­ search libraries, a number of residency programs started in the past ten to fifteen years also focus on the recruitment of mi­ nority librarians. Eighteen libraries cur­ rently host residency programs targeted to recent graduates from underrepresented ra­ cial and ethnic backgrounds or have hosted such a program in the past.3 Minority resi­ dency programs are key affirmative ac­ tion initiatives at many academic and re­ search institutions. The ACRL Strategic Plan acknowl­ edges the need to “support recruitment efforts to bring into the profession those individuals who will enrich the diversity of the profession.”4 Academic libraries are concerned about creating a welcoming environment and providing appropriate services to the increasing number of mi­ nority students on their college and uni­ versity campuses. Yet, addressing these concerns is difficult with so few minority librarians. The ALA Office for Library Personnel Resources (OLPR) 1991 data indicate a total of 2,850 minority librarians in aca­ demic and public libraries. The OLPR data are presented in table 1 as a distri­ bution of librarians by racial, ethnic, and gender groups in academic and public li­ braries.5 These data show that librarian- ship in general, and academic librarian- ship in particular, continues to be a pre­ dominately white, female profession. A number of residency programs started in the past ten to fifteen years also focus on the recruitment of minority librarians. Although the need for attracting more minorities to academic and research li­ braries is widely understood, the practice of targeting residency programs to minor­ ity graduates has raised some concerns. The ACRL Task Force on Recruitment of Underrepresented Minorities identified a number of potential stumbling blocks as­ sociated with minority residency pro­ grams in its 1990 final report.6 A primary concern is that minority graduates se­ lected for these programs will be stigma­ tized as underprepared, lacking skills, or otherwise unqualified for permanent en­ try-level professional positions. Library educators have shown contin­ ued interest in residency programs by working to establish general guidelines for the design, operation, and evaluation of post-master’s work experience pro­ grams. The guidelines adopted by ALISE in 1992 outline programmatic standards.7 The definition of terms referring to gradu­ ate and postgraduate work experience programs is an important contribution of the ALISE guidelines. The guidelines de­ fine internships as structured preprofessional work experiences that take place either during or after graduate course work but preceding the degree, usually for a short amount of time. Residencies are de­ fined as post-degree work experiences de­ 530 College & Research Libraries November 1997 TABLE 1 Distribution of Librarians by Ethnicity/Race, Gender, and Type of Library Ethnicity/Race Academic Public Total Gender N % N % N % American Indian/Alaskan Native Female 39 .40 26 .20 65 .28 Male 23 .23 3 .02 26 .11 Total 62 .63 29 .22 91 .39 Asian/Pacific Islander Female 331 3.38 343 2.58 674 2.92 Male 154 1.57 61 .46 215 .93 Total 485 4.95 404 3.03 889 3.85 Black Female 368 3.75 822 6.17 1190 5.15 Male 118 1.20 143 1.07 261 1.13 Total 486 4.96 965 7.25 1451 6.28 Hispanic Female 99 1.01 187 1.40 286 1.24 Male 51 .52 82 .62 133 .58 Total 150 1.53 269 2.02 419 1.81 White Female 5,537 56.49 9,157 68.78 14,694 63.57 Male 3,081 31.44 2,489 18.70 5,570 26.85 Total 8,618 87.93 11,646 87.48 20,264 87.67 Total Female 6,372 65.01 10,535 79.13 16,907 73.15 Male 3,427 34.17 2,778 20.87 6,204 26.85 Total 9,801 100.00 13,313 100.00 23,114 100.00 signed as entry-level programs for profes­ sionals who have recently received an MLS. Fellowships are midcareer experiences designed to assist librarians who already have some professional experience to de­ velop a specialty or to improve manage­ ment skills. This article uses the term resi­ dency as defined by the ALISE guidelines. Rationale for Research Although most post-master’s residency programs have existed for many years, very little information is available about them. The library literature provides some descriptive information about indi­ vidual programs, yet no objective data on their quality and value exist.8 Little is known about how residency programs affect career development, how targeted programs contribute to minority recruit­ ment, or what the value is of residency programs in academic and research librar­ ies. The general lack of information about residency programs is a problem from The lack of information and miscon­ ceptions about residency programs among staff in host libraries can affect the quality of the residency experience. many perspectives. Without adequate in­ formation, library educators have difficulty advising students, and new graduates Post-Master’s Residency Programs 531 have difficulty making informed career choices. The lack of information and mis­ conceptions about residency programs among staff in host libraries can affect the quality of the residency experience. More­ over, residents may feel isolated without a broader understanding of similar pro­ grams and contacts in other libraries. A number of efforts to gather informa­ tion and facilitate communication about residency programs have been made in the past few years. OLPR hosted two dis­ cussion group meetings at the 1991 An­ nual Conference in Atlanta and at the 1995 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. In 1992, the Association for Research Librar­ ies (ARL) published a survey of member libraries in SPEC Kit #188, Internship, Resi­ dency, and Fellowship Programs in ARL Li­ braries, which includes descriptive infor­ mation about six residency programs.9 ARL also hosted two seminars in 1996 on implementing post-master’s residency programs. Research Focus and Methodology To expand on these efforts, OLPR de­ signed a study with three primary objec­ tives: to collect qualitative data about resi­ dency programs from the perspective of former program participants; to track the career development of former post­ master ’s residents; and to understand differences in perspectives, if any, be­ tween residents who participated in pro­ grams targeted to minorities and those who participated in open recruitment programs. In May 1994, a sixty-question survey instrument was mailed to 230 former post-master’s residents. The instrument was designed to gather information about residency experiences from the perspec­ tive of former program participants. It did not ask respondents to identify the insti­ tutions that had hosted their residency programs. Rather, it focused on general issues of recruitment, program design, professional development, and attitudes. The survey asked respondents to recom- TABLE 2 Characteristics of Respondents Age* % 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-39 40+ No response Total 28 42 18 5 4 3 100 Ethnicity!Race % Black!African American Asian!Asian American Hispanic American Indian! Alaskan Native White No response Total 13 3 4 1 77 2 100 Gender % Female Male Total 76 24 100 * Age at beginning of residency program mend ways to improve residency pro­ grams and to offer advice for those con­ sidering this type of career development opportunity. Identifying the potential survey popu­ lation was a challenge because no central information about residency programs exists, nor do many of the institutions have extensive records on former resi­ dents and their current locations. Al­ though a few program coordinators pro­ vided lists, most people who volunteered to participate noticed the announcement of the study on listservs such as LIBPER, LIBADMIN, and JESSE, and in various professional newsletters. Nearly all the volunteers responded via e-mail, and many suggested the names of colleagues who had worked in their programs. Based on this solicitation for volunteers, 230 former residents were identified and sent survey instruments. 532 College & Research Libraries November 1997 One hundred and nine former resi­ dents, or 47 percent of the survey popu­ lation, completed and returned the sur­ vey instruments. The respondents were predominately white women between twenty-one and thirty years of age at the beginning of their residency program. Most respondents had two years or less of preprofessional library experience prior to their residency (see table 2). Respondents reported that their resi­ dency programs varied in length and structure, and by type of library. Most programs were one year or less in length. Typically, they were structured as a rota­ tion through several areas of the library followed by a specific project or assign­ ment. Most programs hosted more than one resident at a time. The programs were approximately split between academic and government libraries (see table 3). Readers should be aware that these program characteristics and other survey findings may be skewed in overrepresent­ ing the older, larger residency programs in government libraries, such as the Na­ tional Library of Medicine and the Library of Congress. The survey population had a high percentage of former residents from these larger programs which host many residents at one time and have been operating for several decades. Most resi­ dency programs started in the past ten to fifteen years generally host one to three residents at a time. The survey popula­ tion naturally had a lower number of former residents from these programs. Findings and Implications Libraries use a variety of recruitment methods to attract new professionals to residency programs, including traditional employment tools such as position an­ nouncements in professional publica­ tions, as well as brochures distributed to graduate library education programs. Most former residents learned of the resi­ dency opportunity from a faculty or staff person in their graduate library education program. Residents tended to apply to TABLE 3 Characteristics of Residency Programs Type of Library % Government 54 Academic 42 Corporate 1 Other 2 No response 1 Total 100 Length % 1 year (or less) 70 2 years 28 More than 2 years 2 Total 100 Minority Focus % No 82 Yes 17 No response 1 Total 100 specific programs rather than seek resi­ dency experiences in general. The major­ ity of respondents applied to only one residency program. The key factors in choosing a residency position were the reputation or prestige of the library, the institution, or the people involved; and the opportunity to gain a breadth of pro­ fessional library experiences. Survey respondents generally were Orientation to the residency program and library and overall training were rated as good or very good by 83 percent of respondents. very pleased with the management of their residency programs. Orientation to the residency program and library and overall training were rated as good or very good by 83 percent of respondents. Most (93%) felt their assignments matched their interests and abilities rea­ sonably well or very well. Most (72%) also Post-Master’s Residency Programs 533 TABLE 4 Attributes of Supervisors Most Next Most Attribute Important Important Availability 14% 13% Flexibility 2 15 Technical expertise 6 6 Familiarity with staff and organization 11 15 Mentoring skills 42 12 Support for residency program 5 7 Ability to provide constructive feedback 7 20 Other 7 2 No response 6 10 Total 100 100 felt the expectations for their responsibili­ ties were reasonably well defined or very well defined. Most former residents rated their rela­ tionship with the program coordinator as good or excellent. They reported regular meetings with program coordinators sev­ eral times a year, although many met more frequently. Exceptional program coordinators were noted for providing a broad perspective of the organization, providing moral support, creating learn­ ing opportunities, and providing feed­ back. More than half of the respondents had two or more supervisors during their resi­ dency. Having multiple supervisors was viewed as no problem or an advantage in most instances. Former residents iden­ tified mentoring skills and ability to pro­ vide constructive feedback as the two most important attributes for supervisors. Al­ though respondents gave their supervisors the highest ratings for familiarity with li­ brary staff and organization and support for the residency program, which are im­ portant elements of mentoring, they rated their supervisors’ overall mentoring skills relatively low. This is an important find­ ing for program coordinators. Mentoring skills may need to be emphasized for all library employees who work with resi­ dents (see table 4). Former residents rated in-house semi­ nars, interaction with other residents, and travel funding to regional and national meetings as the three most important de­ velopment opportunities. Responses to open-ended questions on peer interaction with other residents were particularly enthusiastic. Respondents reported that peer residents provided social camarade­ rie, moral support, opportunities for group projects, shared professional knowledge and expertise, motivation, quicker learning, different perspectives, and “career-long” professional relation­ ships. One respondent observed, how­ ever, that an optimal number of four to five residents was more manageable than situations where there were seven or more residents. Most respondents (85%) felt they were treated as professional librarians most of the time. Examples of work felt to be less than professional included: filing in the card catalog, shelf reading, manual tasks prior to personal computers, physically moving books during building move, se­ rial check-in, rearranging supply cabinet, copy cataloging, working the information desk, inventorying the reference collec­ tion, routine file maintenance of online catalog, photocopying, checking in mail, searching interlibrary loan requests, and processing and shelving books. However, former residents were more disturbed by patronizing attitudes than by work as­ signments they felt to be less than pro­ fessional. A number of respondents felt talked-down-to during seminars and felt they were treated as students. Some were made to feel that their opinions were of no value or that they were powerless be­ cause of the temporary nature of their position. 534 College & Research Libraries November 1997 TABLE 5 Position Titles Title % Associate 40 Intern 28 Resident 22 OtherlNo answer 10 Total 100 Most respondents (90%) felt involved as a contributing member of the organiza­ tion. Examples of involvement included working on critical projects that contributed to the library mission, being included as mem­ bers of a team, conducting training sessions for staff, presenting results of professional work to peers, and having opinions and feed­ back solicited. A number of respondents said they would have liked to have been in­ cluded on committees. The survey data were inconclusive in measuring the career development of former residents. Respondents were asked to name their first position or title following the residency program, as well as their current position or title. Because there is little uniformity in titles in aca­ demic libraries, better measures are needed to track career development. However, survey respondents regard their residency experiences as significant elements in their career development. Although approxi­ mately half (51%) felt they would have had little difficulty finding another entry-level position (rather than the residency posi­ tion), most (88%) said the residency experi­ ence contributed to some extent, or to a great extent, to subsequent jobs. Eighty- three percent said their career path would have been different without the residency experience. The survey results indicate that host libraries have differing views of their role in retaining residents and helping resi­ dents to find subsequent professional positions. Although some programs aim to recruit and prepare new librarians for careers in academic and research librar­ ies, or specifically in medical libraries, other programs may be using residency programs to screen future employees for that individual institution. Approxi­ mately two-thirds of the respondents (64%) were offered professional positions in their host library following their resi­ dency. Fifty-one percent accepted the of­ fer; 13 percent declined. A wide array of titles are assigned to residents in different programs (see table 5). Although most respondents were un­ concerned about the titles, some former residents who worked in medical librar­ ies felt the term intern was confusing be­ cause it also is used to designate medical students preparing to become physicians. Others expressed discomfort with the term intern for its less-than-professional connotation. A few respondents com­ mented on being treated as a continuing student rather than a professional librar­ ian. Minority residents also expressed some discomfort with their titles. Some of the titles used in programs targeted to graduates from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups include minority intern, affirmative action intern, and minority resi­ dent. Some respondents felt discomfort when their minority status was overem­ phasized. The emphasis on minority sta­ tus unnecessarily focused on differences or led to perceptions that these residents were substandard. The term affirmative action in the title was very awkward for one respon­ dent, who felt the confusion and stigma associated with the public debate about affirmative action. Nineteen respondents reported working in residency programs targeted to racial and ethnic minorities. The survey asked residents from these programs to comment on their treatment. Seventy-five percent felt their ra­ cial or ethnic background had a positive role or no role in their residency program. A few commented that their racial or ethnic background had both a positive and a negative role. And one respondent felt that racial or ethnic background had a Post-Master’s Residency Programs 535 negative role. Minority respondents felt that their racial and ethnic background was impor­ tant in adding diversity to predominantly white library staffs. It provided an oppor­ tunity for students and staff to work with minorities. Most often, the residents were accepted as professionals who happened to be minorities. Racial and ethnic back­ ground also determined some assign­ ments directed to minority residents. This was a positive experience when the as­ signment related to the resident’s area of interest. In other situations, minority resi­ dents were looked to as “experts” on questions dealing with ethnic issues. Residency programs seem to be effec­ tive recruitment tools for attracting mi­ norities and other individuals for short- term, temporary assignments who would not consider moving to a specific geo­ graphic location for more permanent po­ sitions. Survey responses indicated the residency programs succeed in recruiting individuals to academic and research li­ braries who otherwise were not consider­ ing careers in these areas. One minority re­ spondent wrote: “The program was the single most important factor in my choos­ ing employment in an academic library.” Overall, the response to the survey was overwhelmingly positive. An over­ whelming amount of support and enthu­ siasm for residency programs was ex­ pressed in the survey responses. Nearly all respondents (97%) said they enjoyed their residency experience very much or most of the time. Given the opportunity to apply for the same or similar residency program, 93 percent said they would do it again. Typical words used to describe the resi­ dency experience include: “valuable,” “great,” “fantastic,” and “excellent.” The most frequent remarks suggest that resi­ dency programs provide unique learning opportunities and are important founda­ tions for beginning careers. Residents found the mentoring and networking in­ valuable. The programs exposed resi­ dents to a breadth of professional experi­ ences typically unavailable in other en­ try-level positions or traditional career paths. Those who were uncommitted to specific career plans valued the opportu­ nity to explore and test their interest in academic and research libraries, particu­ larly in light of the rigorous promotion and tenure system at most institutions. A certain sense of delight and renewed appreciation for their residency experi­ ences came through in written comments. Respondents frequently commented that at the beginning of their programs they had no idea of the value they would later attach to the experience. Reflection and hindsight seemed to be very satisfying for most respondents, although two had negative experiences to relate: limited op­ portunities and exposure, and poor rela­ tions with supervisors. Overall, respon­ dents continue to enjoy the careers they have built on their residency experiences. Ninety-three percent report enjoying their current work very much or most of the time. Another measure of the high regard former residents have for these programs is the volume of written responses. More than 80 percent of the respondents offer advice to supervisors and program coor­ dinators. Examples of advice include: “emphasize big picture”; “provide broad exposure”; “appreciate different back­ ground and interests of residents and try to design parts of their program to match those areas”; “provide more opportuni­ ties for projects that will benefit the library and challenge the residents”; “encourage mentoring relationships”; “clearly define goals of the program”; “be accessible”; “be flexible.” Numerous responses em­ phasized the need to make programs two years long, with at least one peer resident. An even larger number of written re­ sponses (84%) were directed to new master’s graduates considering residency programs. Nearly all respondents said, “Do it!” They emphasized the network­ ing and learning opportunities, and sug­ 536 College & Research Libraries November 1997 gested that residents need to be willing to explore all aspects of librarianship. One respondent suggested that, “You may find your niche is not what you ex­ pected.” Other advice included: “be re­ spectful and diplomatic”; “be flexible and open-minded”; “be prepared to be very self-motivated”; “be aware of organiza­ tional politics”; “make a site visit”; “talk to residents who have been in the pro­ gram to assess support for the program and placement assistance.” Conclusions The survey findings indicate that post­ master’s residency programs are valuable recruitment tools that provide positive ca­ reer development opportunities for new li­ brary professionals. Most former residents are extremely pleased with their experi­ ences and encourage others to take advan­ tage of these unique career development opportunities. Post-master’s residency pro­ grams provide opportunities for new graduates to gain substantial professional experience and accelerated training at the beginning of their careers which generally are not available in traditional entry-level positions. Although the study was incon­ clusive on how residency programs affect individual career patterns, most former resi­ dents feel their experiences were invaluable. Academic and research libraries ben­ efit from residency programs by having a continuous pool of talented, well-pre­ pared, new professionals. Given the highly specialized nature of positions in academic and research libraries, access to, and recruitment for, careers in these ar­ eas will always be difficult. Residency programs address both of these concerns, as well as attract minority librarians to careers in academic and research librar­ ies. However, recruiting minority stu­ dents to graduate library education pro­ grams needs to be a continuing priority for the library profession. And finally, residency programs may offer a new flexibility to large academic and research libraries. The availability of temporary, new professionals allows large organizations the opportunity to respond to quickly shifting priorities. Some librar­ ies use residency assignments as opportu­ nities to experiment with the design of new positions and services. In addition to be­ ing effective strategies for preparing new library professionals and recruiting underrepresented minorities, post­ master ’s residency programs address emerging human resource needs for flex­ ibility in rapidly changing organizations. The author expresses deep gratitude to former Associate Professor Barry Morstain, College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Delaware, for his encourage­ ment, critical review of research design and analysis, and lifelong commitment to enhanc­ ing employment opportunities for all. Notes 1. Margo C. Trumpeter and Paul Gherman, “A Post-Master’s Degree Internship Program,” Library Journal 105 (June 1980): 1366–69. 2. These included Auburn University, Cleveland State University, Cornell University, Iowa State University, Library of Congress, Miami University (Ohio), National Library of Medicine, Ohio State University, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Stanford University, SUNY-Buffalo, Uni­ versity of California, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Colorado-Denver, University of Delaware, University of Illinois at Chicago, Uni­ versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Wright State University, Yale University, and various Conservation Administration programs supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 3. These include Auburn University, Cleveland State University, Cornell University, Iowa State University, Miami University (Ohio), Ohio State University, Smithsonian Institution Li­ braries, Stanford University, State University of New York-Buffalo, University of California, Uni­ Post-Master’s Residency Programs 537 versity of California-Berkeley, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Delaware, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Wright State Uni­ versity, and Yale University. 4. “ACRL Charts New Direction,” College & Research Libraries News 56 (Sept. 1995): 571. 5. “Academic and Public Librarians: Data by Race, Ethnicity & Sex, 1991” (Chicago: ALA, 1991, photocopy), 3. 6. Janice Beaudin et al., “Recruiting the Under-Represented to Academic Libraries,” College & Research Libraries News 51 (Dec. 1990): 1024. 7. “Guidelines for Practices and Principles in the Design, Operation, and Evaluaton of Post­ Master’s Residency Programs” (Association for Library and Informaton Science Education, 1992, photocopy). 8. For example, see Jon E. Cawthorne and Teri B. Weil, “Internships/Residencies: Exploring the Possibilities for the Future,” in In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship, ed. Teresa Y. Neely and Khafre K. Abif (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Pr., 1996): 45–71; Jose Diaz and Kristina Starkus, “Increasing Minority Representation in Academic Libraries: The Minority Li­ brarian Intern Program at the Ohio State University,” C&RL 55 (Jan. 1994): 41–46; Deborah Hollis, “On the Ambiguous Side: Experiences in a Predominantly White and Female Profession,” in In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship, ed. Teresa Y. Neely and Khafre K. Abif (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Pr., 1996): 139–54; Joseph A. Boissé and Connie V. Dowell, “Increasing Minority Librarians in Academic Research Libraries,” Library Journal 112 (Apr. 1987): 52–54; Sheila D. Creth, “The First Two Years’ Experience,” Library Journal 111 (Feb. 1986): 121–24; Richard M. Doughery, “The Underlying Rationale,” Library Journal 111 (Feb. 1986): 118–20; Betty Glass, “A Time of Tran­ sition,” Library Journal 111 (Feb. 1986): 127–28; Sarah Shoemaker, “A Unique Experience,” Library Journal 111 (Feb. 1986): 125–26; Molly Mahony, “Preparation for the Future,” Library Journal 111 (Feb. 1986): 129–30; Richard M. Dougherty and Wendy P. Lougee, “Research Library Residen­ cies: A New Model of Professional Development,” Library Journal 108 (July 1983): 1322–24. 9. “Internship, Residency, and Fellowship Programs in ARL Libraries,” SPEC Kit #188 (Wash­ ington, D.C.: ARL, 1992). 
crl-acrl-org-8030	----	Evaluation of Academic Library Residency Programs in the United States for Librarians of Color | Boyd | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Home > Vol 78, No 4 (2017) > Boyd Download this PDF file The PDF file you selected should load here if your Web browser has a PDF reader plug-in installed (for example, a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader). If you would like more information about how to print, save, and work with PDFs, Highwire Press provides a helpful Frequently Asked Questions about PDFs. Alternatively, you can download the PDF file directly to your computer, from where it can be opened using a PDF reader. To download the PDF, click the Download link above. Fullscreen Fullscreen Off Copyright Angela Boyd, Yolanda Blue, Suzanne Im License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 20 February: 14 March: 16 April: 16 May: 16 June: 9 July: 10 August: 19 September: 10 October: 12 November: 12 2019 January: 7 February: 14 March: 11 April: 17 May: 22 June: 18 July: 9 August: 23 September: 15 October: 11 November: 8 December: 11 2018 January: 8 February: 14 March: 27 April: 12 May: 23 June: 15 July: 17 August: 10 September: 8 October: 13 November: 16 December: 7 2017 April: 0 May: 779 June: 61 July: 31 August: 14 September: 32 October: 17 November: 12 December: 13 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
digitalcommons-cedarville-edu-4204	----	"Our Student Workers Rock! Investing in the Student Staff Development P" by Joshua B. Michael and Jeremy McGinniss Home Search Browse Collections My Account About Digital Commons Network™ Skip to main content My Account FAQ About Home DigitalCommons@Cedarville < Previous Next >   Home > Library > Faculty Presentations > 17   Library Faculty Presentations Title Our Student Workers Rock! Investing in the Student Staff Development Process Authors Joshua B. Michael, Cedarville UniversityFollow Jeremy McGinniss, Baptist Bible College and Seminary Document Type Conference Presentation Event Date 11-1-2013 Conference/Event Brick and Click Library Symposium Location Northwest Missouri State, Maryville, MO Keywords Library Student Workers, staff development Recommended Citation Michael, Joshua B. and McGinniss, Jeremy, "Our Student Workers Rock! Investing in the Student Staff Development Process" (2013). Library Faculty Presentations. 17. https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/library_presentations/17 Download DOWNLOADS Since August 27, 2013 Included in Library and Information Science Commons Share COinS     To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, you may Download the file to your hard drive. NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.       Enter search terms: Select context to search: in this series in this repository across all repositories Advanced Search Notify me via email or RSS Links Centennial Library Browse Follow Collections Disciplines Disciplines Authors Author Corner Home Author FAQ Copyright Guidelines Permission Agreement Contact Us   Digital Commons Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement Privacy Copyright 
digitalcommons-nl-edu-7462	----	"Residency Programs and Demonstrating Commitment to Diversity" by Kelly McElroy and Chris Diaz Home Search Browse Collections My Account About Digital Commons Network™ Skip to main content Digital Commons@NLU Home About FAQ My Account < Previous Next >   Home > FACULTY_PUBLICATIONS > 46 Faculty Publications   Title Residency Programs and Demonstrating Commitment to Diversity Authors Kelly McElroy, Oregon State UniversityFollow Chris Diaz, National-Louis UniversityFollow Document Type Article Publication Date Spring 3-28-2015 Abstract This paper was presented on March, 28, 2015, at the Association for College and Research Libraries Conference in Portland, Oregon. Full Conference proceedings are available here. Post-graduate internships, residencies, and fellowships have existed in research libraries since the 1930s, and have increasingly become a diversity recruitment and retention method of college and university libraries since the 1980s. These programs recruit recent graduates from Library and Information Science programs for training and specialization in some aspect of academic and research librarianship, usually under a term-limited contract of one to three years, often with a stated goal of contributing to the diversity of the profession by recruiting candidates from historically underrepresented groups. Despite these longstanding efforts, the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in academic librarianship is stark. In 2010, non-white academic librarians represented less than 15% of credentialed librarians working in higher education (ALA Diversity Counts). In fact, this percentage is roughly the same as it was in 1990, ten years after residency programs first began addressing the lack of diversity in the profession. During this time, however, diversity among undergraduate students has increased by 15% in colleges and universities. Moreover, academic librarianship is less diverse than faculty membership in colleges and universities. Non-white faculty members represent more than 20% of full-time teaching positions in higher education (Digest of Education Statistics, 2012). While higher education is becoming more diverse, from students to professors, academic librarianship shows no noticeable movement. If residency programs are not fulfilling their mission of increasing diversity in the profession, what diversity-related function are they serving? We argue that there may be elements in the design, marketing, and administration of residency programs that are counter-productive to their diversity-focused goals. Historically, postgraduate positions in research libraries were created to address a critical gap between knowledge gained from Library and Information Science education and the specialized skills needed to work in research and academic libraries. What are the consequences of a hiring strategy for temporary positions that emphasizes professional development on persons from traditionally underrepresented groups (i.e. racial and ethnic minorities)? Qualitative research dating back to the late 1990’s shows residency participants reporting everything from subtle discrimination, such as patronizing attitudes from colleagues, to the more explicitly stigmatizing, such as the words “affirmative action”, “minority”, and “diversity” in the job title (Brewer, 1997). We believe there are better ways for academic libraries to demonstrate their commitment to diversity than simply administering these programs. This paper will offer a critical analysis of the diversity focus these programs take. Comments Presentation slides are also available. Recommended Citation McElroy, Kelly and Diaz, Chris, "Residency Programs and Demonstrating Commitment to Diversity" (2015). Faculty Publications. 46. https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/faculty_publications/46 Additional Files McElroy_Diaz_ACRL2015_ResidencyProgram_Slides.pdf (715 kB) View Full Text DOWNLOADS Since April 06, 2015 Included in Library and Information Science Commons Share COinS     To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, you may Download the file to your hard drive. NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.       Search Enter search terms: Select context to search: in this series in this repository across all repositories Advanced Search Notify me via email or RSS Browse Dissertations Collections Disciplines Disciplines Authors Author Corner Author FAQ Submit Research Links National Louis University Library and Learning Support   Digital Commons Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement Privacy Copyright 
dlss-flvc-org-9150	----	DLSS Textbook Cost Reduction   Skip to Content Skip to Footer High-Contrast Sign In Partners Get Help Menu Home About Colleges & Universities High Schools News & Events Get Help Partners Sign In Home Distance Learning and Student Services About Learn More About Distance Learning and Student Services Colleges & Universities DLSS Colleges & Universities High Schools DLSS - High Schools News & Events DLSS News & Events Your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. This website utilizes JavaScript. Please ensure that your browser has JavaScript enabled. Colleges & Universities Admin Tools FL Academic Success & Quality (FLASQ) Florida Faculty Academic Integrity Open Ed Forum Research Adult Learners Decreasing Time to Completion Supporting Florida's Workforce Textbooks Resources Textbooks The cost of textbooks can significantly increase the cost of postsecondary education. To make college more affordable, the Office of Distance Learning and Student Services is conducting research to identify ways to reduce the cost of educational materials. 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey and Information 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey - Executive Summary (PDF) 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey - Results and Findings (PDF) 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey - Infographic 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey and Information 2016 Student Textbook and Course Material Survey - Results and Findings (PDF) Action Plan for Building a Statewide Infrastructure to Support Open Educational Resources in Florida's Public Institutions of Higher Education (PDF) Textbook Affordability: What are Students Saying? (Infographic) Home About Colleges & Universities High Schools News & Events Sitemap Privacy Policy 1753 W. Paul Dirac Drive Tallahassee, FL 32310 (850) 922-6044 Florida Virtual Campus A service of the University of West Florida Funded by the Florida State Legislature     
doi-org-1075	----	Project MUSE - A Holistic Approach for Inclusive Librarianship: Decentering Whiteness in Our Profession [Skip to Content] Institutional Login LOG IN browse or Search: menu Advanced Search Browse MyMUSE Account Log In / Sign Up Change My Account User Settings Access via Institution MyMUSE Library Search History View History Purchase History MyMUSE Alerts Contact Support Library Trends Library Trends Volume 67, Number 1, Summer 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press Article View Download Save View Citation contents Additional Information A Holistic Approach for Inclusive Librarianship: Decentering Whiteness in Our Profession Isabel Espinal (bio), Tonia Sutherland (bio), and Charlotte Roh (bio) Abstract This paper traces the published literature on whiteness in libraries, identifying major themes in that literature, and then highlights the importance of decentering whiteness for moving the information professions forward. Engaging a dialogic ethnographic methodology, this paper was borne of conversations between librarians of color who worked in the same predominantly white library. The salient themes from those dialogues were the many ways that adherence to whiteness in libraries has had deleterious affective and career implications for librarians of color. The authors argue that to decenter whiteness in libraries and other information centers, it is crucial to center the experiences and well-being of librarians of color; diversify the ranks of librarians through bold initiatives, significantly increasing the numbers of librarians of color; and make large-scale incisive structural change at organizational levels. The paper concludes with an invitation for all information professionals to participate in inclusiveness initiatives by moving from microaggressions to microaffections. Part I: Overview of Whiteness in Librarianship In 2000, at the second REFORMA conference—the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish speaking—librarian Isabel Espinal gave a presentation on the importance of recognizing whiteness as a useful tool in promoting diversity in librarianship. The ensuing article, “A New Vocabulary for Inclusive Librarianship: Applying Whiteness Theory to Our Profession,” made the argument that “unless we address whiteness, unless we identify and name it, many of the problems that plague us collectively and as individual librarians of color will continue” (Espinal 2001, 132–33). [End Page 147] Seventeen years ago, librarians of color, including some administrators, enthusiastically greeted this message of whiteness theory as applied to librarianship. But at Espinal’s home institution, there was a chilling lack of interest. This disinterest from Espinal’s colleagues was emblematic of greater issues in librarianship. In her 2001 article, Espinal cited anthropologist Enoch Page’s definition of whiteness; sixteen years later, it remains relevant to the information professions: As a generative principle of racism, “ideological whiteness” refers to a dual behavioral process entailing enactments of identity formation and resource access legitimation, both of which were practices once overtly recognized as aspects of “white supremacy,” but which now may be more subtly and covertly reproduced as an observable and routine set of implicitly prescriptive, but explicitly disavowed, white supremacist beliefs and practices to which all who identify as “white” (or who behave as “whitened”) are expected to adhere—especially white males—if they wish to maintain their own racial standing as members of these two privileged white groups and assert their negotiable right to privileged resource access. (E. Page 1999) In the intervening years, new vocabulary has emerged to complement Page’s definition. The term “microaggressions,” for example, highlights how individual practices perpetuate systems of whiteness. Yet as suggested by Espinal in 2001, whiteness is also very much about how collective actions are defined and in many ways disguised. In effect, Espinal argues, libraries and other institutions serve as “white public spaces,” both symbolic and material, that are controlled so that the dominant racial group benefits and “things of racial significance are made to seem fair, just, legitimate, and simplistically obvious when the embodied experiences of racial targets scream that they clearly are not (H. E. Page 1997, 108). There are now more conversations about whiteness in librarianship, and yet the demographics and culture of librarianship have not significantly changed in seventeen years. Her workplace has not been able to retain any Black librarians in the nineteen years that Espinal has worked there, and this is one of many problems of whiteness: homogeneous environments foster homogeneous attitudes and practices. Failing to see or acknowledge issues of inclusion and exclusion is an example of a “white cultural practice”—a behavior that perpetuates whiteness as the norm (E. Page as cited in Espinal 2001, 136). Another example of white cultural practice is defensive responses to having concerns about inclusion raised, and the inevitable trotting out of minor details to prove that those concerns are unfounded, a practice now called whitelash or whitesplaining. On more than one occasion, white colleagues have pointed out to Espinal that her library has hired two Black librarians since 1998—one was an administrator who stayed for a few years in the early 2000s, and the other a library resident who was hired for two years, applied for a permanent position, then left that job after another year. The very real problem of [End Page 148] retention is ignored, and the person of color experiences whitelash rather than an admission that there could be a problem with retention. In 2001, a search revealed no articles in the library literature that addressed whiteness, white privilege, or the concept of systemic white supremacy. It seemed that no one was writing about whiteness in librarianship. This dearth in the literature offers some explanation of why Espinal’s work received both welcome positive attention from librarians of color at professional gatherings as well as uncomfortable reactions from the white librarians with whom she worked daily. Today, however, it is clear that the information professions are now in the midst of a conversation about whiteness, although not everyone is participating, and many remain unaware that the conversation is happening. From 2006 to 2016, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) lists nine articles on whiteness in the information professions, and from 2014 to 2016 alone, six articles (Blackburn 2015; Brook, Ellenwood, and Lazzaro 2015; Galvan 2015; Hathcock 2015; Ramirez 2015; Schlesselman-Tarango 2016). The database may lack in some key writings—for example, Todd Honma’s (2005) influential article is not included—and for that matter neither is Espinal’s. Additionally, librarians have published blog posts on the subject of whiteness that also are not indexed in the database, as in Chris Bourg’s (2014), b. binaohan’s (2014a and 2014b), and Max Macias’s (2016) recent writings. Although the articles varied in their focus and general approach to the topic of whiteness in the information professions, generally they underscored that (1) whiteness is a default—yet unspoken—phenomenon and that (2) whiteness is not a biological reality but rather a social and ideological construct. Jody Nyasha Warner (2001) outlined major areas in which whiteness dominates North American libraries, with a focus on collections, staffing, and cataloguing. John Berry’s 2004 article on white privilege is a librarian’s version of Peggy McIntosh’s knapsack of white privilege (1989). For example, you can be certain of your white privilege if you can answer affirmatively that “if I should need to change jobs, I can be pretty sure of working in a position in a library professionally staffed primarily, if not exclusively, with people of my race,” or “I can be pretty sure that the person in charge will be a person of my race,” or “I can go home from most professional meetings or conferences feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.” For most librarians of color, including the authors, none of these statements have ever been true. Various writers have taken a historical and structural approach. Todd Honma (2005, 4) outlined how “libraries have historically served the interests of a white racial project by aiding in the construction and maintenance of a white American citizenry as well as the perpetuation of white privilege in the structures of the field itself,” asserting that “the theoretical investigation [End Page 149] into histories of whiteness is a crucial intervention within the LIS field.” Supporting this view, Christine Pawley (2006, 162, 163) advocated for “decentering whiteness in the LIS imagination” as “an urgent priority,” pointing out that this would require huge changes and bold action but also reminding librarians that the “LIS field is indeed capable of radical transformation; we can tell this from the example of recent technological change in librarianship.” In another historical account, Hand (2012, 37) drew on whiteness studies to assert, “Children’s librarians . . . ironically fostered the cultural transmission of a nineteenth-century white racial ideology memorialized within books sitting on the library shelf.” American Studies scholar George Lipsitz began his essay for The Progressive Librarian (2009, 3) with the observation that “Red Cliff Lake Ojibwe activist Walter Bresette found it remarkable that white Americans had such great libraries but such poor memories. He felt that with the Ojibwe it was the reverse, that they had virtually no libraries, but possessed great memories.” Lipsitz gave examples to show how “the indirect, institutional, and inferential racism [is] encoded within . . . [a] possessive investment in whiteness” that permeates our society (4). Chris Bourg (2014) used US Census figures to demonstrate that librarianship is overwhelmingly white, asserting that the lack of diversity in a profession that claims it as a core value “is embarrassing”: the population of white librarians is 88 percent, while the US population is only 63 percent white. The authors of several articles elaborate on how librarians of color are subject to—and then fall short of—the idea of a performative white librarianship as neutral, professional, and/or more valuable in the workplace (Galvan 2015; binaohan 2014b; Hathcock 2015; Blackburn 2015). b. binaohan focuses on the gendered aspects of librarianship’s demographic whiteness as well as a structural analysis, making “a plea . . . for these white women to remember that they are not the default librarian. That their experiences within the field . . . are not universal and that treating them as such erases the reality and lives lived by women of colour” (2014b). Galvan (2015) asserts that “the whiteness of librarianship” is upheld by the job application process as well as how librarians of color are evaluated: “We choose people like us because it is easy, rather than advocating for different views by picking ‘unfamiliar’ candidates who might interrogate the processes. . . . Our reviews are full of words like ‘shrill,’ ‘abrasive,’ ‘hard to work with,’ ‘not a team player,’ and ‘difficult.’” Galvan ends her article with a list of thirteen suggestions that can be adopted to “interrogate whiteness.” Hathcock (2015), also a librarian of color, maintains that even so-called diversity programs recruit individuals of color who can demonstrate whiteness. As a white librarian, Fiona Blackburn (2015) wrote a first-person accounting of the ways she became cognizant of whiteness and the systemic advantages it provided her, detailing when she was taken more seriously than her colleagues of color just because she was a white woman. [End Page 150] Brook, Ellenwood, and Lazarro (2015), also identifying as white librarians, elaborated on “the culture of Whiteness in academic libraries in three major areas of public services: space, staffing, and reference service delivery,” attempting to show how racism is embedded in these areas of librarianship “through the presumed and oppressive ‘neutrality’ of Whiteness” (248). They offer a list of suggested actions in each of these areas as necessary antiracist measures. Ramirez (2015), writing as a male archivist of color, sees the same patterns in his subfield, citing as an example an article by a white male archivist who has no awareness of his white male privilege in his defenses of professional neutrality and thus boasted that “one of his proudest moments” was when a prospective donor assumed that he was politically conservative given what he articulated as his “polite distance” from conversations involving such topics and his “respectfulness” toward the differing opinions of others (9). Ramirez analyzes such a statement via the lens of unacknowledged whiteness—a false neutrality. In Espinal’s 2001 article, she suggested that librarianship as a focus for studying whiteness can help us examine how sex and gender operate in relation to whiteness since it is a profession demographically dominated by white women although managerially dominated by white men. Schlesselman-Tarango (2016) answered her call directly with a study of the persistence of the unspoken (white) “Lady Bountiful” persona as a primary role model for all of librarianship, whose genealogy traces to at least the nineteenth century and is a kind of ancestor to today’s “Nice White Lady,” cited by binaohan (2014a). Schlesselman-Tarango summarizes the history of this particular intersectionality, and maintains that “due to its limited engagement with whiteness, LIS diversity literature also has rendered it implacable and without meaning, contributing to the silence that normalizes and subsequently reinforces and maintains it” (2016, 669). Taken together, these articles can create a kind of whiteness syllabus, a curriculum for understanding how whiteness impacts librarianship and the information professions writ large. Yet there are still gaps in the literature. This discussion must continue and must include a multitude of voices and perspectives. The Library of Congress recently rejected (for the second time) the proposal for the subject heading “White privilege,” stating: “LCSH does not include specific headings for groups discriminated against. Numerous works about white privilege have been assigned the headings Race discrimination and Whites—Race identity, and the meeting wishes to continue that practice” (SACO 2016). This refusal to officially name the concept despite the vast amount of literature around the term “white privilege” centers race discrimination as an ethnic minority problem rather than a white problem, further distancing white people from the problem of institutional whiteness. In the late 1990s, librarians interested in diversifying the profession used the motto “Stop talking and start doing” (St. Lifer and Rogers 1997; [End Page 151] Reese and Hawkins 1999). In that spirit the authors here will focus on actions that library institutions and librarians across the USA can take today. Nevertheless, the authors do not discount the importance of communication, especially talking with other librarians of color about the impacts of whiteness. When Espinal penned her 2001 article, she did it alone and related actual work experiences as autoethnography. Years later she had conversations with Tonia Sutherland and Charlotte Roh, who were both research library residents at the same institution as Espinal, but have both left that workplace. Drawing on many in-depth conversations between Espinal and Sutherland over several months, the authors have employed dialogical analysis as their methodology. Dialogical analysis is based on the theoretical work of George Herbert Mead (1934) and Mikhail Bakhtin (1981) and is an interpretive methodology that analyzes spoken and written utterances for their communicative significance. The next section offers insights from that dialogue that inform the authors’ proposals for future action. Part II: The Affective Implications of Whiteness in the Workplace I don’t want to speak for all librarians of color, but these general practices need to be brought out—how are librarians of color being treated? I am tired of holding this up. Giving voice to concerns we have seen over and over and over again that have not been heard or addressed. This is a moment for real activism and action. —Isabel Espinal I view my love as a radical act of solidarity and my unwillingness to surrender that love as an act of defiance against a system that would otherwise silence and dehumanize me. —Tonia Sutherland Just because you’re magic doesn’t mean you’re not real. —Jesse Williams Writing this article began with a conversation about “decentering whiteness.” In conversation, it became clear that one effective way to decenter whiteness in LIS is to center the needs of information professionals of color in our search for solutions to the problems caused by whiteness ideologies. In that spirit, the authors have opted to literally place the themes from a conversation between and among people of color (POC) at the center of this article. It is important to acknowledge that diversity and inclusion mean not everyone is the same. People come to information professions and to information centers (libraries, archives, museums, etc.) from a host of different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. One thing that whiteness and whiteness ideologies do is foment conformity, so it is even more important to underscore that not all POC have the same experiences in the workplace. [End Page 152] Recently, a person in a position of power said to one of the authors: “I don’t know what culture you come from, but the sooner you get to know the culture here the better off you’ll be.” This pervasive assumption that employees of color will conform to an existing culture rather than attempt to include multiple perspectives in an evolving workplace culture is one key way that the information field can change. When true cultural inclusion is celebrated instead of persistent expectations of conformity, the profession stands to learn and expand. For some, a culture of “presence equals performance” is deleterious. So many POC suffer daily barrages of microaggressions and the oppressive burdens of emotional and affective labor that being physically present in the office may equate with trauma. In fact, a decade-old study on racial bias on college and university campuses suggests that victims of racial microaggressions are stressed in ways similar to soldiers at war (W. A. Smith, Yosso, and Solórzano 2006). Unfortunately, the way one is taught to think about work in the United States is a throwback to the whiteness ideologies of the 1940s and 1950s. Managers are still invested in this idea that people must be at work to be working, and at the same time they refuse to acknowledge that the workplace is hostile for many employees. Instead, productivity is measured in time served rather than goals accomplished. As a result, there is no pain barometer; there is no escape clause that says if your workplace is hostile because you are a racial minority under siege that there will be support for you when it becomes too much. There is no room in cultures of whiteness for emotions and certainly no room for anything that might be perceived as weakness on the part of POC. The end result is often a slow ride toward catastrophic disagreement and disengagement wherein POC either speak up or step down. In either case, the profession loses another nonwhite voice and POC are further characterized as not being “a good fit” or “a team player.” Again, by refusing to accept a plurality of opinions and recognize a plurality of experiences, whiteness ideology destroys true inclusion and pluralism. As it stands, there is often absolute cultural erasure, and work that is done and done well is often ignored or attributed to white colleagues. On the other hand, one doesn’t want to be tokenized or asked to contribute or participate because of ethnic or racial identity (particularly when this work is emotionally demanding and the aforementioned erasure is sure to follow). There is a tension between erasure and tokenism that is unresolved here. For example, on search committees POC are often asked to appeal to other POC to apply for the open position or asked how to best get more POC through the door. Why is this not the responsibility of the entire committee? Or the entire faculty and staff? That the person making these requests doesn’t recognize his/her behavior as problematic, as inappropriately racialized, or as a microaggression is deeply concerning. And, quite frankly, exhausting. [End Page 153] In her pivotal essay, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” Audre Lorde states: My response to racism is anger. I have lived with that anger, ignoring it, feeding upon it, learning to use it before it laid my visions to waste, for most of my life. Once I did it in silence, afraid of the weight. My fear of anger taught me nothing. Your fear of that anger will teach you nothing, also. Women responding to racism means women responding to anger; Anger of exclusion, of unquestioned privilege, of racial distortions, of silence, ill-use, stereotyping, defensiveness, misnaming, betrayal, and co-optation. (1984, 124) One of the explicit hopes in writing this article is that a space can be created for both the anger and sadness of POC. Very often, these emotional investments are culturally informed. Asking POC to remain emotionless is a form of cultural bias and cultural imperialism. It’s one of the ways whiteness maintains power: power structures are maintained by policing emotions and the responses of people of color to hostility in the workplace. Decentering whiteness means embracing a culture where emotions can be expressed at work and not relegated to a therapist’s office. As Warner wrote in 2001: Up until very recently university culture was predominantly white, male and middle class and the vestiges of this are still very present. For instance, one who is not a white male may have trouble feeling at home with the typical communication style at my institution. I find it very devoid of emotion, personal experience, colorful language and any kind of give and take rhythm, which I attribute to cultural differences. (169) Racial violence and police brutality have a library and information correlate. Those are the tips of the iceberg—horrendous, physically violent, and visible—part of the emotional violence that many LIS people of color experience. Yet acts of violence don’t always look like a bullet. When you erase a colleague’s work, that is a violent gesture: it causes emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage. That violence, combined with the trauma of being a woman of color in the world, in a national moment when trauma is omnipresent and literally worn on the body, leaves no emotional space to heal from the institutional violence that is part of the system of white supremacy. In conversation, Sutherland inquired, “What does it mean to try to cross the threshold from information professional to information administrator and be confronted with whiteness ideologies/being perceived as threat to white identity?” This is an area that is underdiscussed in library diversity, inclusion, and antiracism literature and presentations: there are barriers created by whiteness for librarians of color who want to move into administration. It starts with biases that position POC as less competent than white counterparts; these are the same biases that keep POC from entering the profession, and they are also related to the biases that keep [End Page 154] POC students underperforming in K-12 environments. The goals for diversity and inclusion in librarianship must be expanded to include recruitment, retention, and promotion. White biases, coupled with complacency, results in librarians of color not being given access to the tools necessary to move into administration: librarians of color are not being groomed for administration, and then, as it follows, they are not given those opportunities and are not seen as leaders. When POC dare to try for leadership roles, eyebrows are raised and surprise comes across faces: librarians of color are made to feel as if they are overly ambitious and stepping out of line—that they don’t know “their place.” Librarians of color tend to recognize each other’s leadership skills and celebrate it, while their white counterparts tend to do the opposite. Espinal noted, “There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to dwell on this. Yet I want to find the space to share my story because I wonder how many other librarians of color have had similar roadblocks in their careers due to whiteness ideology and whiteness practices and yet don’t speak of it.” This is due perhaps to a “tyranny of silence,” a concept Smith utilized when writing about conversations between law professors of color: Why hadn’t we told anyone? Why did each of us feel that we were alone? Why were we so ashamed of our experiences? Why were we so afraid to speak? . . . We were silenced, feeling alone and feeling ashamed because of the tyrannies of silence, which demand silence and fear in exchange for the tenuous promise of tenure at some point in the future. . . . Individually we learned the heartaches that go along with fear, the isolation that is its companion. The attendant belief that it was you rather than your institution. The attendant demand that one has to remain emotionless and forgiving in the face of continuous racial aggressions. Together we learned that it was not us, that we were not alone and that the very institutions that were harming us were the same ones depending on our silence. (P. J. Smith 2000, 1107) Part III: Moving Forward: Decentering Whiteness and Centering Librarians of Color Because of the slow rate of change in the information professions, it is difficult to find examples of strategies that have worked to combat the dominance of whiteness. What has not worked is forming committees or writing policies and other documents that are eventually suspended or simply forgotten based on the trends of the organization. Another ineffective practice is tinkering at the edges rather than taking large-scale actions. Libraries have been national leaders in innovating how spaces and technology can be reconfigured, but not so in diversity and inclusion initiatives. Librarians of color often experience a personal sense of betrayal when there is a betrayal of diversity and inclusion efforts in their institutions and their profession. Much more and creative recruitment is necessary, to be certain, but [End Page 155] recruitment is not enough. Even retention is not enough. For librarians of color who are retained, it is difficult to gauge how happy and fulfilled—and even well utilized—they are. Further, few librarians of color who are retained are also supported for advancement in the organization. People of color are saying, See us, highlight us, mention us—not just when you are mandated by law to find people like us on search committees or when you need a black or brown face on a publicity brochure. Justice needs to be a bigger part of this conversation. Part of justice is acknowledging what has not worked in the past and the righting of wrongs. It is time to move beyond both white fragility and self-congratulatory whiteness. There is a need to intervene early and often. Max Macias notes that the problem of whiteness is generational. Children of color get the message of whiteness early, that “European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures” (2016), reinforced in every book they read. It is critical to intervene before another generation of children learn to prioritize whiteness and whiteness ideologies. Intervening in children’s and young adult librarianship, insisting on representation in youth literature and programming is a key task. Interventions in public libraries, academic libraries, law libraries, and medical libraries are also needed, sending a strong message that equity and inclusion are library values. Interventions are also vital in archives and digital spaces; it is critical to document historically significant events and vulnerable communities as well as to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. Here are some suggested actions to improve diversity and inclusion and fight whiteness ideology in librarianship: 1. Associations and library schools can do the following: a. Allocate long-term funding for ethnic caucuses. Because diversity is a core value of ALA it would be entirely consistent and beneficial to the work of diversity for ALA to support the associations of librarians of color in much greater sums than it currently does. Given that ALA’s budget is in the millions, it would be appropriate and within its means for ALA to allocate $500,000 directly to the caucuses, distributed either evenly at $100,000 each or based on the figures from the US Census demographic data. b. Promote and advance the understanding of whiteness in librarianship. Every library school should offer a course on whiteness in librarianship; associations should offer professional development seminars, workshops, and the like. A whole book could be published on whiteness in librarianship, even culling together the articles we reviewed. Understanding the impacts of systematic whiteness is key to understanding the library profession. Since the profession is so predominantly white, this is also a key place from which many librarians can start a conversation about race. [End Page 156] 2. Associations and institutions can do the following: a. Rethink, re-envision, and revise the residency. The ACRL’s Diversity Alliance program calls for the creation of residencies by each alliance member library. This call can go further and expand beyond ACRL to encompass other library categories and services via PLA, YALSA, etc. Libraries should take actions to increase the numbers of graduates of library schools eligible to apply to jobs as librarians. Specifically, we propose the creation of positions that do not require the MLS and that actually would pay employees to obtain the MLS on the job. There are possibilities for partnerships between college libraries and library schools. As diversity in LIS education increases, diversity in the profession(s) increases. Public libraries should encourage promising nonlibrarian staff of color to obtain certification through scholarship programs and time to pursue education. To be successful this would require thousands of libraries to participate. It can be done. b. Allocate funding for librarians of color to attend conferences of librarians of color. Do not make us choose between attending to our cultural needs and attending to functional areas in our work. Since librarians of color have to do double work in the engagement with racial battles, provide separate funding to attend meetings of REFORMA, Black Caucus of ALA, APALA, AILA, Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. Also allocate funding for white librarians to attend these, but the priority should be the mental and professional health of librarians of color as a way to decenter whiteness. c. Create programs for the veterans of the racial battles of whiteness. Now more than ever, the political environment has laid bare the racist realities of daily life for people of color. Yet in our work environment no one carved out space for us to grieve and deal with this fatigue and feeling of being under siege by the greater society. Part of seeing us is to see that POC experience both individual and collective trauma in this country. We can’t be expected to produce, produce, produce without any acknowledgement of the horrors that POC in general and librarians of color in particular are having to process on a bodily level. There aren’t resources for librarians of color who have endured years of microaggressions. Such programs would address how to apologize and how to make amends with us. How to clear the air and start fresh? How to heal? Perhaps ACRL, ARL, ALA, LLAMA can create conference programs that would teach white librarians how to address the aggressions of the past. Another possibility is a mentoring program for the previously unmentored and/or a mentoring program specifically for those of us who have been in these battles. These would not be programs that put more burdens on us to act white, but rather help take the weight off that we’ve already [End Page 157] been carrying. Additionally, it would be great to survey librarians of color who’ve been in the profession over ten years to see what other ideas emerge. 3. Institutions and libraries can think creatively to do the following: a. Combine technological and “cutting edge” librarianship with diversity librarianship. We should not have to choose between technological focus and a diversity focus: both are future oriented and work well together. Open access projects are a good example, as are digital/data curation roles and media/digital literacy efforts. So many communities in crisis are finding that they need social media and digital curation skills to capture the digital culture emerging around issues such as #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName. b. Infuse more flexibility in hiring practices, more agility, risk-taking, and commitment. As Warner suggested, “This might mean paying a little more money to hire a person of color whose credentials are slightly higher than what we were looking for, or setting aside a little more staff time to train a person of color whose credentials were slightly lower than what we were looking for” (2001, 170). Warner also suggested mentoring programs, promotion opportunities for librarians of color, and “on-going anti-racist training” (170). Similarly, Brook, Ellenwood, and Lazzaro make helpful suggestions that can be greatly expanded (2015, 268–69). These measures are not a burden. What a rare opportunity to hire, retain, and promote us! 4. Individuals in work environments can do the following: a. Move from microaggressions to microaffections. It’s up to every librarian to break the affective implications of whiteness in the workplace. There’s been talk and writing of late on microaggressions in librarianship (Wheeler 2016; Alabi 2015a, 2015b), with an extensive website—Microaggressions in Librarianship (http://lismicroaggressions.tumblr.com)—dedicated to documenting examples. While it’s important for librarians to have awareness of the microaggressions they commit, in order to decenter whiteness in libraries, all librarians can engage microaffections toward librarians of color. Burklo (2015) defines a microaffection as “a subtle but endearing or comforting comment or action directed at others that is often unintentional or unconsciously affirms their worth and dignity, without any hint of condescension.” Even though the aim is for these actions to come spontaneously, it would take some commitment and thinking about the behavior and culture that many librarians have assumed is the default in order to move into this more affective and effective mode: “The cultivation of microaffection: priming ourselves for moments when, spontaneously, we go out of our way to make others feel like they are dignified, respectable, truly beloved members of society. It takes forethought in order to be able to offer kindness without fore-thought” [End Page 158] (Burklo 2015). Many microaffections took place between Espinal and Sutherland and between Espinal and Roh, and a look at the list-servs and social media spaces of librarians of color will find many examples of encouraging and loving interactions that create loving environments. But microaffections between librarians of color are not enough to make libraries hospitable to POC. Librarians of color need their white colleagues to step up, to perform small acts that demonstrate understanding and moment-by-moment allyship. Coogan writes that “affection probably scales up and permeates social networks in the same way that aggression does, if not more so. At least to the extent that microaggression can crush, microaffection can liberate” (2016). b. Educate themselves about whiteness via readings, workshops, and lectures as a part of their professional development and civic responsibility. In short, we need to implement big, bold programs to diversity our profession. Based on recent statistics (Bourg 2014), we would need 11,640 more African American librarians than the 6,160 we have currently to make the profession representative of the African American population. Similarly while the US population is 17 percent Latino, the population of librarians is only 3 percent Latino; to bridge that gap, we’d need 16,512 more Latino librarians than the 3,661 that we now have. We’d need 3,029 more Asian Pacific/Islander librarians than we currently have, and 1,239 more Native American librarians (we currently only have 185)! And if two-thirds of MLIS degrees are earned by white students and one-third of all librarians are POC, as noted in a recent review of the ALISE statistics (2014), we definitely don’t see numbers like this represented in our libraries. Where are all the librarians of color? The list of things to do may be daunting, and for good reason: it’s no easy task to upturn the entrenched system of white supremacy that permeates every part of our culture. To acknowledge this problem in our beloved profession of librarianship is not easy, and to change it is to acknowledge this problem in each of us, in our hearts and minds. Certainly, none of us are perfect, and every one of us can perhaps think back to a cringe-worthy moment where we misstepped culturally. But we ask that rather than stagnating in discouragement, apathy, or procrastination, we engage together in a radical transformation as to how we perceive and act toward each other. White librarians in particular: reach out to your colleagues of color, reach out of yourselves and toward another person, toward another culture, another way of doing things. We struggle with how to get white librarians to see themselves in whiteness and perpetuators of whiteness, without getting defensive, or shedding “white tears.” Decenter whiteness by decentering the white experience. Those of us, librarians of color, who [End Page 159] are here already in the profession need outreach too. Some of us have been in these battles for decades already, and we are tired. Library administrators across the country can reach out to the librarians of color within their own institutions. Let us know that we are supported. Show us. Ask what can you do for us. When it comes to diversity in libraries, we are the “customers” too. Everything that is asked of us with regards to how we serve and work with students and faculty in an academic library or with community members and organizations in a public library should also be offered to us. Black Librarians Matter. Latinx Librarians Matter. Indigenous Librarians Matter. Asian Librarians Matter. Librarians of Color Matter. We matter. Our mental health matters. Our careers matter. Love us. Love librarians of color. Don’t just tolerate us. Love us and celebrate us. In our conversations, we did share when white colleagues reached out to us with affection or positive recognition or moments of inclusion that did not demand assimilation. They stood out to us as radical, much-needed acts, but isolated ones. We need more of those moments, rather than complacency in the face of injustice. There are concrete actions every librarian can do. Isabel EspinalDr. Isabel Espinal is the librarian to the Afro-American Studies; Anthropology; Latino Studies; Native American & Indigenous Studies; and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies departments at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A past president of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, she has written and given presentations on whiteness and diversity in librarianship, Latinos, information literacy, the climate crisis and libraries, and Latino literature, among other topics. Tonia SutherlandDr. Tonia Sutherland is assistant professor of library and information studies at the University of Hawaii. Global in scope and decolonial in nature, Suther land’s research and teaching focus on community engagement and entanglements of technology and culture. Charlotte RohCharlotte Roh is the scholarly communications librarian at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit university next to Golden Gate Park with a social justice mission. This allows her to work at the intersection of social justice, scholarly communication, and information literacy. 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doi-org-12	----	Doing neoliberal things with words in libraries: Toward emending a discourse fashion in LIS | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search Doing neoliberal things with words in libraries: Toward emending a discourse fashion in LIS John Buschman (Department of University Libraries, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA) Journal of Documentation ISSN: 0022-0418 Publication date: 10 July 2017 Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to flesh out a truncated line of analysis in library and information science (LIS) of language analyses of power in the field. Design/methodology/approach Literature-based conceptual analysis of the problems engendered by neoliberalism in LIS and the productive approach of language analysis of Austin, Habermas, and Smith that allows us to account for neoliberalism’s effects in language and practices – doing things with words. Findings LIS has engaged a productive postmodern analysis of power relations that reflects social and economic progress, but Austin, Habermas, and Smith offer a sensible, practical explanation for the operation of neoliberal hegemony on the practices of librarianship. Originality/value Postmodern analyses are now being deployed in portions of LIS, but they fail to account for the full implications of the dominant public language (and policy and practices) of neoliberalism for librarianship. This is productive exploration of those implications to correct and round out those analyses. Keywords Neoliberalism Higher education Theory Librarianship Academic librarianship Dorothy Smith Educational neoliberalism J.L. Austin Jürgen Habermas Citation Buschman, J. (2017), "Doing neoliberal things with words in libraries: Toward emending a discourse fashion in LIS", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 73 No. 4, pp. 595-617. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2016-0134 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. Rent from Deepdyve If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited Services Authors Opens in new window Editors Opens in new window Librarians Opens in new window Researchers Opens in new window Reviewers Opens in new window About About Emerald Opens in new window Working for Emerald Opens in new window Contact us Opens in new window Publication sitemap Policies and information Privacy notice Site policies Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window COVID-19 policy Opens in new window × Support & Feedback Manage cookies We’re listening — tell us what you think Something didn’t work… Report bugs here All feedback is valuable Please share your general feedback Member of Emerald Engage? You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here. You can also find out more about Emerald Engage. Join us on our journey Platform update page Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates Questions & More Information Answers to the most commonly asked questions here 
doi-org-1331	----	Occupying a ‘third space’: research trained professional staff in Australian universities | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Published: 22 November 2009 Occupying a ‘third space’: research trained professional staff in Australian universities Judith E. Berman1 & Tim Pitman1   Higher Education volume 60, pages157–169(2010)Cite this article 673 Accesses 26 Citations 9 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract Despite the expansion and professionalisation of university administration over the past 20 years there has been no scholarly study on the extent to which universities, which promote the value of generic skills from research degrees to prospective research students and their employers, capitalize on the research and transferable skills of PhD graduates later employed in the university sector as professional staff. Findings from this study of research-trained professional staff at one research-intensive Australian university suggests that these professionals are using their research and generic skills in management roles, to the benefit of the university. In the context of the knowledge based economy, this study suggests that universities could benefit from actively targeting the products of their own system for professional roles. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 99 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions References Aanerud, R., Homer, L., Nerad, M., & Cerny, J. (2006). Paths and perceptions. In P. L. Maki & N. A. 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Accessed 2 Dec 2008. Whitchurch, C. (2006a). Professional managers in UK higher education: Preparing for complex futures. Interim report, London: Leadership foundation of higher education, research and development series, 1–23. http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research.html Accessed March 2008. Whitchurch, C. (2008). Beyond administration and management: reconstructing the identities of professional staff in UK higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management, 30(4), 375–386. Article  Google Scholar  Download references Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the respondents who generously set aside time to respond to our survey question. Author information Affiliations Research Services M459, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia Judith E. Berman & Tim Pitman Authors Judith E. BermanView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Tim PitmanView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Judith E. Berman. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Berman, J.E., Pitman, T. Occupying a ‘third space’: research trained professional staff in Australian universities. High Educ 60, 157–169 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9292-z Download citation Published: 22 November 2009 Issue Date: August 2010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9292-z Keywords Professional and general staff Generic and transferable skills Research training Higher education policy Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. 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doi-org-158	----	The horizontal and vertical fragmentation of academic work and the challenge for academic governance and leadership | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Published: 15 February 2013 The horizontal and vertical fragmentation of academic work and the challenge for academic governance and leadership Glen A. Jones1   Asia Pacific Education Review volume 14, pages75–83(2013)Cite this article 1031 Accesses 24 Citations 16 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract Academic work has become increasingly fragmented. The horizontal fragmentation of the profession into disciplinary tribes has been accompanied by the increasing participation of student affairs and educational development professionals located outside the academic units but are actively engaged in academic work, such as supporting teaching and student learning. An increasing vertical fragmentation of academic work has recently occurred within academic units with the increasing employment of contract university teachers and research assistants. In Canada, horizontal and vertical fragmentations have occurred while universities and strong faculty unions have protected the “traditional” tenure-stream professoriate. Drawing on recent research, the author argues that these Canadian full-time faculties have high levels of job satisfaction and are well-remunerated, productive scholars. Maintaining the status and the supportive working conditions of the full-time, tenure-stream professoriate has largely been accomplished through labor cost efficiencies created by the increasing use of part-time, contractual university teachers, now frequently represented by labor unions that are distinct from their full-time peers. This article discusses the challenges for academic governance and leadership associated with this increasing fragmentation of academic work in the context of the “global” university. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 99 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions Fig. 1 Notes 1.For a thoughtful analysis of these differences in the case of France, Germany, and the United States, see Musselin 2010. 2.Although the president is appointed by the board at most Canadian universities, a number of French-language universities in Quebec elect the rector. 3.Not any cause can be used as a ground; the circumstances leading to dismissal have to involve quite extreme forms of misconduct. 4.The Canadian research team was led by Amy Metcalfe and included Donald Fisher, Yves Gingras, Glen A. Jones, and Kjell Rubenson. Additional information on the methodology employed in the Canadian component can be found in Metcalfe et al. (2011). 5.The strike at York University in 2008–2009 is a good example. The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3,903, representing the interests of 3,000 contract faculty, teaching assistants, and research assistants, went on strike in November 2008. The University canceled almost all courses during this 85-day labor dispute. The strike ended when the Government of Ontario passed a legislation forcing employees to return to work. References Acker, S. (2003). The concerns of Canadian women academics: Will faculty shortages make things better or worse? McGill Journal of Education, 38(3), 391–405. Google Scholar  Acker, S., & Armenti, C. (2004). Sleepless in academia. Gender and Education, 16(1), 3–24. Article  Google Scholar  Altbach, P. G. (2000). The changing academic workplace: Comparative perspectives. Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College Center for International Higher Education. Google Scholar  Altbach, P. G., Yudkevich, M., Reisberg, L., Pacheco, I. & Androushchak, A. (Eds.) (2012), (In press). Paying the professoriate: A global comparison of compensation and contracts. New York: Routledge. Baldridge, J. V., Curtis, D. V., Ecker, G. P., & Riley, G. L. (1986). Alternative models of governance in higher education. In M. W. Peterson (Ed.), ASHE reader on organization and governance in higher education (3rd ed., pp. 22–27). Lexington: Ginn Press. Google Scholar  Becher, T. (1989). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the cultures of disciplines. Milton Keynes, U.K.: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press. Google Scholar  Boyko, L. (2009). An examination of academic department chairs in Canadian universities. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto. Boyko, L., & Jones, G. A. (2010). The roles and responsibilities of middle management (Chairs and Deans) in Canadian universities. In V. L. Meek, L. Goedegebuure, R. Santiago, & T. Carvalho (Eds.), The changing dynamics of higher education middle management (pp. 83–102). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Google Scholar  CAUT. (2011). CAUT almanac of post-secondary education. Ottawa: Canadian Association of University Teachers. Google Scholar  Cavalli, A., & Moscati, R. (2010). Academic systems and professional conditions in five European countries. European Review, 18(1), 35–53. Article  Google Scholar  Clark, B. R. (1963). Faculty organization and authority. In T. Lunsford (Ed.), The study of academic administration. Boulder: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Google Scholar  Dobbie, D., & Robinson, I. (2008). Reorganizing higher education in the United States and Canada: The erosion of tenure and the unionization of contingent faculty. Labour Studies Journal, 33(1), 117–140. Google Scholar  Dobson, I. R., Goedegebuure, L., & Meek, V. L. (Eds.), Job satisfaction around the academic the world. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Enders, J., & Musselin, C. (2008). Back to the future? The academic professions in the 21st century. Higher Education to 2030 (vol. 1: Demography) (pp. 125–150) Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Finkelstein, M. (2003). The morphing of the American academic profession. Liberal education, Fall. Association of American colleges and Universities. www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-fa03/le-sfa03feature.cfm. Finkelstein, M. (2010). Diversification in the academic workforce: The case of the US and implications for Europe. European Review, 18(1), 141–156. Article  Google Scholar  Gould, E. (2006). Professor or knowledge worker? The politics of defining faculty work. Higher Education in Europe, 31(3), 241–250. Article  Google Scholar  Gravestock, P. (2011). Does teaching matter? The role of teaching in the tenure policies of Canadian universities. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto. Gravestock, P., Greenleaf, E., & Jones, G. A. (2009). Defining academic work: An analysis of faculty tenure and promotion policies in Canadian universities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian society for the study of higher education. Ottawa, May 25–27, 2009. Horn, M. (1999). Academic freedom in Canada: A history. 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Androushchak, & I. F. Pacheco (Eds.), Paying the professoriate: A global comparison of compensation and contracts (pp. 83–93). New York: Routledge. Google Scholar  Jones, G. A., Weinrib, J., Metcalfe, A. S., Fisher, D., Rubenson, K., & Snee, I. (2012). Academic work in Canada: Perceptions of early career academics. Higher Education Quarterly, 66(2), 189–206. Article  Google Scholar  Locke, W., & Teichler, U. (Eds.). (2007). The changing conditions for academic work and careers in select countries. Werkstattberichte 66, Kassel, Germany: International Centre for Higher Education Research. Google Scholar  Macfarlane, B. (2011). The morphing of academic practice: Unbundling and the rise of the para-academic. Higher Education Quarterly, 65(1), 59–73. Article  Google Scholar  Metcalfe, A. S., Fisher, D., Rubenson, K., Snee, I., Gingras, Y., & Jones, G. A. (2011). Canada: Perspectives on governance and management. In W. Locke, W. K. Cummings, & D. Fisher (Eds.), Governance and management of higher education institutions: Perspectives of the academy (pp. 151–174). Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar  Musselin, C. (2010). The market for academics. London: Routledge. Google Scholar  Muzzin, L. (2009). Equity, ethics, academic freedom and the employment of contingent academics. Academic Matters, May 2009, 19–22. Rajagopal, I. (2002). Hidden academics: Contract faculty in Canadian universities. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Google Scholar  Rumbly, L., Pacheco, I., & Altbach, P. (2008). International comparison of academic salaries. Boston: Centre for International Higher Education, Boston College. Google Scholar  Trowler, P., Saunders, M., & Bamber, V. (Eds.). (2012). Tribes and territories in the 21st century: Rethinking the significance of disciplines in higher education. London: Routledge. Google Scholar  Tudivor, N. (1999). Universities for sale: Resisting corporate control over Canadian higher education. Toronto: James Lorimer and Company. Google Scholar  Weinrib, J., Jones, G., Metcalfe, A. S., Fisher, D., Gingras, Y., Rubenson, K., & Snee, I. (2012). Canada: Canadian university academics’ perceptions of job satisfaction—“…the future is not what it used to be.” In P. J. Bentley, H. Coates, I. R. Dobson, L. Goedegebuure, & V. L. Meek (Eds.), Job satisfaction around the academic world. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Download references Author information Affiliations University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Glen A. Jones Authors Glen A. JonesView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Glen A. Jones. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Jones, G.A. The horizontal and vertical fragmentation of academic work and the challenge for academic governance and leadership. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 14, 75–83 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9251-3 Download citation Published: 15 February 2013 Issue Date: March 2013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9251-3 Keywords Academic work Academic profession University governance Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 99 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions Advertisement Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips Switch Edition Academic Edition Corporate Edition Home Impressum Legal information Privacy statement California Privacy Statement How we use cookies Manage cookies/Do not sell my data Accessibility Contact us Not logged in - 40.76.139.33 Not affiliated Springer Nature © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature. 
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doi-org-2473	----	Making Strategic Decisions: Conducting and Using Research on the Impact of Sequenced Library Instruction | Lundstrom | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Authors Kacy Lundstrom is Coordinator of Library Instruction, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, e-mail: kacy.lundstrom@usu.edu; Pamela Martin is Outreach and Peer Learning Librarian, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, e-mail: pamela.martin@usu.edu; Dory Cochran is Reference & Instruction Librarian, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, e-mail: dory.cochran@usu.edu. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 77, No 2 (2016) > Lundstrom Making Strategic Decisions: Conducting and Using Research on the Impact of Sequenced Library Instruction Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela Martin, Dory Cochran Abstract This study explores the relationship between course grades and sequenced library instruction interventions throughout psychology students’ curriculum. Researchers conducted this study to inform decisions about sustaining and improving program integrations for first- and second-year composition courses and to improve discipline-level integrations. Researchers began with transcript analysis but soon incorporated student surveys and a faculty focus group to supplement the data and influence future directions. Findings confirmed that students benefit from meaningful collaborations with the library at strategic, sequenced points in their curriculum, including at the discipline level. This research also provided concrete information that brought about change at the classroom and programmatic level. Full Text: PDF DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.2.212 Copyright © 2016 Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela Martin, and Dory Cochran, Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC 3.0. Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 2 February: 4 March: 2 April: 4 May: 3 June: 2 July: 5 August: 1 September: 2 October: 4 November: 3 2019 January: 18 February: 1 March: 5 April: 6 May: 1 June: 4 July: 6 August: 4 September: 5 October: 17 November: 3 December: 4 2018 January: 5 February: 2 March: 3 April: 3 May: 8 June: 5 July: 2 August: 3 September: 8 October: 8 November: 3 December: 4 2017 April: 2 May: 40 June: 5 July: 4 August: 5 September: 7 October: 6 November: 5 December: 7 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
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doi-org-3545	----	Jumping Into The Deep: Imposter Syndrome, Defining Success and the New Librarian | Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research Quick jump to page content Main Navigation Main Content Sidebar Register Login Toggle navigation Current Archives Announcements About About the Journal Submissions Editorial Team Contact Search Home Archives Vol 12 No 1 (2017) Conference Spotlight Jumping Into The Deep: Imposter Syndrome, Defining Success and the New Librarian Article Sidebar PDF Published: Aug 23, 2017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v12i1.3979 Keywords: imposter syndrome, new librarians Main Article Content Sajni Lacey UBC Okanagan Melanie Parlette-Stewart Abstract This article is adapted from a presentation given at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference, held in Toronto, Ontario, February 1-4, 2017. This presentation brought together 80+ participants, ranging from students to early- and mid-career professionals. The goals of this presentation were to recognize and build a shared understanding of how library and information professionals experience imposter syndrome. Through personal experience and research, ideas of imposter syndrome are explored through the lens of new librarians. This discussion included competition in the job market, burnout rates, and social media. Through experience and research, we aimed to share tips and tools for managing and examining imposter syndrome. Cet article est une adaptation d’une présentation donnée à la Super Conference de l’Ontario Library Association à Toronto, Ontario du 1er au 4 février 2017. Cette présentation a été offerte à un groupe de plus de 80 participants composés d’étudiants ainsi que des professionnels en début et à la mi-carrière. Elle avait comme but de reconnaître et de favoriser une compréhension commune au sein des bibliothécaires et professionnels de l’information vivant le syndrome de l’imposteur. Par le biais d’expériences professionnelles et de la recherche, les idées sur le syndrome de l’imposteur sont examinées du point de vue des nouveaux bibliothécaires. Cette discussion portait sur la compétition sur le marché du travail, les taux d’épuisement professionnel et les médiaux sociaux. Grâce aux expériences et à la recherche, nous voulions partager des stratégies et des outils pour gérer et examiner le syndrome de l’imposteur. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Article Details How to Cite Lacey, S., & Parlette-Stewart, M. (2017). Jumping Into The Deep: Imposter Syndrome, Defining Success and the New Librarian. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v12i1.3979 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Issue Vol 12 No 1 (2017) Section Conference Spotlight This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. As a condition of publication in Partnership, all authors agree to the following terms of licensing/copyright ownership: First publication rights to original work accepted for publication is granted to Partnership but copyright for all work published in the journal is retained by the author(s). Works published in Partnership will be distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Authors grant permission for their work to be indexed in full text form in commercial indexes and non-commercial indexes. This may include but is not limited to, indexes such as Proquest, EBSCO, Erudit etc. Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Partnership. It will be the responsibility of the authors to secure all necessary copyright permissions for the use of 3rd-party materials in their manuscript. Authors will be required to provide written evidence of this permission upon acceptance of their manuscript. Authors agree their abstracts may be translated into French.  Note: This license applies to all works published after February 1, 2016. Articles published before this date are under CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Open Journal Systems Usage Statistics Information We log anonymous usage statistics. Please read the privacy information for details. Language English Français (Canada) Information For Readers For Authors For Librarians Current Issue Contact us anytime to discuss your ideas and works-in-progress. Follow @partnershipj on Twitter Google Scholar profile   
doi-org-4070	----	Writing Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Research Synthesis | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Original Paper Published: 05 March 2019 Writing Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Research Synthesis Amy L. Accardo1 , Elizabeth G. Finnegan2 , S. Jay Kuder3 & Estyr M. Bomgardner4   Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 50, pages1988–2006(2020)Cite this article 1420 Accesses 4 Citations 12 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract Building on previous research in the area of written expression for individuals with ASD a research synthesis was conducted to identify (1) writing interventions that have been studied and their effect in improving writing skills of individuals with ASD, (2) intervention features that influence the writing skills of learners with ASD, and (3) the quality of the research. A total of 62 participants were represented across the 24 single case design studies meeting inclusion criteria. Nine interventions emerged with a majority focused on self-regulated strategy development. Effective interventions (PND above 70%) are reported, along with the emergent feature of “packages” using co-occurring combinations of visual, motivational, choice, technology, behavioral, peer, auditory, and tactile supports in conjunction with writing interventions. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 199 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions References References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the research synthesis * Asaro-Saddler, K. (2014). Self-regulated strategy development: Effects on writers with autism spectrum disorders. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 78–91. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23880656. Asaro-Saddler, K. (2016). Writing instruction and self-regulation for students with autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review of the literature. Topics in Language Disorders, 36(3), 266–283. https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000093. Article  Google Scholar  * Asaro-Saddler, K., & Bak, N. (2012). Teaching children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders to write persuasive essays. Topics in Language Disorders, 32(4), 361–378. https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0b013e318271813f. Article  Google Scholar  * Asaro-Saddler, K., & Bak, N. (2014). 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Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 551–560. Download references Funding No funding/financial support was given for this research. Author information Affiliations College of Education, Rowan University, 3050 James Hall, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA Amy L. Accardo School of Education, St. Thomas Aquinas College, 125 Route 340, Sparkill, NY, 10976, USA Elizabeth G. Finnegan College of Education, Rowan University, 3058 James Hall, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA S. Jay Kuder College of Education, CASE Center, Rowan University, James Hall, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA Estyr M. Bomgardner Authors Amy L. AccardoView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Elizabeth G. FinneganView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar S. Jay KuderView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Estyr M. BomgardnerView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Contributions ALA and EGF conceived of the research synthesis. ALA carried out the synthesis collaboration and drafting of the manuscript. EGF participated in literature review, article review and findings. EMB participated in coding, article review and findings. SJK participated as methodologist taking lead calculating PND. All authors read and approved of the final manuscript. Corresponding author Correspondence to Amy L. Accardo. Ethics declarations Conflict of interest All authors report there is no conflict of interest. Ethical Approval All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed Consent It was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Additional information Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Accardo, A.L., Finnegan, E.G., Kuder, S.J. et al. Writing Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Research Synthesis. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 1988–2006 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03955-9 Download citation Published: 05 March 2019 Issue Date: June 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03955-9 Keywords Autism spectrum disorder Writing Instruction Research synthesis Autism Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 199 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. 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doi-org-3736	----	Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018 | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018 Download PDF Download PDF Research Article Open Access Published: 06 August 2019 Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018 John Hilton III  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4455-11251   Educational Technology Research and Development volume 68, pages853–876(2020)Cite this article 12k Accesses 8 Citations 217 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract Although textbooks are a traditional component in many higher education contexts, their increasing price have led many students to forgo purchasing them and some faculty to seek substitutes. One such alternative is open educational resources (OER). This present study synthesizes results from sixteen efficacy and twenty perceptions studies involving 121,168 students or faculty that examine either (1) OER and student efficacy in higher education settings or (2) the perceptions of college students and/or instructors who have used OER. Results across these studies suggest students achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER while saving significant amounts of money. The results also indicate that the majority of faculty and students who have used OER had a positive experience and would do so again. Introduction For better or worse, the textbook remains a staple in American education. The literature regarding the use of textbooks and other curriculum materials is extensive and complex. Crawford and Snider (2000) argue that curriculum materials are a vital part of the educational enterprise, suggesting that the vast majority of classroom instruction is centered on textbooks. In contrast, Slavin and Lake’s (2008) synthesis of 87 mathematics curriculum studies indicates that instructional improvement had a larger impact on student performance than the choice of curriculum. Determining the efficacy of one set of curriculum materials relative to another is often difficult. For example, the National Research Council (2004) reviewed 698 peer-reviewed studies of nineteen different mathematics curriculum materials at the K-12 level (ages 5–18) and found that they were could not state which programs were most effective. The lack of clarity regarding the overall efficacy of textbooks is compounded by the fact that many students do not or cannot access commercial textbooks (CT), particularly in higher education because of their high cost. In many cases, students report not purchasing required CT and consequently underperforming academically (Florida Virtual Campus 2016). In addition to academic challenges, the high cost of CT is part of a larger problem college affordability connected with more than half of college students reporting some level of food insecurity (Broton and Goldrick-Rab 2018). Consequently, recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of open educational resources (OER), which are defined as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others” (Hewlett 2017). OER provide a no-cost alternative to CT, and may provide several material benefits to students. For example, a significant number of students who used OER reporting spending the money saved to purchase groceries (Ikahihifo et al. 2017). OER advocates argue that replacing CT with OER will benefit students financially and may improve their academic performance. Two key qualities faculty consider when selecting learning materials for their students are proven efficacy and trusted quality (Allen and Seaman 2014). Some have a perception that free textbooks equal lower quality textbooks and therefore lower learning outcomes (Kahle 2008), thus research has been performed to examine the quality and efficacy of OER. To examine research connected with these criteria, Hilton (2016) synthesized research regarding the relationship between OER use and student performance (proven efficacy) as well as student and faculty perceptions of OER (trusted quality). He identified a total of sixteen OER efficacy and perceptions studies had been published between 2002 (the year the term “Open Educational Resources” was coined) and August, 2015. I next review key findings from this study. OER efficacy and perceptions research in higher education between 2002 and 2015 Of the sixteen articles identified by Hilton (2016), nine investigated the relationship between OER and learning outcomes, providing a collective 46,149 student participants. Only one of these nine studies indicated OER use was associated with lower learning outcomes at a higher rate than with positive outcomes, and even this study found that in general, the use of OER resulted in non-significant differences. Three of the nine studies had results that significantly favored OER over traditional textbooks, another three revealed no significant difference and two did not discuss the statistical significance of their findings. One challenge with these seemingly positive findings is that several of the studies have serious methodological issues. For example, Feldstein et al. (2012) compares courses that use OER with different courses that are not using OER. This introduces so many confounding variables that it is questionable whether any differences in the course outcomes are attributable to OER. Similarly, Pawlyshyn et al. (2013) reported dramatic improvement when OER was adopted; however, the OER adoption came simultaneously with flipped classrooms, making it difficult to correlate changing efficacy and OER. These critiques have been raised by other researchers (Gurung 2017; Griggs and Jackson 2017). With respect to student and faculty perceptions, Hilton (2016) synthesized the perceptions of 4510 students and faculty members surveyed across nine separate studies. Not once did students or faculty state that OER were less likely than commercial textbooks to aid student learning. Overall, roughly half of students and faculty noted OER to be analogous to traditional resources, a sizeable minority considered them to be superior, and a much smaller minority found them to be inferior. The present study continues where Hilton (2016) left off, by identifying, analyzing, and synthesizing the results of every efficacy and perceptions study published between September 2015 and December 2018. The research questions are as follows: 1.Has there been an increase in the number of published research studies on the perceptions and efficacy of OER? 2.What are the collective findings regarding the efficacy of OER in higher education between September 2015 and December 2018? 3.What are the collective findings regarding student and faculty perceptions of OER in higher education between September 2015 and December 2018? 4.What are the aggregated findings regarding OER efficacy and perceptions between 2002 and 2018? Method The methodology in the present study largely follows that utilized by Hilton (2016). Five criteria were used to determine inclusion in this research synthesis. First, OER were the primary learning resource used in a higher education setting and had some type of comparison made between them and CT. Second, the research was published by a peer-reviewed journal, part of an institutional research report, or a graduate thesis or dissertation. Third, the study included results related to either student efficacy or faculty and/or student perceptions of OER. Fourth, the study had at least 50 participants. Finally, the study needed to have been written in English, and be published between October of 2015 and December of 2018. Articles that were published online in 2018 but part of 2019 journal publications were not included. Potential articles to be included in the synthesis were identified for inclusion based on the following three approaches. As demonstrated by Harzing and Alakangas (2016), Google Scholar provides more comprehensive coverage than similar database such as Web of Science or Scopus; therefore, I used Google Scholar to identify every article that cited any of the sixteen studies included in Hilton (2016), and was published between 2015 and 2018. This led to 788 potential articles, each of which was reviewed to verify whether it met the five criteria listed in the previous paragraph. I also searched Proquest Dissertations and Theses looking up the key word “Open Educational Resources” between October 2015 and December 2018 which produced 314 results. These were likewise reviewed to determine whether they met the study parameters. Finally, I communicated with researchers who published on OER related topics regarding any additional studies they were aware of. The result of these approaches is the 29 studies discussed in the present study. Results Number of published studies Between 2002 and August of 2015, seven OER efficacy studies, seven OER perceptions and two studies measuring both OER efficacy and perceptions were published (sixteen total studies). Between September 2015 and December 31, 2018, an additional nine OER efficacy studies, thirteen OER perceptions and seven OER efficacy and perceptions studies were published (twenty-nine total studies). This illustrates a rapid rise in research related to OER efficacy and perceptions with more published studies in the past 3 years than the previous fifteen. This rise is summarized in Figs. 1, 2. Fig. 1 OER efficacy studies published 2008–2018 Full size image Fig. 2 OER perceptions studies published 2008–2018 Full size image Collective findings from efficacy research between 2015 and 2018 Sixteen efficacy studies that met the aforementioned criteria were published between September 2015 and December 2018, containing a total of 114,419 students. The number of participants, in some respects, is deceptively large, as some of the studies [e.g., Wiley et al. (2016) and Hilton et al. (2016)] contained large overall populations but only a small portion of students who used OER. In total 27,710 students across these studies used OER and 86,709 used CT. The following paragraphs provide a brief overview of each of these OER efficacy studies, organized by how the study controlled for teacher and student differences. No controls for teacher or student differences Four studies did not make any attempt to control for teacher or student differences. Essentially two different methodologies were employed, each in two articles. Utilizing a methodology that compares student success metrics of students based on whether they use a CT or OER, Wiley et al. (2016) analyzed the rate at which students at Tidewater Community College dropped courses during the add/drop period at the start of a semester. They found that were students .8% less likely to drop courses when utilizing OER. Although the difference was small, it was statistically significant. Hilton et al. (2016) followed Wiley et al. (2016) by reviewing two additional semesters of OER adoption at Tidewater Community College. Their data set included those from Wiley et al. (2016) for a total of 45,237 students, 2014 of whom used OER. They compared drop, withdrawal and passing rates based on whether students used OER or CT. They found that when combining drop, withdrawal and passing rates, students who used OER were about 6% more likely to complete the class with credit than their peers who did not use OER (6.6% in the face to face courses and 5.6% in online courses). A separate methodology examined faculty reports of OER implementation. Croteau (2017) examined twenty-four datasets involving 3847 college students in Georgia who used OER. These datasets came from faculty members reporting on the results they obtained from this OER adoption. Unfortunately, the data was inconsistent—some faculty provided completion rates, while others reported on grade distributions or other metrics. In total, instructors provided pre/post efficacy measures for 27 courses. Across the faculty reports, there were “twenty-four data sets for DFW [drop, failure, withdrawal] rates, eight data sets for completion rate, fourteen data sets for grade distribution, three data sets reported for final exam grades, three data sets reported for course specific assessment and one data set reported for final grades” (p. 97). While results varied across sections (e.g., with respect to DFW data, 11 sections favored CT, 12 sections favored OER, one unchanged) across each of these metrics there were no overall statistical differences in results when comparing pre and post OER. Similar to Croteau (2017), Ozdemir and Hendricks (2017) examined the reports of multiple faculty who had adopted OER. In total, 28 faculty provided some type of evaluation regarding the impact of adopting an open textbook on student learning outcomes; however, their metrics varied widely, and Ozdemir and Hendricks did not report the total number of students involved (clearly it was more than 50; however because it was not specified I have put “not provided” in Table 1). Twenty instructors reported that learning outcomes had improved because of using open textbooks, and eight said that there was no difference. Of the twenty who said that learning outcomes had improved, nine measured provided data such as improved scores on exams or assignments, or improved course grades overall. Eight provided no data or explanation to support their claims that student learning had improved, and three only provided anecdotal evidence. Fourteen instructors described student retention in their reports; eight said student retention improved with six stating that it remained the same. Like Croteau (2017), this study provides a valuable synthesis of instructor self-reports on the outcomes of using OER in their classes; however, as noted by the authors, there was little rigor or control in the instructor reporting process, limiting the value of the overall study. Studies that accounted for teacher, but not student variables Five studies accounted for teacher, but not student variables. The design of each study was similar in that the same faculty member taught the identical course (to control for teacher variables), in some instances with OER and others with a CT. Researchers used student efficacy outcomes as the dependent variables in these studies. Chiorescu (2017) examined the results of 606 students talking college algebra at a college in Georgia across four semesters. In spring 2014, fall 2014, and fall 2015 Chiorescu used a math CT, coupled with MyMathLab (an online software math supplement). In spring 2014 she used an OER textbook, coupled with WebAssign, a different online math supplement. Chiorescu found statistically significant differences in the percentages of students earning a C or better in the course between spring 2014 and spring 2015, favoring the use of OER. Similar results were noted between spring 2015 (OER) and fall 2015 (non-OER); however, there were no significant differences between spring 2015 (OER) and fall 2014 (non-OER). She also found that students were statistically more likely to receive an A when using OER and that students were approximately half as likely to withdraw from the class when using OER (also a statistically significant finding). In this study, unlike many others, the instructor went back to a CT after using OER, given that she found the online math component aligned to OER to be inferior to the online math component used in connection with the CT. She found that both grades and withdrawal rates that improved during the semester in which OER were used, regressed to their previous levels when OER stopped being utilized in the course. Using a similar design, Hendricks et al. (2017) examined the academic performance of students in an introductory physics course at the University of British Columbia. They compared the results of students between fall 2012 and spring 2015 (students used CT) with students in fall 2015–spring 2016 (students used OER). Concurrent with the change in textbooks were significant pedagogical changes, although the teachers stayed the same. There were 811 students in the OER semesters with a non-specified amount (estimated to be 2400) in the CT semesters. The researchers found no significant differences when comparing grade distributions; however, they found a small significant improvement in final exam score when comparing fall 2015 (OER) with fall 2014 and fall 2013. They also compared student scores on the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) for Physics, a common diagnostic measurement in physics education. A one-way ANOVA indicates that there were no significant differences when all categories were combined; however, there was a small negative shift in the problem-solving category during the year that OER were utilized. Choi and Carpenter (2017) examined the academic results across five semesters of students taking a class on Human Factors and Ergonomics with the same teacher. In two semesters students used CT (n = 114); in the other three they used OER (n = 175). Researchers measured differences in student learning based on midterm and final exam scores, as well as overall course grade. Midterm exam grades fluctuated widely, with significant differences both before and after the introduction of OER, with the tendency towards lower scores post-OER. In one of the three OER semesters final exam scores were lower than they had been in the CT semesters; there were no significant differences in the other two semesters. In terms of overall course grades, there were no significant differences. Lawrence and Lester (2018) used a similar design in an introductory American Government course, comparing two teachers who used CT in fall 2014 with these same teachers who used OER in spring 2015. Although the researchers do not specify the number of students in their study, based on the survey results they report, there were at least 162 students who took the class in fall of 2014 and 117 in spring of 2015. There were no statistically significant differences in course GPA average or DFW rates. Students who used OER did perform better for one of the two teachers studied; however, the authors attribute this change to policy changes regarding online classes. They conclude that their “findings do not support the notion that OERs represent a dramatic improvement over commercial texts, nor do they indicate that students perform substantially worse when using open content texts either” (p. 563). Ross et al. (2018) studied the use of the OpenStax Sociology textbook in an introductory Sociology course at the University of Saskatchewan. One instructor taught a sociology course with a CT in the 2015–2016 school year (n = 330), and then used an OpenStax textbook in the fall of 2016 (n = 404). The researchers found no significant differences in course grades between the two groups. However, students using CT had a completion rate of 80.3%, whereas students using OER completed at a rate of 85.3%, a statistically significant difference. Studies that accounted for student, but not teacher variables Three studies accounted for student, but not teacher differences. In each case, the study performed statistical analyses that controlled for student variables such as income, GPA, mother’s education, and/or ACT scores. Multiple teachers were involved in each study and there were no attempts to control for teacher variables. Westermann Juárez and Muggli (2017) examined the results of first year students enrolled in a mathematics class at an institution of higher education in Chile, notable in part for being the only study outside the United States and Canada to meet the criteria for inclusion in the present study. Students were in three different groups; one used a CT (n = 30), one used Kahn Academy videos (OER) (n = 35) and a third used an open textbook (OER) (n = 31). The researchers used propensity score matching to control for student age, family income and number of education years of the mother. When comparing student results using a CT versus Kahn Academy, the researchers found that students who used a CT had higher class attendance but scored lowered on the final exam. In contrast, those who used the open textbook scored lower on the final exam than students using a CT; there were no significant differences in class attendance. While there were differences between the instantiations of OER and CT in terms of attendance and final exam score, there were no differences between CT and OER in terms of overall course score. Grewe and Davis (2017) studied 146 students who attended Northern Virginia Community College. These students were enrolled in an online introductory history class in fall of 2013 (two sections used OER, two sections did not) or spring 2014 (three sections used OER, three did not). The authors gave the total number of students but did not specify the number of students per section, for analysis purposes in Table 1, I have assumed equal numbers of students in each section. While the online courses were all created from the same master template, different teachers administered the courses and may have had variations in how they responded in discussion forums, graded student work, etc. Researchers attempted to control for student differences by using prior student GPA as a covariate. They found “a moderately positive relationship between taking an OER course and academic achievement” and that even after accounting for prior GPA that “enrollment in an OER course was…a significant predictor of student grade achievement” (n.p). Gurung (2017) sent a Qualtrics survey to course instructors at seven institutions who in turn forwarded it to their students. In the first study reported in this article, 569 students from five institutions who used an electronic version of the NOBA Discovering Psychology OER responded to the survey. At the other two institutions, 530 students who used hard copies of one of two different CT responded. The survey asked students to share their ACT scores, study habits, use of the textbooks, behaviors demonstrated by their teachers, and then answer fifteen psychology questions drawn from the 2007 AP Psychology exam. When controlling for ACT scores, students who used OER scored 1.2 points (13%) lower than those who used CT. Gurung noted potential limitations of his first study included the fact that the OER textbooks were electronic compared with the hard-copy CT, and that the AP exam questions may have been more closely aligned to the CT. In the second study, Gurung rectified these issues by including students who used both hard and electronic copies of CT as well as hard and electronic copies of the NOBA OER. He also included ten quiz questions from the NOBA test bank. In this second study, 1447 students at four schools who used the open NOBA textbook responded to the survey; 782 students at two schools who used a CT responded. All other procedures and survey questions mirrored the first study. When comparing total quiz scores, there was an overall significant effect of the book used, favoring those who used the CT. However, when only the NOBA test bank items were used there were no significant differences, indicating alignment may be the reason for the difference between groups. In addition, there were no statistically significant differences when comparing the quiz scores of those who used an electronic version of OER versus those who used electronic version of a CT. There were also differences in quiz results between the two different schools that used commercial textbooks (each of which used a different CT). It may be that one CT was superior, or that the instruction at one institution was stronger, leading to the difference. Studies that accounted for student and teacher variables Four studies accounted for both student and teacher variables. Winitzky-Stephens and Pickavance (2017) assessed a large-scale OER adoption across 37 different courses in several general education subjects at Salt Lake Community college. In total, there were 7588 students who used OER compared with 26,538 students who used commercial materials. The researchers used multilevel modeling to control for course subject, course level, individual instructors, and student backgrounds (including age, gender, race, new/continuing student, and prior GPA). After accounting for these variables, they found that for continuing students, the use of OER was not a significant factor in student grade, pass rate or withdrawal rate. For new students, OER had a slight, positive impact on course grade, but not for pass or withdrawal rates. Colvard et al. (2018) performed a similar large-scale analysis by examining course-level faculty adoption of OER at the University of Georgia. They evaluated eight undergraduate courses that switched from CT to OpenStax OER textbooks between fall 2010 and fall 2016. In contrast to Winitzky-Stephens and Pickavance (2017), who used statistical controls to account for teacher variables, Colvard et al. (2018) only included sections where instructors had taught with both textbook versions. Researchers found statistically significant differences in grade distributions favoring OER. There was a 5.5% increase in A grades after OER adoption, a 7.7% increase in A-grades, and those receiving a D, F or W grade decreased by 2.7%. This study was also the first to specifically examine the interactions among different student populations. Researchers found an overall GPA increase of 6.90% increase for non-Pell recipients and an 11.0% increase for Pell recipients. Furthermore, OER adoption resulted in a 2.1% reduction in DFW grades for non-Pell eligible students versus a 4.4% reduction for Pell-eligible students, indicating that the OER effect was stronger for these students with greater financial needs. Non-white students similarly received higher grade boosts and decreased likelihood for withdrawals than did white students, although both groups showed better outcomes when using OER. The largest differential between student groups came in the comparison between full and part time students. Course grades improved by 3.2% for full-time students but jumped 28.1% for part-time students. The DFW rate for full-time students actually increased from 6.3 to 7.4%; however, the rate for part-time students dramatically dropped from 34.3 to 24.2%. One limitation of their approach was that results were only reported at an aggregate level because Pell eligibility data was only given to the researchers in aggregate (not by course or instructor level). This was a stipulation from the Financial Aid office in order to prevent any students from possibly being identified. While this is a reasonable limitation, it is possible that reporting results in aggregate masked or created differences that would not have been present had results been disaggregated. Jhangiani et al. (2018) attempted to control for both student variables (through demographic analysis and a pretest) and instructor variables (by using the same instructors) in their examination of seven sections of an introductory psychology class taught in Canada. Two sections were assigned digital OER, two were assigned the same OER, but in hardcopy format, and three were assigned a CT. Three different instructors taught the seven courses; one instructor taught back-to-back semesters, first with the print OER, then with the print CT. The other two instructors taught with either open or commercial, but not both. Students in all conditions had similar demographic variables and had equivalent knowledge of psychology at the start of the semester. Those using CT had completed more college credits, were taking fewer concurrent courses, and reported spending more time studying than those who used OER. Collectively, these indicators suggest that the two groups are roughly equivalent, with any differences favoring those in the CT condition. Students took three exams, identical for each section. When all sections were analyzed in a MANOVA, students assigned the digital open textbook performed significantly better than those who used the commercial textbook on the third of the three exams. There were no differences in the other two exams. When only the two sections taught by the same teacher were analyzed (to control for teacher bias), students using OER outperformed students using CT on one exam and there were no significant differences on the other two. Clinton (2018) used a similar approach to compare the overall class scores and withdrawals rates of students taking her introductory psychology classes across two semesters. She compared students 316 students using a CT in spring of 2016 with 204 students in who used the OpenStax Psychology textbook in fall of 2016. The demographic makeup of students, as well as their self-reports on how they used the textbooks were similar. When accounting for differences in student high school GPAs there was no grade impact connected with OER adoption. The number of students who withdrew during the OER semester was significantly lower than when CT were used, a difference that did not appear to be related to GPA. A summary of the OER efficacy research published between September 2015 and December 31, 2018 is provided in Table 1. Table 1 Summary of OER efficacy studies, 2015–2018Full size table Collective findings from perceptions research between 2015 and 2018 There were twenty OER perceptions studies published between September 2015 and December 2018, involving 10,807 students and 379 faculty. Six of these studies also included efficacy data, and thus were also identified as efficacy studies in the previous section. I next provide a brief overview of each of these perceptions studies, organized by two different types of studies. Fifteen of the twenty studies directly ask students to compare OER they have used with CT, and five compare student reports about the OER or CT they were currently using. Studies examining direct comparisons between OER and CT Pitt (2015) surveyed 127 educators who utilized OER, specifically materials from OpenStax College by putting a link to her survey in the OpenStax newsletter. Those who completed the survey had used ten different OpenStax textbooks. Sixty-four percent of faculty members reported that using OER facilitated meeting diverse learners’ needs and sixty-eight percent perceived greater student satisfaction with the learning experience when using OER. Delimont et al. (2016) surveyed 524 learners and thirteen faculty members across thirteen courses at Kansas State University regarding their experiences with both “open” and “alternative” resources (where alternative resources refer to free, but copyrighted materials). When students evaluated the statement, “I prefer using the open/alternative educational resource instead of buying a textbook for this course (1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree)” they rated it 5.7 (moderately agree). Twelve of the thirteen faculty members interviewed preferred teaching with OER and stated their perception that students learned better when using OER and alternative resources as opposed to CT. When asked to rate their experience with the open/alternative textbooks, faculty members rated it 6.5 on a 7 point scale. CA OER Council (2016) surveyed faculty and students at California community colleges and state universities who adopted OER in the fall of 2015. Seven of the sixteen surveyed faculty members felt that the OER were superior to CT they had used. Five faculty rated the OER as being equivalent to CT, with the remaining four rating it as worse. Faculty expressed concern regarding ancillary materials such as PowerPoints and test banks. Of the fourteen faculty members who responded to a question about the quality of ancillary materials, five felt the OER support materials had sufficient quality, three were neutral, and six faculty felt the materials lacked sufficient quality. When students (n = 351) were asked if the OER used were better than traditional resources, 42% rated OER as better, 39% as about the same, 11% as worse than CT and 8% declined to answer. All students in the study wanted to use OER textbooks in the future and stated they would recommend the use of OER to friends. Illowsky et al. (2016) surveyed 325 students in California who used two versions of an open statistics textbook. The first survey (n = 231) asked students about an earlier version of the OER. Fifty percent of students said if given the choice between courses using OER or CT they would choose to take future classes that used OER; 32% had no preference, with the remaining 19% preferring to enroll in courses with a printed CT. Twenty-five percent of students rated OER as better than CT, 62% as the same and 13% worse relative to CT. A second survey (n = 94) was given to students who used a later OpenStax version of the textbook with similar results. As stated in the efficacy section, Ozdemir and Hendricks (2017) studied 51 e-portfolios written by faculty in the state of California who used OER. They report, “The vast majority of faculty also reported that the quality of the textbooks was as good or better than that of traditional textbooks” (p. 98). Moreover, 40 of the 51 portfolios contained faculty insights regarding students’ attitudes towards the open textbooks; only 15% of these e-portfolios reported any negative student comments. Jung et al. (2017) surveyed 137 faculty members who used OpenStax textbooks. Sixty-two percent stated OpenStax textbooks had the same quality as traditional textbooks; 19% thought the quality was better, and 19% thought it was worse. Faculty were also specifically asked about the time they spent preparing the course after adopting an OpenStax text. Seventy-two percent of faculty stated they spent the same amount of time preparing to teach a course using open textbooks, 18% spent more and 10% spent less. Those who reported spending more time were asked if the extra amount of preparation time was acceptable and 78% said it was. Hendricks et al. (2017) surveyed 143 Physics students; 72% said the OER had the same quality as CT. An additional 21% said OER were better than CT and 7% said they were worse. Students were also asked to rate their agreement with the following statement: “I would have preferred to purchase a traditional textbook for this course rather than using the free online textbook.” 64% of respondents disagreed, 18% were neutral, and 18% agreed. The primary reason given for choosing OER was cost, and for choosing a traditional textbook was a preference for print materials. Jhangiani and Jhangiani (2017) surveyed 320 college students in British Columbia, registered in courses with an open textbook. Students were asked to rate the agreement with the question, “I would have preferred to purchase a traditional textbook for this course”; 41% strongly disagreed, with an additional 15% slightly disagreeing. Another 24% were neutral, with 20% either slightly or strongly agreeing. Cooney (2017) surveyed 67 and interviewed six students who were enrolled in a health psychology course at New York City College of Technology that used OER. Those interviewed had a favorable perspective of OER, commenting on both cost savings and convenience. Students who were surveyed clearly preferred OER to CT; 42% said they were much better, 39% somewhat better, 16% neutral, and only 3% somewhat or much worse. Ikahihifo et al. (2017) analyzed survey responses from 206 community college students in eleven courses that used OER. Students were asked, “On a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), how would you rate the quality of the OER material versus a textbook?” (n.p). A majority (55%) rated the OER as excellent relative to a CT. An additional 25% rated OER as being slightly better. 15% considered the two to be equal; 5% considered the quality of the OER material to be less than that of a traditional textbook. Watson et al. (2017) surveyed 1299 students at the University of Georgia who used the OpenStax biology textbook. A majority of students (64%) reported that the OpenStax book had approximately the same quality as traditional books and 22% said it had higher quality. Only 14% ranked it lower than traditional textbooks. The two most common things students mentioned in terms of why they liked the OpenStax book was the free cost and ease of access. Hunsicker-Walburn et al. (2018) surveyed 90 students at a community college who reported that they had used OER in lieu of a traditional textbook. While little detail was provided about the students, the courses, or the OER used, the results were similar to other studies in this genre. They found that 33% of these students said the quality of OER were better than traditional textbooks, 54% said they were the same with 12% stating OER were worse. Abramovich and McBride (2018) studied results from 35 college instructors and 662 students across 11 different courses and seven colleges. Each instructor replaced a CT with OER; students and instructors were surveyed to gauge their perceptions of the OER they used. In total, 86% of students rated OER either as useful or more useful than materials used in their other courses. Only 6% of students stated that the open textbooks rarely or never helped them meet their course objectives. Faculty were similarly positive about the educational value of OER; nearly every instructor rated the OER as being either equal (40%), a little more useful (23%) or much more useful (34%) than materials they had previously used. This left only 3% of instructors who felt that the OER were less useful than other materials. Ross et al. (2018) surveyed 129 students their experiences using the OpenStax Sociology textbook. Forty-six percent of students the OER were excellent relative to other textbooks, 27%, above average, 19% average, 6% below average, and 2% very poor. Most students (83%) said they would not have preferred purchasing a CT. The three features of the OER that students most appreciated were no-cost, immediate access and the convenience/portability of the digital format. Griffiths et al. (2018) performed the largest OER student perceptions to date as they surveyed 2350 students across 12 colleges in the United States. They asked students to compare the quality of the OER with the instructional materials they used in a typical class. Students responded as follows: OER were much lower quality (2%), slightly lower (5%), about the same (34%), slightly higher (29%), much higher (30%). Although this seems like an extremely strong statement regarding the quality of OER, it is tempered by the fact that students had similar patterns in how they rated other aspects of the class. For example, students who used OER were asked to rate the quality of teaching, compared to typical class, and stated that the quality of teaching in the class that used OER was much lower (2%), slightly lower (5%), about the same (36%), slightly higher (26%), and much higher (31%). Their overall class rating of the OER class compared to typical classes followed a similar pattern. While it is possible that the use of OER was so significant that the difference in instructional materials led to higher student perceptions of the teacher and overall course, it is equally likely that exceptionally strong faculty or courses colored their perceptions of the materials. It is also possible that students tend to have an overall positive experience in every class they take thus causing them to rate most classes as “better” than a typical class, even though this is not mathematically possible. Studies comparing ratings of OER and CT Gurung (2017), used a short version of the Textbook Assessment and Usage Scale (TAUS; Gurung and Martin 2011) to assess student perceptions of CT and OER. The TAUS is assesses different components of a textbook, such as study aids, visual appeal, examples, and so forth. Gurung (2017) asked students to rate the current textbook they were using (some subjects used OER and others used CT) and compared the results. In his first study, Gurung found CT users rated the total quality of their textbook as higher than those using an OER textbook. Further analyses showed this occurred because of differences in ratings on figures, photos and visual appeal. Students using OER rated the material as being more applicable to their lives. The results in Gurung’s second study were similar; however, additional details provided in the first study (e.g., indicating whether the overall differences stemmed from differences in ratings solely on visual appeal) were not included with the second study. Jhangiani et al. (2018) also used a modified version of the TAUS to compare how 178 university students in Canada rated the psychology textbooks that they used. Notably, three of the six questions they eliminated from the original TAUS to create their modified version were related to visual aspects of the materials. Some students used a print CT, while others used print OER or digital OER. Unlike Gurung (2017), statistical analyses of student surveys found that students rated the OER print book higher that the print CT on seven of the sixteen TAUS dimensions. There was no dimension where CT was higher rated than OER nor any significant differences between the CT and digital OER. Lawrence and Lester (2018) surveyed students regarding their use of US History textbooks. Contrary to many OER research studies, they found that students were more positive about the CT than the OER. Seventy-four percent of the 162 students who used the traditional textbook said that they were “overall satisfied with the book” versus 57% of the 117 people who used the open, a difference of 17% (279 total survey respondents). The researchers attribute these results to problems related to the specific OER used and believe the results would have been different had a more robust history OER textbook been available. Clinton (2018) surveyed students in two separate semesters regarding their opinions of the textbook that they used (one semester used a CT, the other, OER, study described in greater detail in the efficacy section). She asked the two groups of students to answer specific questions about the book they used and then compared the two sets of responses. Across the 458 completed surveys, student perceptions of the quality of the two textbooks were similar except on two attributes. The CT was rated slightly higher (p = .06) in terms of visual appeal, whereas the OER was rated significantly higher with respect to the way it was written (p = .03). Carpenter-Horning (2018) used the Cognitive Affective Psychomotor (CAP) Perceived Learning Scale to compare how students perceived their learning in a course depending on the textbook type used. She surveyed first-year students at nine community colleges, all of whom had taken a required first-year seminar during the fall semester of 2016. Some of these classes used OER, others CT. In spring 2017 semester, these students (n = 5644) were surveyed regarding their experience in the course. A total of 227 students responded for a response rate of 4%. Of these, 101 used OER and 126 used CT in their course. An independent samples t test showed that students who used OER reported significantly higher levels of perceived cognitive learning in the course (p = .02, d = .31). A separate independent samples t-test demonstrated no statistically significant mean differences perceptions of affective learning. While using of a pre-established instrument to analyze the perceptions of OER is laudable, the CAP Perceived Learning Scale is not designed to measure student textbook perceptions, but rather their overall learning. Thus, a weakness of this study may be an assumption that the difference in perceived learning in the courses is attributable to the type of textbooks; however, other factors may have influenced the difference in student perceptions of learning. A summary of the OER perceptions research published between September 2015 and December 31, 2018 is provided in Table 2. Table 2 Summary of OER perception studies, 2015–2018Full size table Aggregate OER efficacy and perceptions research between 2002 and 2018 By the end of 2018, a total of twenty-five peer-reviewed studies examining the efficacy of OER had been published. These studies involve 184,658 students, 41,480 who used OER and 143,178 who used CT. Three studies did not provide results regarding statistical significance. Ten reported no significant differences or mixed results. Eleven had results that favored OER. One had results that favored CT, although the researcher this study stated these differences could relate to how the learning materials were aligned with the assessment. A consistent trend across this OER efficacy research (spanning from 2008 to 2018) is that OER does not harm student learning. Although anecdotal reports that OER are not comparable to CT exist, the research does not bear this out with respect to student learning. While the impact of OER on student learning appears to be small, it is positive. Given that students save substantial amounts of money when OER is utilized, this is a particularly important pattern. In terms of perceptions, at the end of 2018, twenty-nine studies of student and faculty perceptions of OER have been published. These studies involve 13,302 students and 2643 faculty members. Every study that has asked those who have used both OER and CT as primary learning resources to directly compare the two has shown that a strong majority of participants report that OER are as good or better. In the five studies in which the ratings of students using CT were compared with the ratings of students who used OER, two studies found higher ratings for CT, two reported higher ratings for OER and one showed similar ratings. The key pattern of OER perceptions research is easy to identify—students do not like paying for textbooks and tend to appreciate free options. Many instructors appear to be sensitive to this student preference, which may influence their ratings of OER. The fact that consistent survey data show that both faculty and students who use OER largely rate it as being equal to or superior to CT has important practical and policy implications for those responsible for choosing textbooks. Discussion The research base regarding the efficacy of OER is growing both in quantity and sophistication, but much more works remains to be done. Of the nine efficacy studies published prior to 2016, only two controlled for student variables, with four controlling for teacher variables. Of the thirteen efficacy studies published between 2016 and 2018, seven controlled for student variables and nine controlled for teacher variables. This is significant improvement in research rigor, an encouraging trend particularly given that three of the five 2018 efficacy studies controlled for both teacher and student variables, with the other two controlling for teacher variables. Such controls are vital, given that seemingly significant differences can disappear when accounting for variables such as prior GPA (e.g., Clinton 2018). To date, five of the twenty-two OER efficacy studies control for both student and teacher variables. These studies (Allen et al. 2015; Winitzky-Stephens and Pickavance 2017; Clinton 2018; Jhangiani et al. 2018; Colvard et al. 2018) provide models for future OER efficacy studies. Weaknesses common among many OER efficacy studies is that they rely on non-standard measurements of student learning. For example, GPA and final exam scores can vary significantly when course requirements and final exams are changed—and both of these are often concomitant with curriculum changes. Using standardized instruments (as did Hendricks et al. 2017), or exams that are held constant (as did Gurung 2017) can help ameliorate this weakness. Randomization continues to be challenging (as it is in much of education research) with the only two OER efficacy studies using randomization being published prior to 2013. Furthermore, only one study published prior to 2019 analyzes OER efficacy among various student populations (Colvard et al. 2018). The limited research on specific student populations provides a specific direction for future OER efficacy research. Moving forward, it will be important to examine disaggregated data that focuses on a variety of specific populations. Does OER impact low-income students more than high income students? Community college students more than university students? Which student populations appear to benefit most (or least) from OER adoption? Additional research is also needed quantitative meta-analyses. The present study provides a qualitative synthesis of OER efficacy; however, as the research corpus regarding OER increases, more sophisticated meta-analyses are needed to calculate effect sizes across studies. Another area where further research could be helpful is to analyze whether specific OER are more efficacious than others and whether certain subjects are more amenable to the use of OER than others. With respect to OER perceptions, the number of published studies has doubled in just 3 years, with more than four times the number of students surveyed. Most of these studies ask those who have used both OER and commercial to compare the quality of one relative to the others. A consistent pattern has emerged of both students and faculty generally rating OER to be as good or better than CT. Nevertheless, there are limitations to this finding. As stated, Griffiths et al. (2018) found that a strong majority of students said OER were better than their CT. These same students said the quality of teaching in the class that used OER was much higher than that with CT. Presumably the use of OER is not directly correlated with better teaching, calling into question whether a halo effect or other confounds influenced student responses. It is also important to note that student preference does not necessarily equal better learning. Landrum et al. (2012) found that student quiz scores was not correlated with their ratings of different textbooks. At the same time, the perceptions of 13,173 students, to say nothing of 2643 faculty members cannot be taken lightly. A recent development in OER perceptions research, first appearing in 2017, is giving the same instrument to students who use either OER or CT and comparing how students scored their respective books (Gurung 2017; Jhangiani et al. 2018; Lawrence and Lester 2018; Clinton 2018; Carpenter-Horning 2018). The results of these studies have been less definitive with two having results that favor OER, two CT, and one no difference. Significantly, Gurung (2017) and Jhangiani et al. (2018) used similar methodologies and instruments but came up with different results. One explanation may be that Gurung (2017) found differences that were entirely based on ratings of figures, photos and visual appeal and Jhangiani et al. (2018) excluded questions relating to visual components. Assuming the overall differences in student ratings of commercial and open textbooks on the TAUS stems from differences in the ratings of visual attributes, it would be interesting for future research to attempt to quantify the financial value that students would place on these differences. In addition, no studies using this research design have been done with faculty members. Further development of these types of comparative studies may provide further insight as to student and faculty perceptions of OER. Another potential direction for OER perceptions research is to give students and/or faculty members selections from OER and CT and ask them to rate them, both according to quality and relative value. In addition to pointing towards future research directions, the corpus of OER research synthesized in the present study has important implications for design and implementation strategies related to OER in education. Instructional designers, librarians, and others involved in helping faculty with curriculum materials can point them towards OER with greater confidence that students will perform as well at they would when using CT. It is also likely that these individuals will receive increasing questions from faculty members regarding OER. Consequently, academic programs in instructional design and related fields my need to give greater emphasis to the understanding of OER, as well as approaches to identifying and integrating OER into curriculum. Conclusion Based on the growing research on the efficacy and perceptions of OER, policy makers and faculty may need to judiciously examine the rationale for obliging students to purchase CT when OER are available, particularly in the absence of the efficacy of a specific CT. Gurung (2017) notes, “It is an empirical question if a…13% difference in scores would justify the cost of a $150 book to an educator. Would a student from a low socioeconomic family background feel the same? This question of the real world implications of the finding is more relevant when one notes the low effect sizes…[which] suggest this difference may not seem important to students burdened by high tuitions” (p. 244). Given the fact that the 13% difference noted by Gurung disappears in his study when using items aligned to OER and is absent in all other OER efficacy studies, the question becomes even more pressing. 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Ethics declarations Conflict of interest Hilton has received research grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; however, these grants were not directly connected with the writing of this paper. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Rights and permissions Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Hilton, J. Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018. Education Tech Research Dev 68, 853–876 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09700-4 Download citation Published: 06 August 2019 Issue Date: June 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09700-4 Keywords Open educational resources; OER Textbooks Computers in education Financing education Download PDF Advertisement Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips Switch Edition Academic Edition Corporate Edition Home Impressum Legal information Privacy statement California Privacy Statement How we use cookies Manage cookies/Do not sell my data Accessibility Contact us Not logged in - 40.76.139.33 Not affiliated Springer Nature © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature. 
doi-org-408	----	The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era Advertisement plos.org create account sign in PLOS ONE Publish Submissions Getting Started Submission Guidelines Figures Tables Supporting Information LaTeX Other Article Types Preprints Revising Your Manuscript Submit Now Calls for Papers Policies Best Practices in Research Reporting Human Subjects Research Animal Research Competing Interests Disclosure of Funding Sources Licenses and Copyright Data Availability Complementary Research Materials and Software Sharing Ethical Publishing Practice Authorship Downloads and Translations Manuscript Review and Publication Criteria for Publication Editorial and Peer Review Process Editor Center Guidelines for Reviewers Accepted Manuscripts Corrections and Retractions Comments Article-Level Metrics Submit Your Manuscript Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. 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H3C 3J7, Canada, Observatoire des Sciences et des Technologies (OST), Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur la Science et la Technologie (CIRST), Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC. H3C 3P8, Canada ⨯ Stefanie Haustein, Affiliation École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC. H3C 3J7, Canada ⨯ Philippe Mongeon Affiliation École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC. H3C 3J7, Canada ⨯ The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era Vincent Larivière,  Stefanie Haustein,  Philippe Mongeon x Published: June 10, 2015 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502 Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Reader Comments (8) Media Coverage Figures Figures Abstract The consolidation of the scientific publishing industry has been the topic of much debate within and outside the scientific community, especially in relation to major publishers’ high profit margins. However, the share of scientific output published in the journals of these major publishers, as well as its evolution over time and across various disciplines, has not yet been analyzed. This paper provides such analysis, based on 45 million documents indexed in the Web of Science over the period 1973-2013. It shows that in both natural and medical sciences (NMS) and social sciences and humanities (SSH), Reed-Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and Taylor & Francis increased their share of the published output, especially since the advent of the digital era (mid-1990s). Combined, the top five most prolific publishers account for more than 50% of all papers published in 2013. Disciplines of the social sciences have the highest level of concentration (70% of papers from the top five publishers), while the humanities have remained relatively independent (20% from top five publishers). NMS disciplines are in between, mainly because of the strength of their scientific societies, such as the ACS in chemistry or APS in physics. The paper also examines the migration of journals between small and big publishing houses and explores the effect of publisher change on citation impact. It concludes with a discussion on the economics of scholarly publishing. Citation: Larivière V, Haustein S, Mongeon P (2015) The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0127502. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502 Academic Editor: Wolfgang Glanzel, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, BELGIUM Received: January 14, 2015; Accepted: March 24, 2015; Published: June 10, 2015 Copyright: © 2015 Larivière et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Data Availability: Aggregated data will be available on Figshare upon acceptance of the manuscript. However, restrictions apply to the availability of the bibliometric data, which is used under license from Thomson Reuters. Readers can contact Thomson Reuters at the following URL: http://thomsonreuters.com/en/products-services/scholarly-scientific-research/scholarly-search-and-discovery/web-of-science.html. Funding: The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the Canada Research Chairs program. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction This year (2015) marks the 350th anniversary of the creation of scientific journals. Indeed, it was in 1665 that the Journal des Sçavans and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London were first published, in France and in England respectively. They were founded with the intent to advance scientific knowledge by building on colleagues’ results and avoid duplication of results, and established both the principles of scientific priority and peer review. They changed the process of scholarly communication fundamentally, from personal correspondence through letters (which had become “too much for one man to cope with in his daily reading and correspondence”) [1], society meetings, and books to a more structured and regular distribution of scientific advancements. This structured form, combined with a regular and wide dissemination, enabled systematic recording and archiving of scientific knowledge [1–4]. Since the 17th century, the importance of journals for diffusing the results of scientific research has increased considerably. After coexisting alongside correspondence, monographs and treaties—which often took several years to be published—they became, at the beginning of the 19th century, the fastest and most convenient way of disseminating new research results [5–7] and their number grew exponentially [1,8]. During the 20th century they consolidated their position as the main media for diffusing research [6], especially in the natural and medical sciences [9]. Scholarly journals also contributed to the professionalization of scientific activities by delimiting the frontier between popular science and the research front and, as a consequence, increased the level of specialization of research and the formation of disciplines. Interestingly, while the majority of periodicals emerged from scientific societies, a significant proportion were published by commercial ventures as early as in the Victorian era. At that time, these commercial publishing houses proved more efficient in diffusing them than scientific societies [10]. However, prior to World War II, most scholarly journals were still published by scientific societies [11]. Data from the mid-1990s by Tenopir and King [12] suggests an increase of commercial publishers’ share of the output; by then, commercial publishers accounted for 40% of the journal output, while scientific/professional societies accounted for 25% and university presses and educational publishers for 16%. Along these lines, the UK Competition Commission measured various publishers’ shares of ISI-indexed papers for the 1994–1998 period and showed that, over this period, Elsevier accounted for 20% of all papers published [13]. One could expect, however, that these numbers have changed during the shift from print to electronic publishing. Indeed, many authors have discussed the various transformations of the scholarly communication landscape brought by the digital era (see, among others, Borgman [14–15]; Kling and Callahan [16]; Tenopir & King [17]; Odlyzko [18]). However, although the digital format improved access, searchability and navigation within and between journal articles, the form of the scholarly journal was not changed by the digital revolution [16,19]. The PDF became the established format of electronic journal articles, mimicking the print format [20]. What was affected by the digital revolution is the economic aspect of academic publishing and the journal market. The literature from the late 1990s suggests that the digital era could have had two opposite effects on the publishing industry. As stated by Mackenzie Owen [21], while some authors saw the Web as a potential solution to the serials’ crisis—decreasing library budgets facing large and constant annual increases of journal subscription rates [22,23]—most authors hypothesized that it would actually make the situation worse [24] or, at least, not provide a solution [25,26]. Despite the fact that it is generally believed that the digitalization of knowledge diffusion has led to a higher concentration of scientific literature in the hands of a few major players, no study has analyzed the evolution over time of these major publishers’ share of the scientific output in the various disciplines. This paper aims at providing such analysis, based on all journals indexed in the Web of Science over the 1973–2013 period. Methods This paper uses Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science (WoS)—including the Science Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index—transformed into a relational database optimized for bibliometric analysis. On the whole, 44,483,425 documents are analyzed for the 1973–2013 period, which include all document types published by various journals. In addition to indexing authors’ names, addresses and cited references, which are the units of analysis typically used in bibliometric studies, the WoS indexes the name, city and country of the publisher of the journal for each issue. Using this information, which changes over time, we are thus able to assign journals and papers to a publisher and see the evolution of journal ownership. One limitation of this source of data is that it does not index all of the world’s scientific periodicals but only those indexed in the WoS, which meet certain quality criteria such as peer review and which are the most cited in their respective disciplines. Hence, this analysis is not based on the entire scientific publication ecosystem but, rather, on the subset of periodicals that are most cited and most visible internationally. The journal publishing market is a complex and dynamic system, with journals changing publishing houses and publishing houses acquiring or merging with competitors. Although these changes should be reflected in the publisher information provided for each issue, in some cases, the name of the publisher does not change immediately after a merger or an acquisition. Publishers’ activities are often distributed among multiple companies under their control, and over the past 40 years, there have been many mergers and acquisitions involving entire companies or parts of them. We looked at the mergers and acquisitions history of major publishers, based on their number of papers published, in order to identify and associate the companies that came to be under their control, and conversely the companies which they eventually sold. These publishers are the American Chemical Society, American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, Cambridge University Press, Emerald, IEEE, Institute of Physics, Karger, Nature Publishing Group, Optical Society of America, Oxford University Press, Reed-Elsevier, Royal Society of Chemistry, Sage Publications, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Thieme Publishing Group, Wiley-Blackwell, and Wolters Kluwer. For example, Reed-Elsevier bought Pergamon Press in 1991 but, in the WoS, journals remain associated with Pergamon Press until the year 2000. Hence, we assigned any journal published by Pergamon Press since 1991 to Reed-Elsevier. In the case of partial acquisitions, journals were assigned to the publisher only if at least 51% of the company was under its control. Historical merger and acquisition data up to 2006 was found in the report by Munroe [27]. The data for subsequent years was retrieved from the companies’ profiles in the Lexis Nexis database, as well as in the press releases found on publishers’ websites. Results Fig 1A presents, for Natural and Medical Sciences (NMS) and Social Sciences and Humanities (NMS), the proportion of papers published by the top five publishers that account for the largest number of papers in 2013, as well as the proportion of papers published in journals others than those of the top five publishers. Fig 1B provide numbers for the proportion of journals published by various publishers, while Fig 1C presents the publishers’ share of citation received. What is striking for both domains is the drop, since the advent of the digital era in the in the mid-1990s, in the proportion of papers, journals and citations that are published/received by journals from publishers other than the five major publishers. In both NMS and SSH, Reed-Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and Taylor & Francis are amongst the top five publishers with the highest number of scientific documents in 2013. While in NMS the American Chemical Society makes it to the top five (in fourth place in 2013), the fifth most prolific publisher in the SSH is Sage Publications. Hence, while all top publishers in SSH are private firms, one of the top publishers in NMS is a scientific society. Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 1. Percentage of Natural and Medical Sciences (left panel) and Social Sciences and Humanities (right panel) papers published by the top 5 publishers, 1973–2013. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g001 In terms of numbers of papers published, the five major publishers in NMS, accounted, in 1973, for little more than 20% of all papers published. This share increased to 30% in 1996, and to 50% in 2006, the level at which it remained until 2013 when it increased again to 53%. In this domain, three publishers account for more than 47% of all papers in 2013: Reed-Elsevier (24.1%; 1.5 fold increase since 1990), Springer (11.9%; 2.9 fold increase), and Wiley-Blackwell (11.3%; 2.2 fold increase). The American Chemical Society (3.4%; 5% decrease) and Taylor & Francis (2.9%; 4.9 fold increase) only account for a small proportion of papers. In the SSH, the concentration increased even more dramatically. Between 1973 and 1990, the five most prolific publishers combined accounted for less than 10% of the published output of the domain, with their share slightly increasing over the period. By the mid-1990s, their share grew to collectively account for 15% of papers. However, since then, this share has increased to more than 51%, meaning that, in 2013, the majority of SSH papers are published by journals that belong to five commercial publishers. Specifically, in 2013, Elsevier accounts for 16.4% of all SSH papers (4.4 fold increase since 1990), Taylor & Francis for 12.4% (16 fold increase), Wiley-Blackwell for 12.1% (3.8 fold increase), Springer for 7.1% (21.3 fold increase), and Sage Publications for 6.4% (4 fold increase). On the whole, for these two broad domains of scholarly knowledge, five publishers account for more than half of today’s published journal output. Very similar trends are observed for journals and citations, although with a less pronounced concentration, especially for citations in NMS which have remained quite stable between 1973 and the late 1990s. For instance, while the top 5 publishers account for 53% (NMS) and 51% (SSH) of papers, their proportion of journals is of 53% (NMS) and 54% (SSH), and of 55% (NMS) and 54% (SSH) when it comes to citations received. This suggests that the top 5 publishers publish a higher number of papers per journal than other publishers not making the top five, and that their papers obtain, on average, a lower scientific impact. The increase in the top publishers’ share of scientific output has two main causes: 1) the creation of new journals and 2) existing journals being acquired by these publishers. Fig 2 presents, for both NMS and SSH, the number of journals over time that changed ownership from small to big publishers—that is, the four publishers with the largest share of published papers in both NMS and SSH—and, for NMS, the number of journals that moved from big to small publishing houses. Since we intend to emphasize developments of the publishing market by publisher type and not single actors, changes among small as well as among big publishers are not shown. It can be seen in both domains that, before 1997, publisher type changes were overall quite rare and the majority consisted of changes from big to small publishers in NMS. Importantly, not a single journal was found to have switched from a big to small publisher in SSH during the entire period of analysis. A first important large wave of journal acquisitions by the big publishers occurred in 1997–1998, when Taylor & Francis acquired several journals from Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, Harwood Academic Publishers, Scandinavian University Press, Carfax Publishing and Routledge. In the same period Reed-Elsevier acquired a few small publishers like Butterworth-Heinemann, Ablex Publications, JAI press, Gauthier-Villars and Expansion Scientifique Française. The next important peak occurred in 2001, and is mainly due to Reed-Elsevier continuing a series of acquisitions, including Academic Press, Churchill Livingstone, Mosby and WB Saunders. Finally, the peak of 2004 is mainly due to the acquisition of Kluwer Academic Publishers by Springer, who had not previously been involved in substantial journal acquisition activities. Wiley-Blackwell’s contribution to the four peaks in Fig 2 was steadier, with the company acquiring an average of 39 journals annually from various publishers during the 2001–2004 period. Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 2. Number of journals changing from small to big publishers, and big to small publishers per year of change in the Natural and Medical Sciences and Social Sciences & Humanities. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g002 The share of journal papers published by the five publishers differs amongst the various disciplines in NMS and SSH. Figs 3 and 4 present the evolution of the top five publishers’ share of papers by discipline. Not surprisingly, chemistry has the highest level of concentration, as one of its disciplinary publishers, the ACS, made it to the top five most prolific publishers of NMS. For most disciplines, however, concentration in the top five publishers increased from between 10% and 20% in 1973 to between 42% and 57% in 2013, with a clear change of slope in the mid-1990s. Physics, on the other hand, follows a different pattern: after increasing from 20% in 1973 to 35% in 2000, it has since then remained stable and is subsequently the discipline where the top five publishers account for the lowest proportion of papers published. This lower concentration of papers in big publishers’ journals is mainly due to the strength and size of physics’ scientific societies, whose journals publish an important proportion of scientific papers in the field (Fig 5). In 2013 for instance, journals of the American Physical Society (APS) and of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) each account for 15% of papers, while those of the Institute of Physics (IOP) represent 8% of papers. It is also worth noting that, in physics, Reed-Elsevier’s journals’ share of papers also decreased over the last decade or so, from 28% of papers in 2001 to 21% in 2013. Springer, however, increased its percentage of physics papers from 3% to 11% over the same period. On the whole, the central importance of scientific societies in physics, the presence of arXiv, the central preprint server of physics, astrophysics and mathematics, as well as Open Access agreements such as SCOAP3 (http://scoap3.org/), are likely to make the field less profitable and thus less interesting for commercial publishers. In biomedical research, the share of the top five publishers almost reached 50% in 2009 (49%), but then decreased to 42% in 2013, mainly as a result of the emergence of new publishers, such as the Public Library of Science and its mega-journal PLOS ONE, which publishes more than 30,000 papers per year. Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 3. Percentage of papers published by the five major publishers, by discipline in the Natural and Medical Sciences, 1973–2013. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g003 Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 4. Percentage of papers published by the five major publishers, by discipline of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1973–2013. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g004 Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 5. Percentage of papers published by the five major publishers in Physics, 1973–2013. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g005 Fig 4 clearly shows that disciplines typically labelled as ‘social sciences’ behave differently from the arts and humanities. For each discipline within the domain of social sciences (psychology, professional fields, social sciences and social aspects of health), there is an unambiguous change in the slope in the mid-1990s: while the top five—in this case, commercial—publishers accounted for percentages between 15% and 22% of the output in 1995, these percentages increased to between 54% and 71% in 2013. The disciplines in social sciences, which includes specialties such as sociology, economics, anthropology, political sciences and urban studies, is quite striking: while the top five publishers accounted for 15% of papers in 1995, this value reached 66% in 2013. Combined, the top three commercial publishers alone—Reed-Elsevier, Taylor & Francis and Wiley-Blackwell—represent almost 50% of all papers in 2013. Psychology follows a similar pattern, with the top five publishers increasing from 17% in 1995 to 71% in 2013. On the other hand, papers in arts and humanities are still largely dispersed amongst many smaller publishers, with the top five commercial publishers only accounting for 20% of humanities papers and 10% of arts papers in 2013, despite a small increase since the second half of the 1990s. The relatively low cost of journals in those disciplines—a consequence of their lower publication density—might explain the lower share of the major commercial publishers. Also, the transition from print to electronic—a strong argument for journals to convert to commercial publishers—has happened at a much slower pace in those disciplines as the use for recent scientific information is less pressing [28]. Moreover, these disciplines make a much more important use of books [9] and generally rely on local journals [29], all of which are factors that make it much less interesting for big publishers to buy journals or found new ones in the arts and humanities. Fig 6 presents the changes in articles’ relative citation rates for journals that have changed from small to big and big to small publishers (see Fig 1) for the 10 years before and after the transition. We focus on two four-year periods to ensure comparable environments for the publishing market and selected 1995–1998 and 2001–2004, as they were identified as important consolidation phases in Fig 1. More specifically, for NMS, those that have changed from small to big publishers increased their impact slightly following the change. However, while for the 2001–2004 cohort of journals this followed a drop in impact, impact of the 1995–1998 cohort was relatively stable before. For the journals moving from big to small publishers, there is no effect: impact remains similar prior to and after the change. In SSH, no noticeable effect can be observed: changing from a small to a big commercial publisher does not affect papers' citation rates. It is also worth mentioning that, except for journals moving from small to big publishers between 2001 and 2004, the mean impact of papers before and after remained below the world average. It suggests that, on average, journals changing publishers did not produce many high impact papers. Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 6. Evolution of the mean relative citation impact of papers, by distance to publisher change, 1995–1998 and 2001–2004. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g006 Discussion and Conclusion The effect of scientific societies On the whole, our results show that the top commercial publishers have benefited from the digital era, as it led to a dramatic increase in the share of scientific literature they published. It has also led to a greater dependence by the scientific community on these publishers. Despite the fact that the two broad domains have both experienced an increase in the concentration of papers in the hands of a few publishers reaching 50% in recent years, a clear distinction was observed between NMS and SSH. In the former group of disciplines, the size of scientific societies—which is a consequence of the size of disciplines in general—managed to keep the literature less dependent on commercial publishers. For example, scientific societies such as the ACS or the APS publish many journals in the specialties of chemistry and physics respectively, for which they successfully managed the shift from print to electronic. On the other hand, social sciences are much more fragmented: anthropology, communication, criminology, demography, economics and sociology can all be considered social sciences. Yet, there is no large scientific society that regroups researchers from these disciplines and that also publishes the various journals covering these different disciplines. There are, rather, many different associations for each discipline, which are often divided into specialities. Along these lines, topics in SSH are also more often local in scope—and thus much less international—which also lead to more decentralized—and thus smaller—scientific societies. As a consequence, these scientific societies did not have the means to adapt to the digital era and therefore were more likely to be acquired or have agreements with big commercial publishers for the publication of their journals. This is a clear shift from the traditional model of scholarly communication. As Lyman and Chodorow [25] put it: “University presses and disciplinary associations were founded to disseminate research in the original cycle of scholarly communication. The faculty produced the work to be published; non-profit publishers organized the distribution of knowledge; the university library bought the published work at an artificially high price, as a subsidy for learned societies; and the faculty used this literature as the foundation for further research and teaching. […] However, over the past fifty years, as federal research funding has encouraged specialization, journal publishing has become commercialized, and some parts of the scientific and technical literature are now being monopolized by multinational publishing conglomerates.” (p. 89) The economics of scholarly publishing As one might expect, the consolidation of the publishing industry led to an increase of the profits of publishers. Fig 7 presents, as an example, the evolution of Reed-Elsevier’s profits over the 1991–2013 period, for the firm taken as a whole as well as for its Scientific, Technical & Medical division. One can clearly see in Fig 7A that, between 1991 and 1997, both the profits and the profit margin increased steadily for the company as a whole. While profits more than doubled over that period—from 665M USD to 1,451M USD—profit margin also rose from 17% to 26%. Profit margins decreased, however, between 1998 and 2003, although profits remained relatively stable. Absolute profits as well as the profit margin then rose again, with the exception of the 2008–2009 period of economic crisis, resulting in profits reaching an all-time high of more than 2 billion USD in 2012 and 2013. The profit margin of the company’s Scientific, Technical & Medical division is even higher (Fig 7B). Moreover, its profits increased by a factor of almost 6 throughout the period, and never dropped below 30% from one year to another. The profit margin of this division never decreased below 30% during the period observed, and steadily increased from 30.6% to 38.9% between 2006 and 2013. Similarly high profit margins were obtained in 2012 by Springer Science+Business Media (35.0%, see: http://static.springer.com/sgw/documents/1412702/application/pdf/Annual_Report_2012_01.pdf), and in 2013 and John Wiley & Sons’ Scientific, Technical, Medical and Scholarly division (28.3%, see: http://www.wiley.com/legacy/about/corpnews/fy13_10kFINAL.pdf) and Taylor and Francis (35.7%, see: http://www.informa.com/Documents/Investor%20Relations/Annual%20Report%202013/Informa%20plc%20Annual%20Report%20Accounts%202013.pdf), putting them on a comparable level with Pfizer (42%), the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (29%) and far above Hyundai Motors (10%), which comprise the most profitable drug, bank and auto companies among the top 10 biggest companies respectively, according to Forbes’ Global 2000 [30]. At a total revenue of 9.4 billion US dollars in 2011 [31], the majority of which were generated by a few publishing houses, the scientific journal publishing market faces oligopolistic conditions, where big players such as Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley-Blackwell and Wolters Kluwer determine annually increasing subscription rates that make up a considerable amount of research spending, leaving academic libraries with no other choice but to cancel subscriptions [20,32,33]. Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 7. Operating profits (million USD) and profit margin of Reed-Elsevier as a whole (A) and of its Scientific, Technical & Medical division (B), 1991–2013. Compilation by the authors based on the annual reports of Reed-Elsevier. (http://www.reedelsevier.com/investorcentre/pages/home.aspx) Numbers for the Scientific, Technical & Medical division were only available in GBP; conversion to USD was performed using historical conversion rates from http://www.oanda.com. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.g007 The possibility to increase profits in such an extreme fashion lies in the peculiarity of the economics of scholarly publishing. Unlike usual suppliers, authors provide their goods without financial compensation and consumers (i.e. readers) are isolated from the purchase. Because purchase and use are not directly linked, price fluctuations do not influence demand. Academic libraries, contributing 68% to 75% of journal publishing revenues [31], are atypical buyers because their purchases are mainly controlled by budgets. Regardless of their information needs, they have to manage with less as prices increase. Due to the publisher’s oligopoly, libraries are more or less helpless, for in scholarly publishing each product represents a unique value and cannot be replaced [19,20,33,34]. Scholarly publications themselves can be considered information goods with high fixed and low variable costs [35,36]. Regarding academic journals, fixed or first-copy costs comprise manuscript preparation, selection and reviewing as well as copy-editing and layout, writing of editorials, marketing, and salaries and rent, the two most substantial of which, manuscript writing and reviewing, are provided free of charge by the scholarly community [20]. In that sense and contrary to any other business, academic journals are an atypical information good, because publishers neither pay the provider of the primary good—authors of scholarly papers—nor for the quality control—peer review. On the publisher’s side, average first-copy costs of journal papers are estimated to range between 20 and 40 US dollars per page, depending on rejection rates [37]; [17], which neither explains open access publication fees as high as 5,000 $US (e.g., Cell Reports by Elsevier) nor hybrid journals, where publishers charge twice per article, i.e. the subscription and open access fees (e.g., Open Choice by Springer or Online Open by Sage Publications). In addition, the Ingelfinger law, initiated by the publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine in 1969, prohibits authors from submitting their manuscript to more than one journal [38]. Although the law was initially created to protect the journal’s revenue streams and has become largely obsolete through electronic publishing [39], it is still a universal rule in academic journal publishing, often enforced by copyright transfer agreements. Hence, each journal has the monopoly on the scientific content of papers it publishes: paper A published in journal Y is not an alternative to paper B published in journal Z [11]. In other words, access to paper A does not replace access to paper B, both papers being complementary to each other. Variable costs of academic journals are paid by the publisher and, as long as journals were printed and distributed physically, these costs were sizeable. In the print era, publishers had to typeset the manuscripts, print copies of journals, and send them to various subscribers. Hence, each time an issue was printed, sent and sold, another copy had to be printed to be sent and sold. However, with the advent of electronic publishing, these costs became marginal. The digital era exacerbated this trend and increased the potential revenues of publishers. While, in economic terms, printed journals can be considered as rival goods—goods that cannot be owned simultaneously by two individuals—online journals are non-rival goods [40]: a single journal issue that has been uploaded by the publisher on the journal’s website can be accessed by many researchers from many universities at the same time. The publisher does not have to upload or produce an additional copy each time a paper is accessed on the server as it can be duplicated ad infinitum, which in turn reduces the marginal cost of additional subscriptions to 0. In a system where the marginal cost of goods reaches 0, their cost becomes arbitrary and depends merely on how badly they are needed, as well as by the purchasing power of those who need them. In addition, costs are strongly influenced by the power relations between the buyer and seller, i.e. publishers and academic libraries. In such a system, any price is good for the seller, as the additional unit sold is pure profit. All these factors explain the different and often irrational big deals made between publishers and subscribers, with university libraries subscribing to a publisher’s entire set or large bundle of journals regardless of their specific needs [41]. Through these big deals, university researchers have been accustomed to, for almost 20 years, having access to an increasingly large proportion of the scientific literature published, which makes it very difficult for university libraries today to cancel subscriptions and negotiate out of big deals with publishers to optimize their collections and meet budget restrictions. General conclusions Since the creation of scientific journals 350 years ago, large commercial publishing houses have increased their control of the science system. The proportion of the scientific output published in journals under their ownership has risen steadily over the past 40 years, and even more so since the advent of the digital era. The value added, however, has not followed a similar trend. While one could argue that their role of typesetting, printing, and diffusion were central in the print world [20,7], the ease with which these function can be fulfilled—or are no longer necessary—in the electronic world makes one wonder: what do we need publishers for? What is it that they provide that is so essential to the scientific community that we collectively agree to devote an increasingly large proportion of our universities budgets to them? Of course, most journals rely on publishers’ systems to handle and review the manuscripts; however, while these systems facilitate the process, it is the researchers as part of the scientific community who perform peer review. Hence, this essential step of quality control is not a value added by the publishers but by the scientific community itself. Thus, it is up to the scientific community to change the system in a similar fashion and in parallel to the open access and open science movements. And, indeed, the scientific community has started to react to and protest against the exploitative behaviour of the major for-profit publishers. In 2012, the “Cost of Knowledge” (http://thecostofknowledge.com/) campaign started by Cambridge mathematician and Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers asked researchers to protest against Elsevier’s business model through a boycott against its journals by ceasing to submit to, edit and referee them. Started by a blogpost, the boycott was later termed the beginning of an “Academic Spring” [42,43]. Several university libraries, including large and renowned universities such as the University of California [44] and Harvard [45], stopped negotiations and threatened to boycott major for-profit publishers, while other universities—such as the University of Konstanz—simply cancelled all Elsevier subscriptions as they were neither able nor willing to keep up with their aggressive pricing policy: 30% increase over five years [46,47]. But these are exceptions. Unfortunately, researchers are still dependent on one essentially symbolic function of publishers, which is to allocate academic capital, thereby explaining why the scientific community is so dependent on ‘The Most Profitable Obsolete Technology in History’ [48]. Young researchers need to publish in prestigious journals to gain tenure, while older researchers need to do the same in order to keep their grants, and, in this environment, publishing in a high impact Elsevier or Springer journal is what ‘counts’. In this general context, the negative effect of various bibliometric indicators in the evaluation of individual researchers cannot be understated. The counting of papers indexed by large-scale bibliometric databases—which mainly cover journals published by commercial publishers, as we have seen in this paper—creates a strong incentive for researchers to publish in these journals, and thus reinforces the control of commercial publishers on the scientific community. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Sam Work for proofreading and editing the manuscript, as well as the two referees, for comments and suggestions. Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: VL. Performed the experiments: VL SH PM. Analyzed the data: VL SH PM. Wrote the paper: VL SH PM. References 1. de Solla Price DJ. Little Science, Big Science. New York: Columbia University Press; 1963. 2. Haustein S. Multidimensional journal evaluation. Analyzing scientific periodicals beyond the impact factor. 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doi-org-4256	----	Writing African American History Into Wikipedia | OLA Quarterly Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer Current Archives Announcements About About the Journal Policies Instructions for Authors Instructions for Guest Editors OLAQ FAQ Search Search Login Home / Archives / Vol. 25 No. 2 (2019): Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion / Articles Writing African American History Into Wikipedia Laurie M. Bridges Oregon State University Diana Park Oregon State University Tiah K. Edmunson-Morton Oregon State University DOI: https://doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1987 Keywords: Oregon, Oregon libraries, academic library, libraries, librarians, northwest, information science, information literacy, social media, writing, library trends, books, donors, library funding, Oregon library association, quarterly, Oregon library association quarterly, American library association, ala, ola, reading, library success, success, evolving roles, OSU, Oregon state, University, web services, public, new discipline, changes in libraries, career, careers, library careers, library career, professional journal, scholarly, academic, circulation, Portland, Multnomah County Library, innovative, inventive, solution, oregon librarians, librarian, political, politics, political action, association, civics, civic education, inspiring, engagement, role, participation, skills, create, creating, resources, develop, source, evaluate, evaluation, evaluating, University of Oregon, UO, learn, learned, watzek, lewis & clark college, access, barriers, membership, story, inmates, storytime, record, equity, diversity, inclusion, african, american, conference, fellow, dei, edi, project lit, sewing, somali, immigrants, refugees, micro, action, elaine hirsch, intersection, age, body type, disabilities, disability, race, skin, color, physical, mental, religious, geography, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex, gender, olaq, wikipedia, women, edit-a-thon, edit, oregon black law, white supremacy, sundown, gentrification, culture, center, afrocrowd, wikimedia, meetup, libguide, abeokuta, nigeria, racism, sexism Abstract As the world’s largest information database, Wikipedia is a familiar resource for many people. Given the ubiquity of Wikipedia articles on various topics, it has become a first stop for conducting online searches. However, there is a gap of information within Wikipedia related to African American history, and addressing Wikipedia’s well-documented racial bias should be a priority for librarians and archivists (“Racial bias on Wikipedia,” 2019). In February of 2019, Oregon State University Libraries and Press hosted a Wikipedia Editathon, “Writing African American History into Wikipedia.” In the early fall of 2018, we began planning for the Wikipedia Editathon. Two librarians and one archivist, the authors of this article, formed a small team to decide on workflows and individual roles. The team initially discussed various ideas for an editathon theme, but quickly settled on African American history in the Pacific Northwest, which could be incorporated into OSU’s annual African American History Month activities in February. In addition, we all felt that Pacific Northwest African American history is not well known, even among residents of the Pacific Northwest, and so we focused on local history. None of the team members identify as African American, which made the first step, establishing partnerships, vitally important. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Author Biographies Laurie M. Bridges, Oregon State University Laurie Bridges is an Instruction and Outreach librarian at Oregon State University. She is the library liaison for international programs and liberal arts. In 2019, she taught a two-credit Wikipedia undergraduate course; co-authored a column for the Journal of Academic Librarianship about Wikipedia; participated in the international Wikipedia + Education conference; and is currently co-researching librarian use of Wikipedia in Spain as an outreach and instruction tool. She received an MS from Oregon State University in College Student Services Administration with a minor in Women Studies and her MLIS from the University of Washington. Diana Park, Oregon State University Diana Park is a Science librarian at Oregon State University. She started at OSU in the fall of 2018 and immediately joined the team in planning OSU’s first Wikipedia editathon. She is currently working on a project to research retention of Wikipedia editors among underrepresented groups. She received her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Tiah K. Edmunson-Morton, Oregon State University Tiah Edmunson-Morton is the director of the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives at Oregon State University’s Library, which was established in 2013 and is the first of its kind in the country. In addition to her curatorial work, she oversees other programs in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center. She teaches courses on library and archival research, oral histories, and university history; manages the department’s exhibits and internship programs; and coordinates social media and outreach. She has an MLIS from San José State University, MA in English Literature from Miami University, and is a Certified Archivist. PDF Published 2019-10-28 How to Cite Bridges, L. M., Park, D., & Edmunson-Morton, T. K. (2019). Writing African American History Into Wikipedia. OLA Quarterly, 25(2), 16-21. https://doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1987 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 25 No. 2 (2019): Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Section Articles Journal Home Policies Instructions for Authors Instructions for Guest Editors FAQ The OLA Quarterly is an official publication of the Oregon Library Association. Have an idea for an article or issue? Want to make a suggestion about OLAQ? 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doi-org-4412	----	Academic Librarians’ Changing Perceptions of Faculty Status and Tenure | Silva | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Authors Elise Silva is Freshman Programs Librarian, Quinn Galbraith is Sociology and Family Life Librarian, and Michael Groesbeck is a Research Assistant, all in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University; e-mail: elise_silva@byu.edu, quinn_galbraith@byu.edu, mdgroesbeck@gmail.com. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 78, No 4 (2017) > Silva Academic Librarians’ Changing Perceptions of Faculty Status and Tenure Elise Silva, Quinn Galbraith, Michael Groesbeck Abstract This study explores how time and experience affect an academic librarian’s perception of tenure. Researchers surveyed 846 librarians at ARL institutions, reporting on institutions that offer both tenure and faculty status for their academic librarians or neither. The survey reported how librarians rated tenure’s benefit to patrons, its effect in attracting and retaining quality employees, and tenure as a motivating factor in giving extra effort on the job. Researchers found that tenured librarians rated tenure as more beneficial than librarians without tenure who had more than six years of work experience at their institutions. Furthermore, non–tenure-track librarians with fewer than six years of experience at their institutions rated tenure’s effect on library patrons as more beneficial than tenure-track librarians who had not yet achieved tenure. The study implies a selective perception bias on the part of academic librarians that grows with time and warrants further consideration and study. Full Text: PDF DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.78.4.428 Copyright Elise Silva, Quinn Galbraith, Michael Groesbeck This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 38 February: 38 March: 21 April: 24 May: 26 June: 15 July: 17 August: 7 September: 21 October: 19 November: 8 2019 January: 45 February: 45 March: 35 April: 47 May: 38 June: 29 July: 37 August: 28 September: 31 October: 39 November: 36 December: 26 2018 January: 59 February: 46 March: 35 April: 50 May: 28 June: 33 July: 46 August: 27 September: 44 October: 43 November: 38 December: 33 2017 April: 0 May: 2535 June: 113 July: 84 August: 63 September: 42 October: 44 November: 55 December: 32 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
doi-org-4859	----	Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities | Ithaka S+R Skip to Main Content Our work Publications Blog People About Contact us Our work Publications Blog People Events Email Updates About Contact us Careers Research Report May 22, 2012 Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities Evidence from Randomized Trials William G. Bowen, Kelly A. Lack, Matthew Chingos, Thomas I. Nygren DOI: https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22464 Topics: Teaching with technology Tags: Public universities Download PDF Cite this item Online learning is quickly gaining in importance in U.S. higher education, but little rigorous evidence exists as to its effect on student learning outcomes. In “Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials,” we measure the effect on learning outcomes of a prototypical interactive learning online (ILO) statistics course by randomly assigning students on six public university campuses to take the course in a hybrid format (with machine-guided instruction accompanied by one hour of face-to-face instruction each week) or a traditional format (as it is usually offered by their campus, typically with 3-4 hours of face-to-face instruction each week). We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same—that students in the hybrid format “pay no price” for this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy. These zero-difference coefficients are precisely estimated. We also conduct speculative cost simulations and find that adopting hybrid models of instruction in large introductory courses have the potential to significantly reduce instructor compensation costs in the long run. Supporting Materials Research Protocols (PDF) Data Collection Instruments (PDF) Tools “The Interactive Online Learning at Public Universities” Cost Simulation Macro file is available to accompany Appendix B. Copyright 2014 Ithaka S+R. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 International License License. To view a copy of the license, please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. ITHAKA is interested in disseminating this report as widely as possible. Download PDF Cite this item × Copy Citation MLA Bowen, William G., et al. "Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials." Ithaka S+R. Ithaka S+R. 22 May 2012. Web. 28 November 2020. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22464 Copy APA Bowen, W. G., Lack, K. A., Chingos, M., & Nygren, T. I. (2012, May 22). Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22464 Copy CHICAGO Bowen, William G., Kelly A. Lack, Matthew Chingos, and Thomas I. Nygre. "Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials." Ithaka S+R. Last Modified 22 May 2012. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22464. Copy William G. Bowen President Emeritus, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and President Emeritus, Princeton University Related Content Blog Post October 22, 2020 Student and Faculty Voices on the Emergency Shift to Remote Learning Research Report October 22, 2020 Student and Faculty Experiences with Emergency Remote Learning in Spring 2020 Blog Post October 19, 2020 Increasing Access to Quality Educational Resources to Support Higher Education in Prison Research Report October 13, 2020 How to Support and Lead the Urgent Transition to Quality Online Learning in Intro Math Blog Post August 17, 2020 Teaching with Cultural Heritage Online During the Pandemic Collaborate with us We work with universities and colleges, libraries, publishers, cultural institutions, and foundations. Contact us to get started Ithaka S+R helps academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, technological, and demographic change. Our work also aims to broaden access to higher education by reducing costs and improving student outcomes. Our work Publications About Contact us In the News Blog People Careers Events Newsletters Email Updates Twitter LinkedIn Ithaka S+R is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. ©2000-2020 ITHAKA. All Rights Reserved. 6 East 32nd Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10016 212.500.2355 ithakasr@ithaka.org Privacy Policy Cookie Policy 
doi-org-5216	----	Online pathfinders: Toward an experience‐centered model | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search Online pathfinders: Toward an experience‐centered model William Hemmig (Blanche and Irving Laurie Music Library, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA) Reference Services Review ISSN: 0090-7324 Publication date: 1 March 2005 Abstract Purpose – Looks at the pathfinder approach to library instruction, which was developed in the 1960s by Patricia Knapp. Knapp's system focused, not on the simple provision of answers to questions, but on the teaching of the effective use of the library and its resources– in other words, on the finding of one's “way” in the library. Design/methodology/approach – A traditional theoretical model for the creation and evaluation of pathfinders (subject research guides) can be identified through study of the literature. This model, expressed in the design criteria of consistency, selectivity, transparency and accessibility, sprang from an impulse to serve the inexperienced user by emulating or facilitating the user's search process. Findings – A gap in this model can be detected, in the form of a missing multi‐dimensional picture of the user and the user's experience of the information service via the pathfinder. In an attempt to fill the gap, literature examining information behavior, the search process, the design of user‐centered services, and the information retrieval interaction is discussed. Originality/value – An experience‐centered model for online research guide design and evaluation is derived from the findings. Keywords Academic libraries Research Information management Information retrieval Information services Internet Citation Hemmig, W. (2005), "Online pathfinders: Toward an experience‐centered model", Reference Services Review, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 66-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320510581397 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing Limited Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. Rent from Deepdyve If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited Services Authors Opens in new window Editors Opens in new window Librarians Opens in new window Researchers Opens in new window Reviewers Opens in new window About About Emerald Opens in new window Working for Emerald Opens in new window Contact us Opens in new window Publication sitemap Policies and information Privacy notice Site policies Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window COVID-19 policy Opens in new window × Support & Feedback Manage cookies We’re listening — tell us what you think Something didn’t work… Report bugs here All feedback is valuable Please share your general feedback Member of Emerald Engage? You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here. You can also find out more about Emerald Engage. Join us on our journey Platform update page Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates Questions & More Information Answers to the most commonly asked questions here 
doi-org-5595	----	Libraries on the frontlines: neutrality and social justice | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search Libraries on the frontlines: neutrality and social justice Amelia N. Gibson (School of Library and Information Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA) Renate L. Chancellor (Department of Library and Information Science, Catholic University of America, Washington, District of Columbia, USA) Nicole A. Cooke (School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, Illinois, USA) Sarah Park Dahlen (Master of Library and Information Science Program, St Catherine University, St Paul, Minnesota, USA) Shari A. Lee (Division of Library and Information Science, St John’s University, Queens, New York, USA) Yasmeen L. Shorish (Research & Educational Services, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion ISSN: 2040-7149 Publication date: 20 November 2017 Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine libraries’ responsibility to engage with and support communities of color as they challenge systemic racism, engage in the political process, and exercise their right to free speech. Many libraries have ignored the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, citing the need to maintain neutrality. Despite extensive scholarship questioning the validity of this concept, the framing of library neutrality as nonpartisanship continues. This paper examines librarianship’s engagement with, and disengagement from black communities through the lens of the BLM movement. It also explores the implications of education, engagement, and activism for people of color and libraries today. Design/methodology/approach The authors have engaged the topic from a critical race perspective as a practice in exercising voice – telling stories, presenting counterstories, and practicing advocacy (Ladson-Billings, 1998). Findings The assertion that libraries have been socially and politically neutral organizations is ahistorical. When libraries decide not to address issues relevant to people of color, they are not embodying neutrality; they are actively electing not to support the information and service needs of a service population. In order for libraries to live up to their core values, they must engage actively with communities, especially when those communities are in crisis. Originality/value As a service field, librarianship has an ethos, values, and history that parallel those of many other service fields. This paper has implications for developing understanding of questions about equitable service provision. Keywords Social justice Libraries Neutrality Library as place African Americans Black Lives Matter Citation Gibson, A.N., Chancellor, R.L., Cooke, N.A., Park Dahlen, S., Lee, S.A. and Shorish, Y.L. (2017), "Libraries on the frontlines: neutrality and social justice", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 36 No. 8, pp. 751-766. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2016-0100 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. Rent from Deepdyve If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited Services Authors Opens in new window Editors Opens in new window Librarians Opens in new window Researchers Opens in new window Reviewers Opens in new window About About Emerald Opens in new window Working for Emerald Opens in new window Contact us Opens in new window Publication sitemap Policies and information Privacy notice Site policies Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window COVID-19 policy Opens in new window × Support & Feedback Manage cookies We’re listening — tell us what you think Something didn’t work… Report bugs here All feedback is valuable Please share your general feedback Member of Emerald Engage? You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here. You can also find out more about Emerald Engage. Join us on our journey Platform update page Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates Questions & More Information Answers to the most commonly asked questions here 
doi-org-564	----	Project MUSE - Language, Power, and Oppression in the LIS Diversity Void [Skip to Content] Institutional Login LOG IN browse or Search: menu Advanced Search Browse MyMUSE Account Log In / Sign Up Change My Account User Settings Access via Institution MyMUSE Library Search History View History Purchase History MyMUSE Alerts Contact Support Library Trends Library Trends Volume 67, Number 1, Summer 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press Article View Download Save View Citation contents Additional Information Language, Power, and Oppression in the LIS Diversity Void Anastasia M. Collins (bio) Abstract This article explores the underinterrogated role of language and its relationship to power and oppression in the proliferation of discussion and dearth of action with regard to diversity in library and information science. Using critical discourse analysis as a framework, the article considers the institutional language practices that, without critical interrogation, establish and perpetuate hegemonic power structures and naturalize systems of oppression, creating a significant barrier to the goals of equity and meaningful diversity within the library and information science field. Diversity Discussion: Variations on a Thirty-Year Theme The context in which diversity is addressed in organizations is one in which there is likely avoidance of direct communication and attempts to depersonalize the concept, among the other considerations that are likely to limit the fulfillment of diversity-related goals. (Winston 2008, 144) Power and language—their intersections and deployments—are central to diversity issues and initiatives in libraries and library and information science (LIS) as a field. Indeed, the very phrase “diversity issues” is a linguistic receptacle that requires but rarely receives clear definition and unpacking, even as we supposedly use it to instigate change. Power, who has it, and the ways others are kept from it are at the heart of social and cultural inequities that libraries ethically eschew and work to counter. However, the historical discrimination against diversity that the LIS profession seeks to address in its own membership, services, and spaces was written into existence via laws and policies and reinforced everyday via naturalized [End Page 39] institutional language practices. Yet language, power, and the hegemonic control they deploy and reproduce are rarely part of the conversations, let alone action plans, to increase LIS diversity. The result is decades-old rhetoric of diversity and inclusion (as it pertains to the library as a set of services, an institution, and a professional field), which Lorna Peterson, in her half of a 1999 publication dyad exploring the definition of diversity, calls toothless and which is ultimately performative rather than effective (21). Language (written, spoken, visual, etc.) is often a constant in many if not all of the spheres that we occupy as individuals and professionals, and it operates as a main mode for communication, shaping our expectations and establishing and perpetuating our social systems. Yet for all its inescapable presence, language, like many constants, is often taken for granted, and when, as is the case with interrogating lack of diversity, language is a tool for considering every other possible barrier, interrogating language itself is an easy omission to make. Peterson, DeEtta Jones (1999), and many others who have written over the years about the absence of diversity and lack of change within multiple facets of library and information science use examples of professional language to discuss dominant trends in library practice, and nina de jesus (2014, para. 3), Freeda Brook, Dave Ellenwood, and Althea Eannace Lazzaro (2015, 252), and Isabel Espinal (2001, 141) have written invaluable analyses specifically about libraries’ tendency to “entrench oppression,” “naturalize whiteness,” and standardize the false universality of the “white perspective,” respectively, despite efforts to uphold equity. However, although they touch on it, these analyses do not examine language itself, how it is used in our institutions and discussions (that is, talking about the way we talk about diversity), and its role in the entrenchment and naturalization of oppression within the library. This article seeks to take that next step and build upon this previous work by considering the roles of language, power, and oppression to explicitly unpack how our field’s institutional language, along with other impediments, cycles and recycles diversity conversations, such as LIS scholarly literature, professional guidelines, and even career-development discussions. By turning to critical discourse analysis as a framework, I will outline how our institutional language is shaped and shapes in turn, and tying in concepts from critical race theory, I will explore the intersections of language, power, and oppression that specifically come into play or are overlooked in our broader discourse (all thirty years of it) about diversity in LIS, stalling change through rhetoric that works against the very goals it discusses. This is not to say that our discussions about addressing diversity-specific disparities within the field are not well-intended or that those having them are not sincerely seeking and strategizing for change. Quite the contrary. What this article will attempt to show is how the systems of [End Page 40] inequity and oppression we are attempting to combat are extremely sophisticated and robust, operating at multiple interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels with scads of built-in fail-safes. Language is one such fail-safe, and as this article will show, without persistent critical interrogation of language (who is employing it and how), it is exceedingly difficult to define, describe, or discuss oppressive systems like racism in hopes of dismantling them without unintentionally enacting and reinforcing them. Consider this example from outside of LIS. In 2016, John H. Mc-Whorter, a Columbia University linguistics professor, wrote a brief essay on Slate.com to explain the backlash when a Good Morning America news anchor flubbed the phrase “person of color” and mistakenly used “colored people” to refer to black people. Since it is no mystery why audiences took offense at something offensive, the author aimed instead to explain why the phrase “colored people” is offensive at all while “person of color” is not, presumably in good faith with the hope of diffusing the frustrations of those who did not understand the difference. Overall, the essay is a sincere attempt and different approach to inform readers why “colored person” is an unacceptable descriptor. However, by shifting focus to not simply examining what the essay discusses, but how it does so, the “system fail-safe” of language sleight that naturalizes white supremacy, even as the essay tries to promote the use of “person of color,” becomes clear. To provide his explanation, the author attempts to outline the slippery linguistic function and moving-target nature of euphemisms, particularly racial euphemisms like “person of color,” but in doing so, he omits several important factors, seemingly in an effort to manage the discomfort of white readers by reinforcing the dominance of a white perspective. One need look no further than the author’s opening premise to see this at work: “‘Person of color’ is considered perfectly OK, and even modern. Since ‘colored person’ means the same thing, why is it wrong to say it?” (McWhorter 2016, para. 2). These two sentences, which ask a question that many white people actually have, and that it is the essay’s goal to answer, make three rhetorical moves that reaffirm a white supremacist perspective: 1) equation; 2) erasure; and 3) explanation. The first maneuver equates the two phrases—explicitly stating that each “means the same thing”—which is understandable given that, to a reader’s cursory glance, these phrases appear to be mere reversals of each other and the words present have nearly identical dictionary definitions. But in an effort to meet readers where they are with these assumptions, the author disregards the complex set of variables from which language derives meaning, of which context is perhaps the most impactful (Evans 2015, 21–24). The context of who is using a phrase, who is receiving it, in what situation, through what shared frame of reference, and with what historical underpinnings all have inexorable influence over what a phrase “means” at the time it is uttered. Case in point, a phrase chosen by a socially oppressed group [End Page 41] of people as representative of their self-determined identity and a phrase historically used to dehumanize and discriminate against them clearly do not carry the same meaning for that group. This is where erasure comes in. In order to use the equation of the phrases as a premise for the rest of the essay, the historical weaponization of the phrase “colored people” as well as the privilege and power possessed by the anchor who made the gaffe must be disregarded as a way to center and appeal to the perspective of those unfamiliar and/or unaffected by that history and embodied privilege—namely, white people. Finally, the explanation of why “people of color” is acceptable while “colored people” is not, which comprises the remainder of the essay as it follows up on the preceding equation and erasure, upholds a white supremacist perspective by reaffirming that white people confused about the difference between the phrases need not take the oppressed group at their word, but instead should expect explanation that centers and integrates their worldview. This is only one example and may seem highly specific, but it demonstrates how much language can communicate existing power and dominance with relatively little effort or intention, and libraries, being shot through with the intricacies of language at every conceivable level, can and do reproduce systems of oppression just that easily. Critical Discourse Analysis: A Brief Application Language not only expresses ideas and concepts but actually shapes thought. (Moore 1976, 119) Using journalistic language as a model, John Richardson (2007) defines critical discourse analysis (CDA) as “a theory and method analysing the way that individuals and institutions use language” (1, emphasis in original). According to this framework, language consists of not only meaning but also action—that is, language itself is a form of social practice. As such, language has a reciprocal relationship with the social structures and/or institutions in which it is used. As Norman Fairclough (1992) puts it “[language] is shaped by these [structures], but it also shapes them,” meaning that as an institution produces language, language produces the institution by differentiating the institution from surrounding culture, outlining institutional norms, and establishing an institutional reality that “frames the sense of who they are,” complete with social structures and power dynamics (61; Mayr 2008, 5). So, bearing this in mind, we might ask, What is the institutional reality and what are the norms produced within LIS by our language in regard to diversity, and what wider institutional practices within LIS are perpetuated by that reinforced reality? These questions cannot be answered without considerations of power. There are several subsets of research in the study of the relationship between discourse, institutions, and power (Mumby and Clair 1997, 195), [End Page 42] but one particularly salient to LIS as a predominantly white institution is the analysis of how dominant groups “discursively construct and reproduce their own positions of dominance” (Mayr 2008, 3–4). Power is inextricably tied with language as each reinforces the other. Those dominant groups of the culturally privileged (white, male, cisgender, middle class, nondisabled, etc.) are empowered within the institution to name and establish language, language that in turn constructs norms that naturalize the power of the dominant groups. This means, with regard to racial diversity, that because white people hold hegemonic power within libraries, the language they use to frame institutional concepts (e.g., professional ethics, classification systems, service standards, performance expectations, etc.) reaffirms the dominance of their racial privilege, and because “the dominant cultural groups [are] generating the discourse [it] represent[s] [their dominance] as ‘natural’” (Mayr 2008, 13). Because of this deployment of power through language, institutions are also seen as primarily “serving the interests of certain powerful groups” (Mayr 2008, 5). In other words, the groups of patrons and librarians who do not question that the library is meant for them or exists for their use tell us a great deal about who our systems are built to benefit by default and of whom our language of power and access is actually inclusive. nina de jesus (2014) reminds us in “Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression”: Libraries as institutions were created not only for a specific ideological purpose but for an ideology that is fundamentally oppressive in nature. As such, the failings of libraries can be re-interpreted not as libraries failing to live up to their ideals and values, but rather as symptoms and evidence of this foundational and oppressive ideology. (para. 40) Our institutional language and discourse around diversity, which is constitutive of the institutional relationship with diversity, is as much a product of the culture of assimilation and social disparity as of the ideals of equity and intellectual freedom. A far too short time ago, public libraries were staunchly committed to assimilating immigrants into the literacy of “good” American citizenry, and academic libraries have always been entrenched in the false universality of privilege inherent to higher education and their parent institutions. Both of these branches of librarianship might reject these historical practices, now claiming a more egalitarian, “neutral” service philosophy, but neutrality is impossible, first because the very conceit of the library is shot through with political purpose (de jesus 2014), and also because libraries as institutions do not exist in a vacuum or with walls magically impermeable to the systemic oppression of the culture in which they are situated. For example: In a profession where some 87 percent of credentialed librarians are white, libraries have historically served as sites for white racial socialization, including a high incidence of microaggressions and a general denial of the cultural experiences of people of color. (Peet 2016, 16) [End Page 43] The complex relationship between systems of oppression, their reproduction within LIS as an institution, the insufficiency of institutional diversity and inclusion rhetoric, and language and power as the fulcrum that connects them is a topic to which we are coming. But first let us take a moment to explore an example of the institutionally productive function of language regarding diversity. Language has power, especially in libraries. The way we talk about things in our field matters—we have established that. Using critical discourse analysis as a framework, we recognize that our institutional language (created and reinforced by hierarchical power dynamics) naturalizes the concepts shaped by that language—it establishes normative and therefore nonnormative practices, and it produces and reinforces a kind of institutional reality, the investment in which yields phrases like “we’ve always done things this way,” a mindset resistant to any change that disrupts the naturalized hierarchy. This institutional reality includes the way we frame diversity—the way we talk about it and the way we address it or integrate it within our practice. Citing Foucault, Mayr (2008) describes how discourse not only has but actually constructs a topic like diversity: “It governs the way that a topic can be meaningfully talked about; [t]his in turn means that discourse . . . can limit and restrict other ways of talking and producing knowledge about [the topic]” (8). The LIS field’s institutional reality, created and reinforced via language, regarding diversity is distorted, and while that distortion is difficult to see precisely because it has been naturalized, it is nonetheless identifiable in the language we often use to discuss diversity—the very language that reinforces our distortion as normal. Take for example the phrase “diversity problem” (or “diversity issues” or “dilemma” or whatever synonym is most familiar). This phrase, benign as it seems, is not simply a passive, neutral language construction. It is actively (re)establishing our collective framework for understanding diversity within our field, but more than that, it is reinforcing that distorted framework that, in part, has kept our field’s progress regarding diversity so stagnate. Now, that’s a lot to claim about two fairly straightforward words, so let me unpack what I mean. First of all, “diversity problem” is an imprecise and inaccurate phrase, yet we hear it and its variations constantly. “The library and information science field has a diversity problem.” Consider that when a home is host to uninvited rodents, we do not say that the home has a cat problem. When a colleague has chronic back pain, we do not say that they should take care of their chiropractor problem. The LIS field does not have a diversity problem—it has a white supremacy problem, a heteropatriarchy problem, an ableism problem, an anti-Semitism and Islamophobia problem, a Western-centrism problem, a classism problem. LIS has an oppression problem. “Diversity problem” is discourse that is “endowed with the performative power to bring into being the very realities it claims [End Page 44] to describe” and is precisely the difference between performative rather than effective rhetoric (Fairclough 2003, 203–4). That is, using language that conflates the situation that needs to be addressed with the method of resolution not only misrepresents the solution as somehow contributing to the problem but also muddies the distinctions between “identifying” and “addressing,” such that the performative discourse about the need for a solution to the lack of diversity comes to constitute a solution in and of itself, stalling action toward real change. “Diversity problem” as a language construction also tacitly frames our understanding of the relationship between the LIS field and diversity as a concept. “Diversity problem” situates diversity as a concept apart from us that we are working on, which effectively separates us (the problem solvers) from diversity (the problem). This language positions diversity not only as something fixed and concrete as opposed to fluid and intersectional but also as something separate from the everyday, nuts-and-bolts functioning of the library and the profession. Diversity is that very important issue we discuss and attempt to address, but when the budget takes a cut, when the staff numbers drop, when the HVAC implodes, when more pressing priorities emerge, diversity is relegated to the nonessential. Language, Power, and Oppression: (Un)Learning Objectives At the crux of all this is our persistent discomfort with the role that equity plays in diversity work. Treating everyone “the same” today, even if that were possible, still does not erase the cumulative effect—the continuing impact—of historical inequality. (Clark 2011, 59) As a result of the naturalized language norms that reproduce the perspectives of dominant (privileged) groups, LIS institutional discourse is often in service of oppressive systems. This is not to assign malevolence or even intention to the LIS institution (although lack of intention does not remove accountability), but rather to comment on the operation of systems of inequity. Inequitable, hierarchical disparities among those culturally privileged and those culturally oppressed are the default of our social structures, and as Clark (2011) states above, attempts to treat patrons, for example, equally only perpetuates existing barriers and inequities. Equality vs. equity is a vital language distinction for discourse about diversity. Someone may be thinking to themselves that equality and equity mean essentially the same thing, but that is not quite the case for two reasons. First, their definitions are, in fact slightly different, equality being about uniformity or sameness and equity being about impartiality or fairness. Second, equating these two concepts is to employ the same rhetorical moves from our initial example with the Slate.com essay. These two terms can only be equated by erasing context—the historical and contemporary social, [End Page 45] cultural, and legal barriers of discrimination, which affect how we qualify fairness. Kathy Castania (1996) in her essay “What is Diversity?” states that “societal divisions based on our group identities have been maintained through legal, educational, religious, and other institutions” (2), which DeEtta Jones (1999) affirms with her definition of equity: “Individual and group equity means understanding and working affirmatively to amend historical and present misrepresentation” (8). Our field in general (there are certainly pockets where this is not the case) often misunderstands what equity truly entails because our constructed institutional reality lacks understanding or interrogation of what inequity, oppression, and marginalization truly entail. With her words, as applicable now as they were twenty years ago, Peterson (1999) tells us that “scant evidence of progress may mean that diversity is not about equity at all . . . [as] the conversation is not about redressing past discrimination and it has not even significantly altered the look of the profession” (18). To counter this misunderstanding and push against the institutional rhetoric and stagnation—or what Balderrama (2000) calls “the gap between what the library has been saying and what it has been doing with regard to diversity” (204)—we can begin with considerations of how language and power operate within two different but related aspects: the language of oppression and oppressive language. The language of oppression could also be called “oppression literacy,” and while that literacy involves learning new terms and concepts, it also requires unlearning and relearning concepts with which we thought we were familiar. A classic example of this is reframing our definition of terms like racism. Many folks (not unreasonably) conceptualize racism and other forms of oppression as an individual’s prejudice or discrimination against another individual based on race, and based on that conception, they also logically assume that refraining from such behavior on their own part is all that is required to combat racism in their library practice. In reality, however, racism operates at interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels, reinforced by and reinforcing of hegemonic power dynamics in which the superiority of whiteness is both assumed and naturalized. You may not discriminate against a patron of color, for instance, but racism is still at work within the library’s classification system (Olson 2001) and within the traditional trade (Low 2016) and scholarly (Roh 2016) publishing industries that produce most of the books and journal articles available in the library’s collections. It is no accident that this more accurate conceptualization of racism is also more complex. Language that accurately highlights systems of oppression at work is always more complicated than language that erases them, leaving them invisible and allowing them to continue operating uninterrogated. Another important concept within “oppression literacy” is the understanding that, while we can name and discuss systems of privilege [End Page 46] and oppression as well as social power structures, we are never outside them when we do so. It is easy, as with the seemingly innocuous phrase “diversity problem” discussed above, to linguistically situate ourselves at a distance from these systems, examining them with a fabricated sense of detachment. We are always examining systems of oppression from inside them, and we are always capable, with the very language we use to discuss them, of reproducing those systems and their power disparities. If libraries wish to create effective pathways to equity, then we must acknowledge the many facets of inequity as a system and challenge all the barriers it creates. Learning, unlearning, and relearning the structure and functions of language in perpetuating systems of oppression and locating our institutional language within those systems and power structures is key. Oppressive language—that is, language that invokes and enacts oppression—is the other aspect with which any interrogation of LIS institutional language must be concerned. I am not referring here to explicitly discriminatory or dehumanizing phrases such as “colored people,” though they also comprise oppressive language, but rather more to the implicit language constructions that reaffirm systemic oppression and power differentials, even as they appear to do the opposite. One popular example of this is the (over)use of “diversity and inclusion.” This prepackaged linguistic dyad of diversity and inclusion, while positive on the surface, is not only insufficient on its own to address barriers to equity, it also often enacts the exact opposite of what it states—promoting homogeneity and alienating difference. Diversity—the state of being diverse—in and of itself does not create a pathway to equity, and while inclusion of folks hitherto excluded seems like exactly what we are attempting to accomplish, inclusion elides the power dynamics in the phrase itself, leaving them unaddressed. The “house party” analogy is a favorite of mine to elucidate the problems inherent and unchecked within “diversity and inclusion” rhetoric. You can throw a party at your house specifically to build relationships with neighbors you do not know. You can put up signs welcoming any and all who want to join the party; you can create an inviting atmosphere; and you can stand at the door with a radiant smile to personally welcome and see to the needs of your guests. People may arrive in droves and have a wonderful night at the party. However, none of your efforts to be welcoming, supportive, and inclusive changes the fact that it is your house. Your inclusion of others does nothing to change, say, the layout of your house, which is structured to fit the needs of your way of life and your perspective on what is comfortable. When our institutions discuss being inclusive of diversity, we fail to question or challenge the power structures that situate some groups as “owners” with the power to include (or exclude) and other groups as “guests.” A house party is all well and fine for a metaphor—more background of its applicability to students of color in higher education can be found [End Page 47] in Cooke (2017), Turner (1994), and Daniels (1991)—but consider also an example fairly typical of actual library institutional rhetoric: “the seat at the table” conceptualization. Whose table is it exactly? Whose practices and perspective governs the table proceedings? Who decides which fork is used for what? The table and its available seats is a metaphor that even appears in previous publications about diversity in LIS: The goals of diversity education are to enhance awareness of the diversity of characteristics each of us brings to the “table” and to develop tools for incorporating these diverse characteristics into practical application to the benefit of the organization. This “table” is the library’s organizational culture. (Jones 1999, 10) Just as being invited to someone’s house has no impact on one’s status as a guest, being invited to the table does not mean that one feels they belong there or has any power to influence change. Scholars of color like Nicole Cooke (2014) have discussed coping strategies that include “occasionally and temporarily excus[ing] [one]self from the table from time to time in order to regroup, reconstitute, and renew” (47), and Debbie Reese (2017), a Nambe-Pueblo-enrolled Native scholar and educator, objects to the entire conceit of institutions as tables at which underrepresented folks require a seat because “it centers whiteness. Being at that table means [marginalized people] need [an] invitation to be there.” Indeed, “give X group a seat at the table” is a phrase that not only alienates people by immediately invoking paternalistic leadership structures and presupposing the universality of table gatherings as an analogous cultural symbol, but also reinforces hegemonic power dynamics by framing the dominant group as bestowing a gift—one perhaps just as easily rescinded as given. In an opinion piece on misconceptions regarding the implications of meaningful integration of racial diversity in institutions, Ernest Owens (2017) outlines what exactly the institutional presence and full participation of people of color entails. “Those who take up the bulk of the resources, opportunities, and space (i.e., white people) will have to give up a generous amount of that power to those it was kept from (people of color)” (para. 4). What Owens describes here is an intentional redistribution of power—a shift in the disparate power balance produced by and constitutive of inequity. He also acknowledges that in our past and current institutional discourse about diversity, when we discuss an objective of equitable service or the library profession’s commitment to enacting equity, we tend to frame these goals in cumulative terms. “Diversity and inclusion” or “a seat at the table” imply an expectation that efforts to address the currently privilege-dominated library world will be a simple matter of addition. But oppressive ideologies are pervasive and persistent; they cannot be reversed by the mere existence of oppressed people in our institutions. White supremacy, for example, is not suddenly solved by throwing black and brown people at the problem—a practice that Peterson (1999) [End Page 48] calls the “interior design theory of diversity that an environment is improved by the addition of color” (25)—but instead requires a redistribution of white-held institutional power to nonwhite groups in order to begin to dismantle the library as a white institution. “Because the terms of diversity [objectives] are currently set by [privilege-dominated] institutions and power structures, the priorities are often skewed” (Owens 2017, para. 5). However, we can shift our institutional language and re-frame our equity objectives to include a focus on dismantling hegemony by relocating power from privileged groups to marginalized groups. Concluding Thoughts Given that three decades of discussion of the urgent need for diversity in our field in order to make good on our professional ethics and commitment to equity has nonetheless yielded little direct action or change, it is worth mentioning Mayr’s (2008) point that the use of language to prioritize conversation rather than action with regard to systemic change is perhaps the most effective deployment of power (13). That is, existing power structures and systems of oppression are never actually challenged when we are focused instead on the conversation about the need to challenge them—a lot of talk and little action. By interrogating how our institutional language contributes to the inequities we seek to address, we effectively move the discussion into the realm of action. This is not to say that our discussions of diversity have been entirely fruitless. Thirty years of conversation may have proven not to be fertile ground for direct action, but it is certainly fertile ground for ideas and reframing efforts. E. J. Josey (1994) articulated two imperatives that we are only just beginning to explore more than twenty years later: 1) organizations must “begin to urge the employees to value diversity and provide staff awareness training to sensitize and change the mindset of the library workforce” (8); and 2) “it is imperative that the formal education of future librarians should include the importance of cultural diversity” (10). Regular and adaptive antioppression training for library staff as well as embedding tenets of diversity and equity in LIS education program outcomes and accreditation standards are not only good action-oriented initiatives, but also spaces in which the interrogation of language can also be specifically introduced and practiced. Another more recent example from outside library and information science is Dafina-Lazarus Stewart’s (2017) outline of some of the insufficiencies of “diversity and inclusion” rhetoric that provides an excellent starting place for our language interrogation practices. Diversity and inclusion rhetoric asks fundamentally different questions and is concerned with fundamentally different issues than efforts seeking equity and justice. Diversity asks, “Who’s in the room?” Equity responds: “Who is trying [End Page 49] to get in the room but can’t? Whose presence in the room is under constant threat of erasure?” Inclusion asks, “Has everyone’s ideas been heard?” Justice responds, “Whose ideas won’t be taken as seriously because they aren’t in the majority?” Diversity celebrates increases in numbers that still reflect minoritized status on campus and incremental growth. Equity celebrates reductions in harm, revisions to abusive systems and increases in supports for people’s life chances as reported by those who have been targeted. Inclusion celebrates awards for initiatives and credits itself for having a diverse candidate pool. Justice celebrates getting rid of practices and policies that were having disparate impacts on minoritized groups. (para. 12) Normalizing this practice of interrogating language as a tool that conserves power and reinforces oppressive systems is not an easy transition to make. Because we must use language to interrogate language, the practice of critically asking what our language is doing as well as saying is almost infinite in its self-reflexiveness as we must also interrogate the language we use to interrogate. But revealing what our language is doing, specifically with regard to the deployment of power and reproduction of oppression, is essential not only to identify how the way we use language stalls our transition to action with regard to diversity but also to ensure that true equity and disruption to systems of inequity become as naturalized within our institutional language as oppression is now. Anastasia M. CollinsAnastasia M. Collins is a cisqueer mixed woman of color and the research and instruction librarian for children’s literature and social work at Simmons College, where she provides research, teaching, and learning support with an emphasis in critical and antioppressive praxis. She developed an Anti-Oppression Guide available through her library and has delivered several talks and workshops on equity work in many facets of library and information science. She earned her MS in library and information science and her MA in children’s literature from Simmons College. References Balderrama, S. R. 2000. “This Trend Called Diversity.” Library Trends 49 (1): 194.Google Scholar Brook, F., D. Ellenwood, and A. E. Lazzaro. 2015. “In Pursuit of Antiracist Social Justice: Denaturalizing Whiteness in the Academic Library. Library Trends 64 (2): 246–84.Google Scholar Castania, K. 1996. What is Diversity? New York: Cornell Cooperative Extension.Google Scholar Clark, C. 2011. “Diversity Initiatives in Higher Education: Just How Important ‘Is’ Diversity in Higher Education?” Multicultural Education 19 (3): 57–59.Google Scholar Cooke, N. A. 2014. “Pushing Back from the Table: Fighting to Maintain My Voice as a Pre-Tenure Minority Female in the White Academy.” Polymath: An Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Journal 4 (2): 39–49.Google Scholar ———. 2017. “The GSLS Carnegie Scholars: Guests in Someone Else’s House.” Libraries: Culture, History, and Society 1 (1): 46–71.Google Scholar Daniels, L. A. 1991. “Only the Appearance of Diversity: Higher Education and the Pluralist Ideal in the 1980’s and 1990’s.” Policy Perspectives (Occasional papers published by the Pew Higher Education Research Program, Philadelphia). de jesus, n. 2014. “Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression.” In the Library with a Lead Pipe, September 24, 2014. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/locating-the-library-in-institutional-oppression/#footnote_35_5874. Espinal, I. 2001. “A New Vocabulary for Inclusive Librarianship: Applying Whiteness Theory to Our Profession.” In The Power of Language/el poder de la palabra: Selected Papers from the Second REFORMA National Conference, edited by L. Castillo-Speed and REFORMA National Conference Publications Committee, 131–49. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.Google Scholar Evans, V. 2015. The Crucible of Language: How Language and Mind Create Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar ———. 2003. Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.Google Scholar Jones, D. 1999. “The Definition of Diversity.” Journal of Library Administration 27 (1–2): 5–15.Google Scholar Josey, E. J. 1994. “The State of Diversity.” Reference Librarian 21 (45–46): 5–11.Google Scholar Low, J. T. 2016. “Where is the Diversity in Publishing? The 2015 Diversity Baseline Survey Results.” Lee & Low (blog), February 10, 2016. http://blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/where-is-the-diversity-in-publishing-the-2015-diversity-baseline-survey-results/. Mayr, A. 2008. Language and Power: An Introduction to Institutional Discourse. London: Continuum.Google Scholar McWhorter, J. H. 2016. “Why Is Colored Person Hurtful and Person of Color OK? A Theory of Racial Euphemisms.” Lexicon Valley (blog), Slate Magazine, August 24, 2016. www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/08/24/colored_person_versus_person_of_color_how_does_society_decide_which_racial.html.Google Scholar Moore, R. B. 1976. “Racism in the English Language.” In The Production of Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction, edited by J. O’Brien, 119–26. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar Mumby, D. and R. P. Clair. 1997. “Organizational Discourse.” In Discourse as Social Action: Discourse Studies. Vol. 2, A Multidisciplinary Introduction, edited by T. A. van Dijk, 181–205. Newbury, CA: Sage.Google Scholar Olson, H. A. 2001. “The Power to Name: Representation in Library Catalogs.” Signs 26 (3): 639–68.Google Scholar Owens, E. 2017. “OPINION: Diversity Isn’t ‘Being in the Room’—It’s Whites Giving Up Their Seats.” Philadelphia Magazine, May 2, 2017. www.phillymag.com/news/2017/05/02/diversity-white-power-roles/. Peet, L. 2016. “LACUNY Institute 2016: Race Matters.” Library Journal 141 (11): 16–17.Google Scholar Peterson, L. 1999. “The Definition of Diversity: Two Views. A More Specific Definition.” Journal of Library Administration 27 (1–2): 17–26.Google Scholar Reese, D. (@debreese). 2017. . Replying to @readingspark @DarkLiterata @booktoss @PhDerritt @martinmiABC. “I’m not using that metaphor, at all, any more. I think . . . https://t.co/VeO3xY7gex.” Twitter, June 26, 2017. https://twitter.com/debreese/status/879343092788232193. Richardson, J. 2007. Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar Roh, C. 2016. “Inequalities of Publishing.” PowerPoint presentation at the LACUNY Institute 2016. http://works.bepress.com/charlotteroh/26/. Stewart, D-L. 2017. “Colleges Need a Language Shift, but Not the One You Think.” Inside Higher Ed, March 30, 2017. www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/03/30/colleges-need-language-shift-not-one-you-think-essay. Turner, C. S. V. 1994. “Guests in Someone Else’s House: Students of Color.” Review of Higher Education 17 (4): 355–70.Google Scholar Winston, M. 2008. “Diversity: The Research and the Lack of Progress.” New Library World 109 (3–4): 130–49.Google Scholar Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Previous Article Race and Leadership in Library and Information Science Education: A Study of African American Administrators Next Article Race and Ethnicity in Classification Systems: Teaching Knowledge Organization from a Social Justice Perspective Recommend Additional Information ISSN 1559-0682 Print ISSN 0024-2594 Pages 39-51 Launched on MUSE 2018-10-25 Open Access No Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. about MUSE Story Publishers Discovery Partners Advisory Board Journal Subscribers Book Customers Conferences what's on muse Open Access Journals Books MUSE in Focus T.S. Eliot Prose resources News & Announcements Promotional Material Get Alerts Presentations information for Publishers Librarians Individuals Instructors Contact Contact Us Help Policy & Terms Accessibility Privacy Policy Terms of Use 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218 +1 (410) 516-6989 muse@press.jhu.edu ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus ©2020 Project MUSE. 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doi-org-5687	----	Project MUSE - Librarians’ Free Speech: The Challenge of Librarians’ Own Intellectual Freedom to the American Library Association, 1946–2007 [Skip to Content] Institutional Login LOG IN browse or Search: menu Advanced Search Browse MyMUSE Account Log In / Sign Up Change My Account User Settings Access via Institution MyMUSE Library Search History View History Purchase History MyMUSE Alerts Contact Support Library Trends Librarians’ Free Speech: The Challenge of Librarians’ Own Intellectual Freedom to the American Library Association, 1946–2007 Noriko Asato Library Trends Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 63, Number 1, Summer 2014 pp. 75-105 10.1353/lib.2014.0025 Article View Citation Additional Information Purchase/rental options available: Buy Issue for $20 at JHUP Abstract Traditionally the concept of intellectual freedom has developed out of the perspective of users’ rights to access library materials. The American Library Association (ALA) codified this with the Library Bill of Rights, Code of Ethics, and Freedom to Read Statement. However, librarians’ own intellectual freedom has been largely overlooked. Because of this, safeguarding librarians’ own free-speech rights has received little attention even within the profession. This article examines over a half-century of cases involving librarians’ attempts to defend their own intellectual freedom. The article also explores ALA’s conflicting responses and how it struggled to define intellectual freedom, especially in the late 1960s and 1970s when it established the Office for Intellectual Freedom, Freedom to Read Foundation, LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, and several committees that investigated such cases. This article explores key incidents that led ALA to create policies or change directions regarding professional’s free-speech rights. It shows the struggle within ALA on the controversial idea of defending librarians’ intellectual freedom. collapse You are not currently authenticated. If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution or have your own login and password to Project MUSE Authenticate Purchase/rental options available: Buy Issue for $20 at JHUP Recommend Additional Information ISSN 1559-0682 Print ISSN 0024-2594 Pages pp. 75-105 Launched on MUSE 2014-10-15 Open Access No Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. about MUSE Story Publishers Discovery Partners Advisory Board Journal Subscribers Book Customers Conferences what's on muse Open Access Journals Books MUSE in Focus T.S. Eliot Prose resources News & Announcements Promotional Material Get Alerts Presentations information for Publishers Librarians Individuals Instructors Contact Contact Us Help Policy & Terms Accessibility Privacy Policy Terms of Use 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218 +1 (410) 516-6989 muse@press.jhu.edu ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Back To Top This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. 
doi-org-568	----	Framing Librarianship in the Academy: An Analysis Using Bolman and Deal’s Model of Organizations | Fleming-May | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Authors Rachel A. Fleming-May and Kimberly Douglass are Assistant Professors in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee; email: rf-m@utk.edu, kdougla2@utk.edu. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 75, No 3 (2014) > Fleming-May Framing Librarianship in the Academy: An Analysis Using Bolman and Deal’s Model of Organizations Rachel A. Fleming-May, Kimberly Douglass Abstract Since the earliest days of the profession, academic librarians have attempted to reconcile their status within the academy. This project takes a new approach to this effort by using Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s “Four Frames” model to analyze the issues. To more closely examine the dynamics, tensions, and implications associated with librarians’ professional status within the academy, we discuss the role of the academic librarian in the context of each of Bolman and Deal’s frames: Structural, Human Resource, Political, and Symbolic. In this discussion, we demonstrate that librarians are positioned to address human resource (as defined by Bolman and Deal), political, and symbolic factors contributing to their status within the academy. Also, while we establish that the relationship between library faculty and disciplinary faculty plays a role in library faculty status, we conclude that library faculty status is constructed by a number of forces. We further conclude that many of the political and symbolic conditions experienced by librarians are rooted in structural and human resource factors controlled by upper-level administration in both libraries and the universities. Full Text: PDF DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl13-432 Copyright © 2014 Jingfeng Xia and Minglu Wang, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 45 February: 46 March: 49 April: 40 May: 46 June: 53 July: 74 August: 49 September: 74 October: 96 November: 94 2019 January: 24 February: 42 March: 31 April: 35 May: 36 June: 34 July: 31 August: 32 September: 63 October: 71 November: 68 December: 59 2018 January: 7 February: 13 March: 28 April: 38 May: 38 June: 32 July: 38 August: 41 September: 64 October: 91 November: 66 December: 51 2017 April: 0 May: 10 June: 20 July: 21 August: 26 September: 24 October: 37 November: 27 December: 24 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
doi-org-5739	----	Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults Advertisement plos.org create account sign in PLOS ONE Publish Submissions Getting Started Submission Guidelines Figures Tables Supporting Information LaTeX Other Article Types Preprints Revising Your Manuscript Submit Now Calls for Papers Policies Best Practices in Research Reporting Human Subjects Research Animal Research Competing Interests Disclosure of Funding Sources Licenses and Copyright Data Availability Complementary Research Materials and Software Sharing Ethical Publishing Practice Authorship Downloads and Translations Manuscript Review and Publication Criteria for Publication Editorial and Peer Review Process Editor Center Guidelines for Reviewers Accepted Manuscripts Corrections and Retractions Comments Article-Level Metrics Submit Your Manuscript Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. 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Loading metrics Open Access Peer-reviewed Research Article Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults Ethan Kross , * E-mail: ekross@umich.edu Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ Philippe Verduyn, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ⨯ Emre Demiralp, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ Jiyoung Park, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ David Seungjae Lee, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ Natalie Lin, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ Holly Shablack, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ John Jonides, Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ Oscar Ybarra Affiliation Psychology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America ⨯ Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults Ethan Kross,  Philippe Verduyn,  Emre Demiralp,  Jiyoung Park,  David Seungjae Lee,  Natalie Lin,  Holly Shablack,  John Jonides,  Oscar Ybarra x Published: August 14, 2013 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841 Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Reader Comments (18) Media Coverage Figures Figures Abstract Over 500 million people interact daily with Facebook. Yet, whether Facebook use influences subjective well-being over time is unknown. We addressed this issue using experience-sampling, the most reliable method for measuring in-vivo behavior and psychological experience. We text-messaged people five times per day for two-weeks to examine how Facebook use influences the two components of subjective well-being: how people feel moment-to-moment and how satisfied they are with their lives. Our results indicate that Facebook use predicts negative shifts on both of these variables over time. The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt the next time we text-messaged them; the more they used Facebook over two-weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time. Interacting with other people “directly” did not predict these negative outcomes. They were also not moderated by the size of people's Facebook networks, their perceived supportiveness, motivation for using Facebook, gender, loneliness, self-esteem, or depression. On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it. Citation: Kross E, Verduyn P, Demiralp E, Park J, Lee DS, Lin N, et al. (2013) Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults. PLoS ONE 8(8): e69841. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841 Editor: Cédric Sueur, Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, France Received: January 31, 2013; Accepted: June 12, 2013; Published: August 14, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Kross et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction Online social networks are rapidly changing the way human beings interact. Over a billion people belong to Facebook, the world's largest online social network, and over half of them log in daily [1]. Yet, no research has examined how interacting with Facebook influences subjective well-being over time. Indeed, a recent article that examined every peer-reviewed publication and conference proceeding on Facebook between 1/2005 and 1/2012 (412 in total) did not reveal a single study that examined how using this technology influences subjective well-being over time (Text S1) [2]. Subjective well-being is one of the most highly studied variables in the behavioral sciences. Although significant in its own right, it also predicts a range of consequential benefits including enhanced health and longevity [3]–[5]. Given the frequency of Facebook usage, identifying how interacting with this technology influences subjective well-being represents a basic research challenge that has important practical implications. This issue is particularly vexing because prior research provides mixed clues about how Facebook use should influence subjective well-being. Whereas some cross-sectional research reveals positive associations between online social network use (in particular Facebook) and well-being [6], other work reveals the opposite [7], [8]. Still other work suggests that the relationship between Facebook use and well-being may be more nuanced and potentially influenced by multiple factors including number of Facebook friends, perceived supportiveness of one's online network, depressive symptomatology, loneliness, and self-esteem [9], [10], [11]. So, how does Facebook usage influence subjective well-being over time? The cross-sectional approach used in previous studies makes it impossible to know. We addressed this issue by using experience-sampling, the most reliable method for measuring in-vivo behavior and psychological experience over time [12]. We text-messaged participants five times per day for 14-days. Each text-message contained a link to an online survey, which participants completed using their smartphones. We performed lagged analyses on participants' responses, as well as their answers to the Satisfaction With Life Questionnaire (SWLS) [13], which they completed before and immediately following the 14-day experience-sampling period, to examine how interacting with Facebook influences the two components of subjective well-being: how people feel (“affective” well-being) and how satisfied they are with their lives (“cognitive” well-being) [14], [15]. This approach allowed us to take advantage of the relative timing of participants' natural Facebook behavior and psychological states to draw inferences about their likely causal sequence [16]–[19]. Methods Participants Eighty-two people (Mage = 19.52, SDage = 2.17; 53 females; 60.5% European American, 28.4% Asian, 6.2% African American, and 4.9% other) were recruited for a study on Facebook through flyers posted around Ann Arbor, Michigan. Participants needed a Facebook account and a touch-screen smartphone to qualify for the study. They received $20 and were entered into a raffle to receive an iPad2 for participating. Ethics Statement The University of Michigan Institutional Review Board approved this study. Informed written consent was obtained from all participants prior to participation. Materials and Procedure Phase 1. Participants completed a set of questionnaires, which included the SWLS (M = 4.96, SD = 1.17), Beck Depression Inventory [20] (M = 9.02, SD = 7.20), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale [21] (M = 30.40, SD = 4.96), and the Social Provision Scale [22] (M = 3.55, SD = .34), which we modified to assess perceptions of Facebook support. We also assessed participants' motivation for using Facebook by asking them to indicate whether they use Facebook “to keep in touch with friends (98% answered yes),” “to find new friends (23% answered yes),” “to share good things with friends (78% answered yes),” “to share bad things with friends (36% answered yes),” “to obtain new information (62% answered yes),” or “other: please explain (17% answered yes).” Examples of other reasons included chatting with others, keeping in touch with family, and facilitating schoolwork and business. Phase 2. Participants were text-messaged 5 times per day between 10am and midnight over 14-days. Text-messages occurred at random times within 168-minute windows per day. Each text-message contained a link to an online survey, which asked participants to answer five questions using a slider scale: (1) How do you feel right now? (very positive [0] to very negative [100]; M = 37.47, SD = 25.88); (2) How worried are you right now? (not at all [0] to a lot [100]; M = 44.04, SD = 30.42); (3) How lonely do you feel right now? (not at all [0] to a lot [100]; M = 27.61, SD = 26.13); (4) How much have you used Facebook since the last time we asked? (not at all [0] to a lot [100]; M = 33.90, SD = 30.48); (5) How much have you interacted with other people “directly” since the last time we asked? (not at all [0]to a lot [100]; M = 64.26, SD = 31.11). When the protocol for answering these questions was explained, interacting with other people “directly” was defined as face-to-face or phone interactions. An experimenter carefully walked participants through this protocol to ensure that they understood how to answer each question and fulfill the study requirements. Participants always answered the affect question first. Next the worry and loneliness questions were presented in random order. The Facebook use and direct social interaction questions were always administered last, again in random order. Our analyses focused primarily on affect (rather than worry and loneliness) because this affect question is the way “affective well-being” is typically operationalized. Phase 3. Participants returned to the laboratory following Phase 2 to complete another set of questionnaires, which included the SWLS (M = 5.13, SD = 1.26) and the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale [23] (M = 1.69, SD = .46). Participants' number of Facebook friends (M = 664.25, SD = 383.64) was also recorded during this session from participants' Facebook accounts (Text S2). Results Attrition and compliance Three participants did not complete the study. As the methods section notes, participants received a text message directing them to complete a block of five questions once every 168 minutes on average (the text message was delivered randomly within this 168-minute window). A response to any question within a block was considered “compliant” if it was answered before participants received a subsequent text-message directing them to complete the next block of questions. Participants responded to an average of 83.6% of text-messages (range: 18.6%–100%). Following prior research [24], we pruned the data by excluding all of the data from two participants who responded to <33% of the texts, resulting in 4,589 total observations. The results did not change substantively when additional cutoff rates were used. Analyses overview We examined the relationship between Facebook use and affect using multilevel analyses to account for the nested data structure. Specifically, we examined whether T2 affect (i.e., How do you feel right now?) was predicted by T1–2 Facebook use (i.e., How much have you used Facebook since the last time we asked?), controlling for T1 affect at level-1 of the model (between-day lags were excluded). Note that although this analysis assesses Facebook use at T2, the question refers to usage between T1 and T2 (hence the notationT1–2). This analysis allowed us to explore whether Facebook use during the time period separating T1 and T2 predicted changes in affect over this time span. When non-compliant cases were observed, we used participants' responses to the last text message they answered to examine the lagged effect of Facebook use on well-being to maximize power. So, if we were interested in examining whether T2–3 Facebook use predicted T3 Affect controlling for T2 Affect, but did not have data on T2 Affect, then we used T1 Affect instead. Excluding trials in which participants did not respond to the previous texts (rather than following the aforementioned analytical scheme) did not substantively alter any of the results we report. Significance testing of fixed effects was performed using chi-squared distributed (df = 1) Wald-tests. All level-1 predictors were group-mean centered, and intercepts and slopes were allowed to vary randomly across participants (see Table 1 for zero-order correlations). We tested for moderation by examining whether each moderator variable was related to the slope of T1–2 Facebook use when predicting T2 affect, controlling for T1 affect. Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Table 1. Within-person and between-person zero-order correlations. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.t001 Data from one person who scored 4SDs above the sample mean on the BDI were excluded from the BDI moderation analyses; data from one person who scored 4SDs above the sample mean on number of Facebook friends were excluded from the moderation analyses based on Facebook friends. The relationship between mean Facebook use and life satisfaction was assessed using OLS regressions because these data were not nested. Both unstandardized (B) and standardized (β) OLS regression coefficients are reported (see Text S3). Facebook use and well-being Affective well-being. We examined whether people's tendency to interact with Facebook during the time period separating two text messages influenced how they felt at T2, controlling for how they felt at T1. Nested time-lag analyses indicated that the more people used Facebook the worse they subsequently felt, B = .08, χ2 = 28.90, p<.0001, (see Figure 1, top). The reverse pathway (T1 Affect predicting T1–2 Facebook use, controlling for T0–1 Facebook use) was not significant, B = −.005, χ2 = .05, p = .82, indicating that people do not use Facebook more or less depending on how they feel (see Text S4, S5). Download: PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image Figure 1. Facebook use predicts declines in affect and life satisfaction over time. Interacting with Facebook during one time period (Time1–2) leads people to feel worse later on during the same day (T2) controlling for how they felt initially (T1); values are regression weights from multilevel analyses (Panel A). Average Facebook use over the course of the 14-day experience-sampling period predicts decreases in life satisfaction over time; values are standardized regression weights from OLS regression analysis (Panel B). *p<.05, ** p<.01, ***p<.001. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.g001 Cognitive well-being. To examine how Facebook use influenced “cognitive well-being,” we analyzed whether people's average Facebook use over the 14-day period predicted their life satisfaction at the end of the study, controlling for baseline life satisfaction and average emotion levels over the 14-day period. The more participants used Facebook, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time, B = −.012, β = −.124, t(73) = −2.39, p = .02, (see Figure 1, bottom). Alternative explanations. An alternative explanation for these results is that any form of social interaction undermines well-being. Because we also asked people to indicate how frequently they interacted with other people “directly” since the last time we text messaged them, we were able to test this idea. Specifically, we repeated each of the aforementioned analyses substituting “direct” social interaction for Facebook use. In contrast to Facebook use, “direct” social interaction did not predict changes in cognitive well-being, B = −.006, β = −.059, t(73) = 1.04, p = .30, and predicted increases (not decreases) in affective well-being, B = −.15, χ2 = 65.30, p<.0001. Controlling for direct social interaction did not substantively alter the significant relationship between Facebook use and affective well-being, B = .05, χ2 = 10.78, p<.01. Another alternative explanation for these results is that people use Facebook when they feel bad (i.e., when they are bored lonely, worried or otherwise distressed), and feeling bad leads to declines in well-being rather than Facebook use per se. The analyses we reported earlier partially address this issue by demonstrating that affect does not predict changes in Facebook use over time and Facebook use continues to significantly predict declines in life satisfaction over time when controlling for affect. However, because participants also rated how lonely and worried they felt each time we text messaged them, we were able to test this proposal further. We first examined whether worry or loneliness predicted changes in Facebook use over time (i.e., T1 worry [or T1 loneliness] predicting T1–2 Facebook use, controlling for T0–1 Facebook use). Worry did not predict changes in Facebook use, B = .04, χ2 = 2.37, p = .12, but loneliness did, B = .07, χ2 = 8.54, p<.01. The more lonely people felt at one time point, the more people used Facebook over time. Given this significant relationship, we next examined whether controlling for loneliness renders the relationship between Facebook use and changes in affective and cognitive well-being non-significant—what one would predict if Facebook use is a proxy for loneliness. This was not the case. Facebook use continued to predict declines in affective well-being, B = .08, χ2 = 27.87, p<.0001, and cognitive well-being, B = −.012, β = −.126, t(72) = 2.34, p = .02, when loneliness was controlled for in each analysis. Neither worry nor loneliness interacted significantly with Facebook use to predict changes in affective or cognitive well-being (ps>.44). Moderation. Next, we examined whether a number of theoretically relevant individual-difference variables including participants' number of Facebook Friends, their perceptions of their Facebook network support, depressive symptoms, loneliness, gender, self-esteem, time of study participation, and motivation for using Facebook (e.g., to find new friends, to share good or bad things, to obtain new information) interacted with Facebook use to predict changes in affective or cognitive well-being (Text S6). In no case did we observe any significant interactions (ps>.16). Exploratory analyses. Although we did not have a priori predictions about whether Facebook use and direct social contact would interact to predict changes in affective and cognitive well-being, we nevertheless explored this issue in our final set of analyses. The results of these analyses indicated that Facebook use and direct social contact interacted significantly to predict changes in affective well-being, B = .002, χ2 = 19.55, p<.0001, but not changes in cognitive well-being, B = .000, β = .129, t(71) = .39, p = .70. To understand the meaning of the former interaction, we performed simple slope analyses. These analyses indicated that the relationship between Facebook use and declines in affective well-being increased linearly with direct social contact. Specifically, whereas Facebook use did not predict significant declines in affective well-being when participants experienced low levels of direct social contact (i.e., 1 standard deviation below the sample mean for direct social contact; B = .00, χ2 = .04, p = .84), it did predict significant declines in well-being when participants experienced moderate levels of direct social contact (i.e., at the sample mean for direct social contact; B = .05, χ2 = 11.21, p<.001) and high levels of direct social contact (i.e., 1 standard deviation above the sample mean for direct social contact; B = .10, χ2 = 28.82, p<.0001). Discussion Within a relatively short timespan, Facebook has revolutionized the way people interact. Yet, whether using Facebook predicts changes in subjective well-being over time is unknown. We addressed this issue by performing lagged analyses on experience sampled data, an approach that allowed us to take advantage of the relative timing of participants' naturally occurring behaviors and psychological states to draw inferences about their likely causal sequence [17], [18]. These analyses indicated that Facebook use predicts declines in the two components of subjective well-being: how people feel moment to moment and how satisfied they are with their lives. Critically, we found no evidence to support two plausible alternative interpretations of these results. First, interacting with other people “directly” did not predict declines in well-being. In fact, direct social network interactions led people to feel better over time. This suggests that Facebook use may constitute a unique form of social network interaction that predicts impoverished well-being. Second, multiple types of evidence indicated that it was not the case that Facebook use led to declines in well-being because people are more likely to use Facebook when they feel bad—neither affect nor worry predicted Facebook use and Facebook use continued to predict significant declines in well-being when controlling for loneliness (which did predict increases in Facebook use and reductions in emotional well-being). Would engaging in any solitary activity similarly predict declines in well-being? We suspect that they would not because people often derive pleasure from engaging in some solitary activities (e.g., exercising, reading). Supporting this view, a number of recent studies indicate that people's perceptions of social isolation (i.e., how lonely they feel)—a variable that we assessed in this study, which did not influence our results—are a more powerful determinant of well-being than objective social isolation [25]. A related question concerns whether engaging in any Internet activity (e.g., email, web surfing) would likewise predict well-being declines. Here too prior research suggests that it would not. A number of studies indicate that whether interacting with the Internet predicts changes in well-being depends on how you use it (i.e., what sites you visit) and who you interact with [26]. Future research Although these findings raise numerous future research questions, four stand out as most pressing. First, do these findings generalize? We concentrated on young adults in this study because they represent a core Facebook user demographic. However, examining whether these findings generalize to additional age groups is important. Future research should also examine whether these findings generalize to other online social networks. As a recent review of the Facebook literature indicated [2] “[different online social networks] have varied histories and are associated with different patterns of use, user characteristics, and social functions (p. 205).” Therefore, it is possible that the current findings may not neatly generalize to other online social networks. Second, what mechanisms underlie the deleterious effects of Facebook usage on well-being? Some researchers have speculated that online social networking may interfere with physical activity, which has cognitive and emotional replenishing effects [27] or trigger damaging social comparisons [8], [28]. The latter idea is particularly interesting in light of the significant interaction we observed between direct social contact and Facebook use in this study—i.e., the more people interacted with other people directly, the more strongly Facebook use predicted declines in their affective well-being. If harmful social comparisons explain how Facebook use predicts declines in affective well-being, it is possible that interacting with other people directly either enhances the frequency of such comparisons or magnifies their emotional impact. Examining whether these or other mechanisms explain the relationship between Facebook usage and well-being is important both from a basic science and practical perspective. Finally, although the analytic approach we used in this study is useful for drawing inferences about the likely causal ordering of associations between naturally occurring variables, experiments that manipulate Facebook use in daily life are needed to corroborate these findings and establish definitive causal relations. Though potentially challenging to perform—Facebook use prevalence, its centrality to young adult daily social interactions, and addictive properties may make it a difficult intervention target—such studies are important for extending this work and informing future interventions. Caveats Two caveats are in order before concluding. First, although we observed statistically significant associations between Facebook usage and well-being, the sizes of these effects were relatively “small.” This should not, however, undermine their practical significance [29]. Subjective well-being is a multiply determined outcome—it is unrealistic to expect any single factor to powerfully influence it. Moreover, in addition to being consequential in its own right, subjective well-being predicts an array of mental and physical health consequences. Therefore, identifying any factor that systematically influences it is important, especially when that factor is likely to accumulate over time among large numbers of people. Facebook usage would seem to fit both of these criteria. Second, some research suggests that asking people to indicate how good or bad they feel using a single bipolar scale, as we did in this study, can obscure interesting differences regarding whether a variable leads people to feel less positive, more negative or both less positive and more negative. Future research should administer two unipolar affect questions to assess positive and negative affect separately to address this issue. Concluding Comment The human need for social connection is well established, as are the benefits that people derive from such connections [30]–[34]. On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling such needs by allowing people to instantly connect. Rather than enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive “offline” social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults—it may undermine it. Supporting Information Text S1. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.s001 (DOCX) Text S2. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.s002 (DOCX) Text S3. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.s003 (DOCX) Text S4. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.s004 (DOCX) Text S5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.s005 (DOCX) Text S6. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841.s006 (DOCX) Acknowledgments We thank Emily Kean for her assistance running the study and Ozlem Ayduk and Phoebe Ellsworth for their feedback. Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: EK ED JP DSL NL JJ OY. Performed the experiments: HS NL. Analyzed the data: PV ED. Wrote the paper: EK ED PV JJ OY. 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doi-org-6169	----	Overcoming imposter syndrome: the adventures of two new instruction librarians | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search Overcoming imposter syndrome: the adventures of two new instruction librarians Jessica Martinez (Library Department, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA) Meredith Forrey (Shoreline Community College, Shoreline, Washington, USA) Reference Services Review ISSN: 0090-7324 Publication date: 1 August 2019 Abstract Purpose New librarians rarely feel fully prepared for academic library instruction. This could be attributed to many factors in both Master of Library and Information Science programs and work environments. Imposter syndrome or imposter phenomenon is a common way this insecurity manifests. Imposter phenomenon, first defined in 1978, is an individual’s feeling that they will be exposed as a fraud, regardless of how qualified or knowledgeable they actually are. Throughout the first year as new instruction librarians, the authors tracked their experiences with instruction and the imposter phenomenon. This paper aims to illuminate how imposter phenomenon impacts library instruction, provide suggestions for individual librarians and identify what academic libraries can do institutionally to mitigate feelings of fraudulence among their employees. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines the history and symptoms of imposter phenomenon, focusing on its presence in libraries. The authors draw on existing literature in psychology and library science, their own experience and a survey of 172 librarians. Suggestions for best practices for easing imposter phenomenon are then discussed based on the experiences of the authors and survey respondents. Findings This paper suggests several ways to ease the feelings of imposter phenomenon among those employed in academic libraries. Research limitations/implications This paper is based on the authors’ experiences, as well as a survey of 172 librarians. The survey was self-selecting, so the results may be skewed, but the themes apparent throughout the responses indicate that imposter phenomenon in libraries is pervasive and warrants further research. Practical implications The recommendations presented in this paper will provide new librarians and library administrators with concrete ways to identify and ameliorate imposter phenomenon among new instruction librarians. Originality/value Though imposter phenomenon has gained popular attention in wider society, extant research has not sufficiently addressed its role in the realm of academic library instruction. Given that most MLIS programs focus on theory rather than practice, finding ways to give new instruction librarians confidence in their positions is an area of research that warrants more exploration. Keywords Academic libraries Culture Career development Best practice Librarianship Instructors Citation Martinez, J. and Forrey, M. (2019), "Overcoming imposter syndrome: the adventures of two new instruction librarians", Reference Services Review, Vol. 47 No. 3, pp. 331-342. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2019-0021 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. 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doi-org-6345	----	A Preliminary Study of Writing Skills in Adolescents with Autism Across Persuasive, Expository, and Narrative Genres | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Original Paper Published: 17 October 2019 A Preliminary Study of Writing Skills in Adolescents with Autism Across Persuasive, Expository, and Narrative Genres Johanna R. Price  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6330-36961 , Gary E. Martin2 , Kong Chen3 & Jennifer R. Jones1   Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 50, pages319–332(2020)Cite this article 406 Accesses 4 Citations 9 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract Writing is often difficult for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet relatively little literature exists that profiles specific strengths and needs within this area. This preliminary investigation compares the written language skills of adolescents with ASD without intellectual disability (n = 14) to typically developing (TD) adolescents (n = 12). Writing samples from persuasive, expository, and narrative genres were elicited. Variables of sample length, writing productivity, syntax, lexical diversity, and macrostructure were analyzed. In the persuasive and expository genres, the ASD group scored significantly lower than the TD group on sample length and some aspects of macrostructure. The ASD group scored higher than the TD group on lexical diversity in the persuasive genre. Other comparisons yielded large effect sizes but were not statistically significant. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 199 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions References Altemeier, L. 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College curriculum competencies and skills former students found essential to their careers. College Student Journal,38(3), 412–422. Google Scholar  Download references Acknowledgments We thank the adolescents and families who participated in the study. We also thank Megan Black and Megan Schmidt for their assistance with data collection, as well as Hannah Martin, Kathleen Gildea, and Jordan Thompson for their assistance with data coding. This research was supported in part by a Provost Internal Research Grant from Western Carolina University. Author information Affiliations Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA Johanna R. Price & Jennifer R. Jones Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, St. John’s University, Staten Island, NY, USA Gary E. Martin Coulter Faculty Commons, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA Kong Chen Authors Johanna R. PriceView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Gary E. MartinView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Kong ChenView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Jennifer R. JonesView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Contributions JP conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and drafted the manuscript; GM participated in the design of the study and critically reviewed the manuscript for important content; KC participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analyses; JJ participated in data collection and coding and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Corresponding author Correspondence to Johanna R. Price. Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Ethical Approval All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the Ethical Standards of the Institutional and/or National Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed Consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants (and their parent/guardian) included in the study. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Price, J.R., Martin, G.E., Chen, K. et al. A Preliminary Study of Writing Skills in Adolescents with Autism Across Persuasive, Expository, and Narrative Genres. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 319–332 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04254-z Download citation Published: 17 October 2019 Issue Date: January 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04254-z Keywords Written language Writing samples Adolescents Autism spectrum disorder Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 199 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. 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doi-org-6958	----	Higher Education Experiences of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Challenges, Benefits and Support Needs | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Original Paper Published: 02 December 2014 Higher Education Experiences of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Challenges, Benefits and Support Needs Valérie Van Hees1 , Tinneke Moyson2 & Herbert Roeyers3   Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 45, pages1673–1688(2015)Cite this article 8710 Accesses 89 Citations 15 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract The transition into higher education constitutes a precarious life stage for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research on how students with ASD navigate college life is needed for the development of adequate support. This study investigated the challenges and support needs of 23 students with ASD in higher education through semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed following the principles of Grounded Theory. Students faced difficulties with new situations and unexpected changes, social relationships, problems with information processing and time management and had doubts about disclosure. Facing these challenges simultaneously in the domains of education, student life and daily (independent) living, had a major impact on students’ well being. Besides these challenges, students also reported benefits that contributed to success in the three domains. They pointed out to a set of recommendations for support. These findings are linked with previous research and implications for higher education institutions are extrapolated on the basis of these findings. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. 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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Author information Affiliations Office for Study and Career Guidance, Artevelde University College Ghent, Hoogpoort 15, 9000, Ghent, Belgium Valérie Van Hees Department of Education, Health and Social Work, University College Ghent, Voskenslaan 362, 9000, Ghent, Belgium Tinneke Moyson Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium Herbert Roeyers Authors Valérie Van HeesView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Tinneke MoysonView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Herbert RoeyersView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Valérie Van Hees. Electronic supplementary material Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 115 kb) Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Van Hees, V., Moyson, T. & Roeyers, H. Higher Education Experiences of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Challenges, Benefits and Support Needs. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 1673–1688 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2324-2 Download citation Published: 02 December 2014 Issue Date: June 2015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2324-2 Keywords ASD Higher education Qualitative research Students’ challenges Benefits Support needs and recommendations Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 199 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. 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doi-org-7177	----	Academic Subject Guides: A Case Study of Use at San José State University | Staley | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Author Shannon M. Staley is the Web Technology Lead in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at San Jose State University; e-mail:Shannon.Staley@sjsu.edu. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 68, No 2 (2007) > Staley Academic Subject Guides: A Case Study of Use at San José State University Shannon M. Staley Abstract Subject guides are lists of resources created to assist students with their research needs. While academic librarians ascribe great importance to subject guide development, it is difficult to tell whether students find them useful. A review of the literature reveals a lack of user-centered data in this area. This study investigates students’ use of subject guides in three areas of study—Nursing, Journalism & Mass Communications, and Organization & Management. Results indicate that students who have received library instruction tend to use subject guides more frequently and find them useful. Full Text: PDF DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.68.2.119 Copyright Copyright © The Author(s) Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 0 February: 2 March: 4 April: 2 May: 3 June: 1 July: 2 August: 2 September: 0 October: 6 November: 1 2019 January: 3 February: 2 March: 2 April: 1 May: 7 June: 2 July: 1 August: 5 September: 2 October: 3 November: 0 December: 2 2018 January: 1 February: 3 March: 3 April: 5 May: 8 June: 3 July: 1 August: 4 September: 1 October: 0 November: 3 December: 2 2017 April: 0 May: 22 June: 2 July: 3 August: 6 September: 1 October: 3 November: 9 December: 6 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
doi-org-7405	----	A Comparison of Research University and Two-Year College Library Web Sites: Content, Functionality, and Form | Cohen | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Authors Laura B. Cohen is Network Services Librarian at the University at Albany, SUN% e-mail:LCOHEN@cnsvax.albany.edu. Julie M. Still is Multimedia Instruction Librarian at Rutgers University, Camden; e-mail:still@crab.rutgers.edu. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 60, No 3 (1999) > Cohen A Comparison of Research University and Two-Year College Library Web Sites: Content, Functionality, and Form Laura B. Cohen, Julie M. Still Abstract The authors examined the library home pages of fifty Ph.D.-granting institutions and fifty two-year colleges to determine the home pages’ purpose as manifested by their content and its placement within the structure of the site. By looking at the library Web sites of contrasting academic institutions, the authors identified those aspects of the sites that reflect institutional character. They further identified a core common content that exists across academic library Web sites independent of the parent institution. Full Text: PDF DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.60.3.275 Copyright Copyright © The Author(s) Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 0 February: 2 March: 0 April: 8 May: 0 June: 2 July: 1 August: 1 September: 1 October: 4 November: 0 2019 January: 4 February: 1 March: 3 April: 3 May: 5 June: 3 July: 5 August: 6 September: 3 October: 2 November: 1 December: 2 2018 January: 7 February: 3 March: 11 April: 3 May: 5 June: 1 July: 0 August: 1 September: 1 October: 1 November: 4 December: 3 2017 April: 0 May: 1 June: 1 July: 3 August: 4 September: 3 October: 9 November: 7 December: 3 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
doi-org-7498	----	Project MUSE - In Pursuit of Antiracist Social Justice: Denaturalizing Whiteness in the Academic Library [Skip to Content] Institutional Login LOG IN browse or Search: menu Advanced Search Browse MyMUSE Account Log In / Sign Up Change My Account User Settings Access via Institution MyMUSE Library Search History View History Purchase History MyMUSE Alerts Contact Support Library Trends In Pursuit of Antiracist Social Justice: Denaturalizing Whiteness in the Academic Library Freeda Brook, Dave Ellenwood, Althea Eannace Lazzaro Library Trends Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 64, Number 2, Fall 2015 pp. 246-284 10.1353/lib.2015.0048 Article View Citation Additional Information Purchase/rental options available: Buy Issue for $20 at JHUP Abstract This article examines racism and the culture of Whiteness in academic libraries in three major areas of public services: space, staffing, and reference service delivery. The authors perform a critical discourse analysis, drawing on critical race theory, critical geography, critical education, and social psychology to examine foundational library scholarship and professional standards. Academic libraries, as products and representations of their parent institutions, are situated within the well-documented systemic and institutional racism of higher education in the United States. This is reflected in the monocultural geography and spaces of academic libraries. It is seen in the organizational culture and hiring practices of libraries, which are overwhelmingly staffed by White workers, while serving an increasingly diverse student body. Finally, it is reflected in the traditional tenets of reference service delivery, including approachability, responsiveness, and objectivity. The authors argue that racism is embedded in academic libraries through a culture of Whiteness. Consistent with social justice traditions in librarianship, they offer tools and suggestions to realign the profession with antiracist values and practices that will enable libraries to better serve their communities. collapse You are not currently authenticated. If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution or have your own login and password to Project MUSE Authenticate Purchase/rental options available: Buy Issue for $20 at JHUP Recommend Additional Information ISSN 1559-0682 Print ISSN 0024-2594 Pages pp. 246-284 Launched on MUSE 2016-02-18 Open Access No Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. about MUSE Story Publishers Discovery Partners Advisory Board Journal Subscribers Book Customers Conferences what's on muse Open Access Journals Books MUSE in Focus T.S. Eliot Prose resources News & Announcements Promotional Material Get Alerts Presentations information for Publishers Librarians Individuals Instructors Contact Contact Us Help Policy & Terms Accessibility Privacy Policy Terms of Use 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218 +1 (410) 516-6989 muse@press.jhu.edu ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Back To Top This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. 
doi-org-8150	----	Was this guide helpful? Users' perceptions of subject guides | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search Was this guide helpful? Users' perceptions of subject guides Martin P. Courtois (Instructional Technology Assistance Center, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA) Martha E. Higgins (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA) Aditya Kapur (Gelman Library, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA) Reference Services Review ISSN: 0090-7324 Publication date: 1 June 2005 Abstract Purpose – Most academic libraries make subject or research guides available on their web sites. Little is known, however, in terms of user satisfaction with guides. This study examines methods used to evaluate guides and reports on an online survey placed on each of more than 80 web‐based guides provided by Gelman Library, George Washington University. Design/methodology/approach – The survey, borrowing an approach used by Amazon.com and other web sites, consisted of a single question – Was this guide useful – and a comments box. Findings – Two hundred ten responses were received during Fall semester 2003. Fifty two percent of responses rated guides as Very Helpful or Somewhat Helpful, while 40 percent gave ratings of Not Helpful or a Little Helpful. Originality/value – Although limited in scope, this simple survey revealed positive elements of the guides and identified problems that could be addressed immediately. The survey also helped to identify larger issues that will benefit from additional user input. Keywords Research Assessment Surveys Customer satisfaction Internet Academic libraries Citation Courtois, M.P., Higgins, M.E. and Kapur, A. (2005), "Was this guide helpful? Users' perceptions of subject guides", Reference Services Review, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 188-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320510597381 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing Limited Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. Rent from Deepdyve If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited Services Authors Opens in new window Editors Opens in new window Librarians Opens in new window Researchers Opens in new window Reviewers Opens in new window About About Emerald Opens in new window Working for Emerald Opens in new window Contact us Opens in new window Publication sitemap Policies and information Privacy notice Site policies Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window COVID-19 policy Opens in new window × Support & Feedback Manage cookies We’re listening — tell us what you think Something didn’t work… Report bugs here All feedback is valuable Please share your general feedback Member of Emerald Engage? You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here. You can also find out more about Emerald Engage. Join us on our journey Platform update page Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates Questions & More Information Answers to the most commonly asked questions here 
doi-org-821	----	From paper to electronic, the evolution of pathfinders: a review of the literature | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search From paper to electronic, the evolution of pathfinders: a review of the literature Luigina Vileno (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) Reference Services Review ISSN: 0090-7324 Publication date: 7 August 2007 Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature on pathfinders, from the 1970s to the present. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews a range of publications which describe the methodology of pathfinders, provide practical advice and information, present research results, to aid librarians and library administrators in how to best manage the production and marketing of pathfinders. Findings – It was found that not much has been written on pathfinders. A few articles on traditional pathfinders were published between 1972 and 1995. In 1996, the electronic format took over. Most of the articles are of a practical nature although some describe empirical research. One void in the literature that has been found is librarians' lack of knowledge of users' needs and preferences. This results in much time and effort being dedicated to the production of pathfinders but without any consideration of users, thus discouraging them from using the available resources. Practical implications – This paper will be a useful source of information for librarians. It provides an overview of guidelines and best practices currently reported in the literature as well as the latest technical and educational trends. Originality/value – Such an extensive review of the literature on pathfinders has not been done before. It provides practical information for librarians wanting to embark on the production of pathfinders. It also identifies possible areas of future study. Keywords Internet Libraries Reference services Citation Vileno, L. (2007), "From paper to electronic, the evolution of pathfinders: a review of the literature", Reference Services Review, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 434-451. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320710774300 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing Limited Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. Rent from Deepdyve If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited Services Authors Opens in new window Editors Opens in new window Librarians Opens in new window Researchers Opens in new window Reviewers Opens in new window About About Emerald Opens in new window Working for Emerald Opens in new window Contact us Opens in new window Publication sitemap Policies and information Privacy notice Site policies Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window COVID-19 policy Opens in new window × Support & Feedback Manage cookies We’re listening — tell us what you think Something didn’t work… Report bugs here All feedback is valuable Please share your general feedback Member of Emerald Engage? You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here. You can also find out more about Emerald Engage. Join us on our journey Platform update page Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates Questions & More Information Answers to the most commonly asked questions here 
doi-org-7947	----	Frontiers | Figurative language processing in atypical populations: the ASD perspective | Human Neuroscience Impact Factor 2.673 | CiteScore 2.96 More on impact › Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Speech and Language Toggle navigation Section (current)Section About Articles Research topics For authors Why submit? Fees Article types Author guidelines Review guidelines Submission checklist Contact editorial office Submit your manuscript Editorial board Article alerts This article is part of the Research Topic The Metaphorical Brain View all 15 Articles Articles TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Introduction Figurative Language in Typical Populations Figurative Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder Summary and Conclusions Directions for Future Research Conflict of Interest Statement Acknowledgments References Suggest a Research Topic > Download Article Download PDF ReadCube EPUB XML (NLM) Supplementary Material Export citation EndNote Reference Manager Simple TEXT file BibTex total views View Article Impact Suggest a Research Topic > SHARE ON Review ARTICLE Front. Hum. Neurosci., 17 February 2015 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00024 Figurative language processing in atypical populations: the ASD perspective Mila Vulchanova1*, David Saldaña2, Sobh Chahboun1 and Valentin Vulchanov1 1Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab, Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 2Individual Differences, Language and Cognition Lab, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain This paper is intended to provide a critical overview of experimental and clinical research documenting problems in figurative language processing in atypical populations with a focus on the Autistic Spectrum. Research in the comprehension and processing of figurative language in autism invariably documents problems in this area. The greater paradox is that even at the higher end of the spectrum or in the cases of linguistically talented individuals with Asperger syndrome, where structural language competence is intact, problems with extended language persist. If we assume that figurative and extended uses of language essentially depend on the perception and processing of more concrete core concepts and phenomena, the commonly observed failure in atypical populations to understand figurative language remains a puzzle. Various accounts have been offered to explain this issue, ranging from linking potential failure directly to overall structural language competence (Norbury, 2005; Brock et al., 2008) to right-hemispheric involvement (Gold and Faust, 2010). We argue that the dissociation between structural language and figurative language competence in autism should be sought in more general cognitive mechanisms and traits in the autistic phenotype (e.g., in terms of weak central coherence, Vulchanova et al., 2012b), as well as failure at on-line semantic integration with increased complexity and diversity of the stimuli (Coulson and Van Petten, 2002). This perspective is even more compelling in light of similar problems in a number of conditions, including both acquired (e.g., Aphasia) and developmental disorders (Williams Syndrome). This dissociation argues against a simple continuity view of language interpretation. Introduction Figurative language is a cover term for linguistic expressions whose interpretation is nonliteral, where the meaning of the expression as a whole cannot be computed directly from the meaning of its constituents. Figurative language can vary in types, degrees of extension from the literal and degrees of transparency, and structure. Moreover, figurative expressions can fluctuate from a single word to a long sentence. Here belong a range of phenomena, such as metaphors, idioms, proverbs, humor and jokes, hyperbole, indirect requests, clichés (Gibbs, 1999). Such expressions are characterized by interpretations which cannot be retrieved by simply knowing the basic senses of the constituent lexical items, and where the addressee needs to arrive at the intended meaning rather than what is being said literally. It has been claimed that it is exactly the need to go beyond the literal interpretation and grasp the intended meaning that makes figurative language special and more demanding for processing (Levorato and Cacciari, 2002). Unlike literal language, such expressions depend more heavily on both linguistic and visual context, and are often—in fact, impossible—to understand in the absence of such context. Still, in everyday communication much of the meaning is implied, and can be understood following linguistic and contextual cues (Coulson, 2005). It is this context sensitivity of natural language that has inspired the continuity claim that figurative language is not exceptional. From this perspective, all language and all its sentences are multiply ambiguous whereby the content of all utterances largely underdetermines their interpretation (Gibbs, 1994; Sperber and Wilson, 2006). This approach suggests that figurative language is rather to be found on a continuum from literal-to loose-to metaphorical language and should not be considered as a departure from normal language use. While this is one of the more radical interpretations, all approaches arguing for a lack of exceptionality in figurative language sustain that it is pervasive both in language and in thought (Fauconnier, 1997, 2007; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1987; Turner, 1991). If this is true, then it is not a special form of language. Yet, research in developmental disorders documents subtle dissociations between the ability to understand literal expressions and the comprehension of nonliteral (figurative) language. For instance, high-functioning individuals with autism with intact structural language skills often fail to understand the meaning of jokes, irony, and idiomatic language (Gold and Faust, 2010; Vulchanova et al., 2012a,b). Thus, they present a case against a simple continuum view of figurative language. In this paper we present evidence from studies of figurative language processing in autism arguing that this evidence calls for a revision of a simple continuum view. We first review issues of relevance to our main topic, such as how to best approach and understand the similarities and differences in the processing of literal and figurative language. For this purpose we start by discussing evidence from typically developing children and adults, to then move on to comment on the data that can be found in looking at a population of special interest to figurative language, namely individuals with autism. We conclude by suggesting possible ways in which these data can be interpreted in the light of current cognitive accounts of autism and more broader approaches to language comprehension. Figurative Language in Typical Populations Figurative Language Acquisition in Typical Development Language development provides evidence of the somewhat different status of figurative language. It takes more time for children to begin to appreciate extended uses. According to Nippold (2006), the development of skills in processing metaphors, idioms and proverbs is an important part of semantic development. Compared to vocabulary acquisition and basic semantic skills, skills in the domain of figurative language emerge later. Thus, recent research (Levorato and Cacciari, 1995; Nippold, 1998, 2006; Kempler et al., 1999; Nippold and Duthie, 2003; Cain et al., 2009) suggests that the acquisition of idioms takes longer than vocabulary acquisition, and that it gradually takes off after age five and on. Opinions, and findings, however, divide concerning the path of this development. Nippold (1998, 2006) and Nippold and Duthie (2003) assume that this is a gradual development, not essentially different from other lexical development, and that it continues also in adulthood. However, Kempler et al. (1999) show that the understanding of idioms follows a non-linear path, very similar to the vocabulary burst between the second and the third year (Marchman and Bates, 1994; Bates and Goodman, 1997). Unlike vocabulary, however, with idioms, this process takes approximately four times longer, with a peak at around 11 years (Vulchanova et al., 2011). In a study of 6- and 9-year-old children and adults, Laval and Bernicot (2002) provide evidence that only at age 9 can children start to appreciate and use context in idiom comprehension. Furthermore, only from this age on children show sensitivity to frequency and familiarity. The appreciation of figurative language in development requires coordination between cognitive, linguistic and pragmatic skills (Tolchinsky, 2004; Bernicot et al., 2007). Several factors play a role in the acquisition and comprehension of figurative language. Among the most salient ones for idioms, for instance, are frequency of the expression, transparency of its structure, the context in which it is encountered, and linguistic skills and competences (Nippold and Duthie, 2003). It is commonly agreed and has been demonstrated that metalinguistic awareness facilitates the understanding of figurative language, including idioms (Levorato and Cacciari, 2002; Nippold and Duthie, 2003; Nippold, 2006). It has also been shown that reading comprehension is a strong predictor of idiom comprehension (Levorato et al., 2004). Bernicot et al. (2007) investigated the order of acquisition of different types of nonliteral language in children. They studied the relationship between the children’s understanding and their meta-pragmatic competence, defined as the ability to distinguish between what is being said and what is meant in indirect language. In that study they looked at three different types of expressions: indirect requests, idioms and conversational implicatures, in a story completion task. Their results demonstrate that mastering advanced language skills and competencies, such as those required for figurative language processing, correlates with age. This may be attributed to the maturity needed for the processing of expressions offering increased complexity of the inference between the literal meaning (what we say) and the figurative one (what we mean). Accounts of Figurative Language Processing Metaphors and literal language Metaphors are by far the most “popular” paradigmatic example of figurative language. At the level of thought, conceptual metaphor is a cognitive process by which we represent an abstract concept in terms of a more concrete and tangible one. Metaphors establish (novel) links or mappings between mental domains or spaces, typically a source one and a target one (Fauconnier, 1985). As such, they are ways of thinking capturing generalizations about the world around us and our experience of it. Theories of metaphors differ in how they assume metaphors are processed, and whether they consider them a departure from normal (literal) language or not. The standard pragmatic view assumes that metaphors are expressions processed via mechanisms different from those used for literal meanings. On this view, the literal meaning should be accessed and rejected before arriving at the intended (figurative) meaning. This implies that an inference is necessary to access the appropriate intended meaning (Grice, 1975). Many authors consider metaphors as “special” structures which are present in everyday language and change depending on time and culture (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Turner, 1991). Alternatively it is suggested that metaphorical and literal meanings are processed in parallel and also use the same mechanisms (Gibbs, 1994). Thus, for both lexical items and metaphorical language, processing interacts with information retrieved from the context (Gibbs, 1987, 1994). Gibbs et al. (1997) found that metaphors did not require more time to process than literal expressions. Furthermore, reaction times did not differ when the context was adequate. An important caveat here is, that equivalent processing times need not reflect equivalent effort (Coulson and Van Petten, 2002; Bambini and Resta, 2012). Coulson and Van Petten (2002) point to evidence from processing studies suggesting that metaphoric language places heavier demands on processing and requires additional effort for alignment and inference than literal language, not in the least by placing additional demands on working memory (Blasko, 1999). They further argue that the continuity claim should be distinguished from the equivalence claim, which assumes that metaphoric language is no more difficult to comprehend than literal language. They adopt a conceptual blending approach to metaphor (Fauconnier and Turner, 1998), which explains metaphor comprehension as a dynamic process, which creates a blending space combining attributes from the source and target domains. Thus, interpretation arises as a result of selecting relevant properties of these domains and inhibiting aspects which are not relevant through a process of constant updating. In an ERP study, which tested three types of expressions, sentences that ended with words used literally, metaphorically and in an intermediate literal mapping condition, they document that metaphors elicit the greatest N400 effect, while literal mappings occupy a place between true metaphors and literal statements judging by brain responses. This study thus provides evidence for the continuity claim, and, at the same time, shows that metaphors are indeed more demanding for processing, but in a gradient way. The authors suggest that metaphor “taxes” the system we use to understand figurative meaning for two basic reasons. On the one hand, one needs to establish a mapping between elements in distantly related domains (e.g., unlike metonymy), and on the other, to retrieve information from memory to integrate these elements. Other studies have shown similar results (Pynte et al., 1996). A common problem in assessing results from research in figurative language processing, as observed in Pickering and Frisson (2001), is that word frequency, plausibility, and cloze probability have not always been controlled in several studies reporting reading times for literal and figurative language. Such variables should be taken into account and would have produced different results when determining whether figurative language is more demanding compared to literal language. Links between metaphors and other types of figurative expressions have been suggested. Gibbs (2003) argues that idioms, often considered as “dead” metaphors, in fact, offer a more dynamic metaphor-based processing. In another study, Gibbs et al. (1997) conducted a series of experiments using a priming method to investigate the role of conceptual metaphors in immediate idiom integration. The aim of the study was to establish whether conceptual metaphors were accessed faster in the context of idioms in discourse. Participants accessed conceptual metaphors more often for the purpose of understanding an idiom, and less so when they were processing literal expressions or literal paraphrases of idioms. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that people access the appropriate conceptual metaphor when they are integrating each specific idiom, and not a similar one with the same figurative meaning. This suggests that idioms with the same figurative meanings may be associated with different conceptual metaphors. Processing of idiomatic expressions As a form of nonliteral language, idioms have attracted attention both in theoretical linguistics and in empirical psycholinguistic research, as a result of their specific nature, both in terms of structure and organization. Unlike regular phrases and expressions, idioms come largely in a “pre-packaged” form, with many, if not all of their components which cannot be freely replaced or supplemented. Idioms are expressions of varying degree of frozenness and semantic transparency. On the one hand, they are retrieved from the lexicon because they have to be acquired and stored like lexical items, and, on the other, they are processed like structures generated by grammar (Jackendoff, 2002; Vulchanova et al., 2011). Due to this “double” nature or different levels of processing, understanding idioms may pose problems. There are two kinds of theories regarding how idioms are processed and understood. According to the Lexical Representation hypothesis, idioms are stored as lexical items, and understanding an idiom involves two parallel processes, a retrieval process (which is faster), and a literal compositional computation process based on decomposing every element separately (Swinney and Cutler, 1979). Hamblin and Gibbs (1999) highlight idiom decomposability and suggest that idiom interpretation depends on identifying the individual constituents, because most idioms are decomposable. It is thus suggested that the processing and understanding idioms cannot be reduced to lexical access or lexical retrieval only (Cacciari and Tabossi, 1988; Gibbs, 1992; Vega-Moreno, 2001). This type of approach bridges over to the second type of approach, the configuration hypothesis. Authors that support it assume that idioms are represented in a distributed way and they are processed as complex expressions (Cacciari and Tabossi, 1988). Tabossi et al. (2005) found that spoken idiom identification differs from word recognition. This means that the modality of presenting the idiom may affect the way we process these expressions as well. A central question in all of the above approaches to idiom processing, but also more broadly to figurative language processing, is whether literal meanings are accessed first, and whether at all. Some authors reject the existence of literal or default meanings altogether (Sperber and Wilson, 2006), while others suggest a revision of the concept of literal meaning (Ariel, 2002). Recent experimental research, however, provides evidence of the existence of literal meaning, and support for a possible distinction between basic/literal senses and interpretations, and extended/derived ones. Foraker and Murphy (2012) investigated how polysemous senses are processed during sentence comprehension. In this study, in a condition where the context was neutral and did not bias towards a specific sense, participants read disambiguating sentences faster when these sentences were compatible with the dominant sense of target words. Rubio Fernandez (2007) provides further evidence of the “lingering” presence of literal meaning in the processing of figurative language in the domain of metaphors, where core features of word meaning remained activated even after the metaphorical meaning was retrieved. Idioms are easier to understand in the presence of supportive context. It has been commonly established that the main role of context is to provide semantic support for decoding the target (appropriate) meaning of a sentence or an expression (Cacciari and Levorato, 1989; Gibbs, 1991; Levorato and Cacciari, 1995; Vega-Moreno, 2001; Laval, 2003). Several factors influence idiom comprehension. Idiomatic expressions can vary in transparency. It is much easier to understand more transparent expressions that opaque ones. Another factor is familiarity. It is a variable that influences comprehension, and many studies establish that a higher degree of familiarity increases performance, leading to better results in different comprehension tasks (Gibbs, 1991; Levorato and Cacciari, 1995; Nippold and Taylor, 2002; Lacroix et al., 2010). We suggest here that competence in figurative language is characterized by the ability to process language beyond the literal interpretation of individual words. This competency relies both on inferencing skills and on the ability to integrate contextual information from both verbal and nonverbal sources. We expand this idea further in the next sections. While much of extended language use goes unnoticed to typical native speakers of a language, and, as such may appear part of normal communication, it may pose severe problems for children and adults with developmental deficits. Such populations offer a glimpse into subtle dissociations between literal and nonliteral (figurative) language. For instance, in the autistic spectrum, even high-functioning individuals are often described as overly literal and often fail to appreciate figurative expressions. Such dissociations speak against the view that there exist no basic senses of lexical items (Sperber and Wilson, 2006), since these senses appear to be the only ones available to these individuals. This if often displayed in problems in the autistic spectrum with resolving linguistic ambiguity. We devote the rest of this paper to analyzing this issue and reviewing what data from individuals with autism can tell us about the true nature of figurative language. Figurative Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted behavior and interests. The impairment in social interaction can be manifested in marked deficiencies in the use of eye contact, reading facial expressions, emotions, body posture, and gestures. Failure to develop peer relationships, lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people and lack of social or emotional reciprocity, are also typical in autism. Regarding the impairments in communication, the most common problem, even in individuals with adequate structural language, is the inability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others, including inability to maintain a topic shared with the interlocutor. In addition, ASD individuals frequently have a very stereotyped and repetitive use of language, thus leaving no room for spontaneity. Individuals with ASD also show other restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities. They may present encompassing preoccupation with one or more restricted patterns of interest. They are often characterized by lack of flexibility and adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals, repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements). Often they display persistent preoccupation with parts of objects (e.g., wheels of a toy car). Poor Figurative Language in ASD In typical language development, the acquisition of metalinguistic skills and the comprehension of figurative language seem to be achieved in childhood by the age of nine or ten years according to several authors. However, in ASD this process is typically delayed and depends on various factors, such as degree of language impairment, chronological age, context or social environment. Findings in research suggest that there is a delayed rate of development with regard to processing of ambiguity, idioms, metaphors and other types of figurative language in individuals with autism, and problems at more global levels of language structure, although performance may improve with age (Melogno et al., 2012a,b; Vulchanova et al., 2012a,b). ASD is a disorder that significantly affects language and communication, and many individuals with ASD do not develop fluent language due to comorbidity with other impairments, such as intellectual disability or language disorder (LD). When LD is comorbid with autism, there are serious difficulties in understanding ambiguous linguistic information, as would be expected. In contrast, individuals with high-functioning autism are distinguished by relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive skills. They usually display a level of intelligence which is normal or even above average, and quite often have specific talents in certain areas. However, problems with pragmatic language skills have also been reported in their case, even with clear strengths in areas of grammar (Landa, 2000; Volden et al., 2009; Vulchanova et al., 2012a,b). Such dissociations in ASD between literal and figurative language argue against a simple continuity model. One of the first studies to address figurative language comprehension and its roots in autism was the study by Happé (1995). It compared three groups of children with autism to a group of age- and VIQ-matched controls on the understanding of three types of expressions, synonyms, similes, and metaphors. In order to test the hypothesis that metaphor comprehension correlates with the ability to read minds and co-locutors’ intentions, participants were tested on both first-order, and second-order Theory-of-Mind (ToM) tasks. This study was inspired by ideas from Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986) and the aim was to put the basic assumptions of this account to the test, by investigating its predictions on the well-known problems in aspects of pragmatic language in autism. The basic idea with the language stimuli used in the study, administered as a sentence completion task, was that there is a gradation of difficulty in processing language, ranging from full transparency in literal expressions to close to full transparency (similes), to nontransparency (metaphors). The findings from this study confirm that metaphor comprehension is impaired in children and adolescents with autism, against adequate processing of similes, and that the ability to process metaphors is directly linked to ToM ability. Thus, the ASD participants who passed both first- and second-order ToM tasks outperformed both participants who solved only the first-order tasks and those who did not pass either task. The ToM account of the well-attested problems in autism with metaphor comprehension was tested further by Norbury (2005). In her study, an alternative hypothesis was put forth, namely that language competence is a better predictor of performance on metaphor tasks. For this purpose Norbury tested ASD children first grouped according to language ability and autistic symptomatology, and in a second analysis on their ToM ability. Both types of groups were compared to typically developing age-matched peers. The study included a number of tasks to establish language status: the British Picture Vocabulary scales (BPVS; Dunn et al., 1997), the Concepts and Directions subtest of CELF-III (Semel et al., 2000), and the Recalling sentences subtest of CELF-III. Semantic knowledge was tested on the Test of Word Knowledge (ToWK; Wiig and Secord, 1992), which includes synonyms, figurative language interpretation (idiomatic phrases), word definitions and word ambiguity (polysemy) testing. The results of this study demonstrate that semantic ability, which is a core language skill, is a better predictor of metaphor comprehension, whereas ToM, even though it predicts a proportion of the variance, is a weaker predictor of figurative language processing. Thus, only the children with a language impairment, with and without autism, showed impaired metaphor understanding. Furthermore, first-order ToM skills, while probably necessary, are not sufficient to ensure success with figurative language interpretation. These results, however, should be interpreted with caution, since the test used to assess semantic knowledge (ToWK) includes a number of subtests assessing figurative language comprehension, and as such, should, by definition, predict performance on metaphorical expressions (Rundblad and Annaz, 2010). While the above two studies have only investigated metaphors, further research has targeted a broader range of figurative expressions. MacKay and Shaw (2004) report performance on six categories of expressions, including hyperbole, indirect requests, irony, metonymy, rhetorical questions and understatement. The assumption in their design is that all of these categories involve interpreting what is intended, rather than said, in each expression. For this purpose, the authors used two measures, correct understanding of the meaning of the expression, and correct understanding of the intent of the speaker. In this study language stimuli were accompanied by supporting picture material to provide visual focus for the participants. The experimental group included high-functioning ASD children compared to a control group with no communicative difficulties. In addition to the statistical analysis of results, the study also includes many examples of children’s responses illustrating the specific pattern evident in the autistic spectrum in interpreting figurative expressions. This study documents a scale of difficulty in the area of figurative language, with irony standing out as (the most) challenging task, even for typical children, especially processing the intent of the speaker, and fewer problems in rhetorical questions, even for autistic children, where the meaning of such questions is accessible. Areas where a significant difference was observed between the typically developing children and the ASD group, include indirect requests (intent), understatements (intent), as well as metonymy (both meaning and intent). The latter category was problematic even in the presence of visual support cues, and especially when the visual cues were less suggestive. Based on the finding that ASD children performed at the same level as the control group on understanding the meaning of certain figurative expressions (indirect requests, rhetorical questions, understatement), but failed at understanding the intent of those same expressions, the authors suggest that this result may be caused by different levels of language competencies and skills in the two groups, not evident in the results on the vocabulary scales (BPVS). Unfortunately, this study cannot be compared to the above two, since it did not address metaphors (but only metonymy), and did not ask the same question, namely the extent to which figurative language interpretation depends on ToM ability. Yet, it establishes a scale of difficulty in the processing of indirect language and compares performance by ASD children to typically developing peers in a range of figurative expressions. Whyte et al. (2014) more recently studied idioms in children with ASD ages 5–12 years. They tested them on idiom comprehension, advanced ToM, vocabulary, and syntax. Like the other studies on figurative language, they also found that they performed worse than children matched on chronological-age. They were not, however, worse at understanding idioms than a syntax-matched control group of younger children. These results would support Norbury (2005) view that language impairment is actually the strongest factor in predicting performance on figurative language tasks. Beyond group studies, a couple of case studies have addressed figurative language in autism. Melogno et al. (2012a) provide a case study of two high-functioning ASD children. Participants were assessed twice, first prior to, and subsequently following an intervention. Even though, initially the two ASD children showed performance comparable to the average range of typical controls, their patterns of response were different. Assessment after intervention revealed improvement, but in a different way for each participant. Moreover, the level of performance was still below their chronological age, indicative of a “drift” in figurative language comprehension. In our own work we have addressed the cognitive and language profiles of two high-functioning (Asperger) children with a talent for language learning (Vulchanova et al., 2012a,b). These two case studies tested, among other language competencies, idiom comprehension and metaphor comprehension. Both participants in the studies displayed a highly deviant profile in idiom knowledge compared to similarly-aged controls. In the younger participant, the gap in performance with chronological age was huge (z = −3.08). Moreover, the participant performed poorer even than much younger children on the same task, suggesting a deviant developmental trajectory. Even though the gap with chronological age was somewhat smaller for the older participant (z = −2.22), it was still significant. The same participant showed an atypical pattern of responses to metaphorical expressions based on the design by Gold et al. (2010). In contrast to typical age-matched controls, for this participant, reaction times to novel metaphors and nonsense expressions were similar, reflecting a problem in distinguishing between these two types of expressions and assessing their plausibility. Some studies have failed to find significant differences in accuracy scores for participants with autism in studies of figurative language comprehension. For example, Colich et al. (2012) tested whether children and adolescents with autism were able to interpret the ironic intent of speakers. Although both typically developing and autistic participants showed longer response times to ironic comments, brain activation profile was more bilateral in the case of the ASD group, indicating a potential compensation mechanism in processing this kind of figurative language. The study by Pexman et al. (2011) also found similar responses in an irony comprehension task, with results in eye-tracking variables and judgment latencies indicating that individuals with autism might be using different mechanisms to respond. Developmental Aspects of Figurative Language in ASD In addition to the role of structural language abilities, a great deal of research has explored the influence of other variables that could potentially explain this deficit in the interpretation of nonliteral meaning in participants with autism. In this sense, an interesting question is whether these skills develop in relation to chronological age also in this population, and further whether there is development in relation to mental age. This was first studied from a developmental perspective by Rundblad and Annaz (2010). They compared performance on metonymy to metaphor performance in ASD and typical children. While metaphor is considered to represent a mapping between two distinct conceptual domains, metonymy is a mapping within the same conceptual domain (Lakoff, 1987), and, as such, may be considered a less demanding. The study included picture stories with lexicalized metaphors and lexicalized metonymies incorporated in brief stories. The authors established developmental trajectories for each group, and for each task, first assessing performance on the two tasks relative to chronological age. While for the typical group performance on both metonymy and metaphor increased reliably with chronological age, no reliable correlation was found between scores and chronological age on either task in the ASD children. In this group, in addition, children performed significantly worse on the metaphor task. These two tasks also revealed two different trajectories. While for metonymy there was a development, for metaphor, performance was constant across time and ages, indicating what the authors label a zero trajectory. Furthermore, this study shows that vocabulary scores predict reliably metonymy in the ASD group, with improved performance with higher verbal age, while no similar relationship was found for metaphor comprehension. Thus, compared to typical controls, the ASD group displays a similar rate of development for their level of receptive vocabulary in the area of metonymy, whereas the difference in metaphor comprehension is significantly different. This study adds an important developmental perspective, suggesting that metaphors are an area of specific difficulty where development is not only delayed (as with metonymy), but also highly atypical and, most likely, compromised. Gold et al. (2010) studied metaphor comprehension in Asperger syndrome in adolescent and adult participants using four types of expressions, free (literal) expressions (pearl necklace), conventional metaphors (sealed lips), novel metaphors (firm words), and nonsensical expressions (violin tiger). Their main goal was to establish the accuracy of interpreting such expressions and the degree of cognitive load involved, as measured by reaction times and brain activation. The results of this study showed that compared to typical controls, Asperger individuals present with problems, as reflected in significantly longer reaction times compared to typical controls. Furthermore, different patterns of activation, as seen in the N400 amplitude, were found between the Asperger participants and the control group, which reached significance for the category conventional and novel metaphor. While, in the control group conventional metaphors elicited least negativity, for the Asperger group, it was literal expressions. This suggests greater effort in the processing of metaphor across the board in ASD individuals, including even conventional metaphors, which can be stored, as well as novel metaphorical expressions. Moreover, in the Asperger group reaction times were significantly longer for the processing of nonsense expressions. The latter result is indicative of a specific problem evident in other studies of figurative language in autism, namely the inability to assess the plausibility of linguistic expressions events or facts (Tager-Flusberg, 1981; Paul et al., 1988). An interesting study provides evidence of a specific dissociation between the processing of visually presented metaphors and verbally presented ones in autistic populations (Mashal and Kasirer, 2012). This study compared ASD and Learning Deficit children to typically developing controls. They used 11 subtests, ranging from figurative language interpretation including visual metaphors, idioms, conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, to homophones and semantic tests (synonymy, similarity). The authors analysed the data using a Principal Component Analysis to investigate for clustering of performance results. Results loaded on three different factors in all three groups in the study, and while there was a significant overlap in the loading between groups, both deficit groups displayed a clustering of all three verbal figurative language skills (idioms, conventional and novel metaphors) in the same factor, suggestive of the specific problems in that population. Moreover, in those two groups there was a dissociation between metaphors presented visually, and those presented verbally, as reflected in the results loading on two different factors. In contrast, the typical children displayed an association between idioms and conventional metaphors, which can be expected, given the nature of conventionalized expressions and idioms, and an association between visual and novel metaphors, which loaded together on a separate factor. This latter result suggests an integration in typical individuals of the processing of metaphors, irrespective of their modality (visual or verbal), most probably through a common underlying cognitive mechanism. This does not appear to be the case in the autism group and the group with learning deficits. All of the clinical studies reviewed here document a dissociation between literal and figurative language in autism, which argues against a simple continuity model. Clearly a revision of this model is called for in the face of these data. Accounts of the Pragmatic Deficit: A Specific Deficit or Not? From the studies reviewed above and earlier findings, it becomes evident that there is a pervasive problem in the autistic spectrum in the broader domain of pragmatic aspects of language. However, there is a debate concerning the causes of this problem and what aspects of the autistic profile can account for the pragmatic deficit. One assumption is that the pragmatic deficit is not special and does not dissociate from the rest of language competence in autism. The idea is that performance on pragmatic tasks and the ability to process (ambiguous) language in context correlates directly with structural language competence (Norbury, 2005; Brock et al., 2008; Gernsbacher and Pripas-Kapit, 2012). Alternatively, the pragmatic deficit can be linked to other traits in the autistic profile. Thus, one of the most widely accepted theories of what is causing the deficit in the domain of figurative language and metaphors, in particular, is based on Happé’s study and hypothesis that the deficit is caused by impaired mentalising skills and in terms of impaired ToM (see also Baron-Cohen et al., 1985; Happé, 1993; Baron-Cohen, 2000, 2001). Clearly, the ToM hypothesis can explain one aspect of what is necessary to be able to perceive others’ intentions, including those expressed verbally. Yet, many studies reveal increased problems with decrease in the transparency of the mapping between language structure and (intended) interpretation (MacKay and Shaw, 2004). All studies document a specific problem in the area of metaphors, even compared to closely related, but less demanding, phenomena, such as e.g., metonymy. This indicates that reading intentions (mentalising) needs to be operationalized accordingly on a finer scale of gradience, explaining difficulties and/or success in all types of figurative expressions. A host of hypotheses attempts an account in terms of more general cognitive mechanisms dedicated to information processing. Some authors attribute the deficit to more general problems in executive functioning and the inability to suppress unnecessary information (Ozonoff et al., 1991; Mashal and Kasirer, 2012). This account links to the well-observed problem in assessing event plausibility (Tager-Flusberg, 1981), but also to the Weak Central Coherence account (Frith, 1989; Frith and Happé, 1994; Happé and Frith, 2006). Happé and Frith (2006) suggest that individuals with ASD have difficulties to understand metaphors, because they have a deficit in executive function and central coherence. This can be attributed to the fact that individuals with ASD display a bias for processing information locally rather than globally. Frith (1989) points out that in order to be able to understand a word or an expression they should be put in a concrete context. Context is even more important for figurative expressions, in order to process the intended meaning, rather than just the literal one. In fact, weak central coherence has been attributed as the source of pragmatic problems in individuals with ASD (Noens and van Berckelaer-Onnes, 2005). In addition, Norbury and Bishop (2002) found that people with ASD have difficulties in contextual integration, and the more ambiguous the expression is, the greater the problem in this population (Happé, 1997; Jolliffe and Baron-Cohen, 1999, 2000; López and Leekam, 2003; Brock et al., 2008). Other accounts seek to explain the pragmatic deficit at the neural level in terms of a right hemisphere (RH) deficit (Gold and Faust, 2010; Gold et al., 2010). In one study, participants were asked to perform a semantic judgment task. The results indicated much less Right Hemispheric contribution to novel metaphor comprehension in ASD. Impaired RH activity was further documented in other studies of figurative language processing (Faust and Mashal, 2007). Alternatively, it can be assumed that the inability to process figurative language arises from problems in information integration, especially when information is to be retrieved from multiple sources (e.g., problems with processing in context), and linking this to the more general deficit at global processing (top down) at the expense of enhanced local processing (bottom up). Of special interest here is that the well-documented problems in processing ambiguous information arise only in the context of language contra visual information (López and Leekam, 2003), and dissociates from structural language skills (Vulchanova et al., 2012a,b). Furthermore, there is evidence that visual and linguistic metaphors dissociate only in autistic participants, but not in typical children (Rundblad and Annaz, 2010). Therefore, it would be logical to conclude that the difficulties that people with autism demonstrate in figurative language are probably due to inability to either access both modalities at the same time or integrate information from more than one modality at the same time. While the visual context may assist interpretation in typical populations, it may create additional problems in deficit populations such as individuals with autism (Chahboun et al., in preparation). Indeed, one of the main symptoms of ASD is the lack of information integration and absence of adaptability to the environment (Minshew et al., 1997; Brock et al., 2008). Many authors attribute this to the inability to gather together information in order to be able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, in part attributable to weak central coherence (Frith, 1989; Happé and Frith, 2006; Vulchanova et al., 2012b). Selecting relevant features of the metaphor vehicle concept and suppressing the irrelevant ones has been suggested as the basic mechanism in metaphor comprehension (Rubio Fernandez, 2007). It is widely argued that individuals with ASD are impaired in processing ambiguous linguistic information in context (López and Leekam, 2003; Brock et al., 2008). In addition, they often fail to attach context to their memories and are specifically impaired in processing social aspects of contextual information (Greimel et al., 2012). Happé (1996) suggests that difficulties in global processing could be due to conceptual semantic deficits, but also to a failure in extracting perceptual properties from context. López and Leekam (2003) provide evidence that the ability to use context is spared in the visual domain, but reduced in the verbal one. Further, they document increased problems with increased complexity of the verbal stimuli and with higher level of ambiguity. This points to the limitations in the ability to use contextual information in individuals with ASD, but not a complete absence of this skill. The extent to which individuals with autism can use context in disambiguation is an open question, and findings are controversial. Some authors consider that people with ASD are unable to use contextual information in sentence-processing tasks. Others still, claim that success or failure depend on the nature of the context: the more general the information provided by the context is, the more difficult it is for autistic participants to disambiguate homographs (Hermelin and O’Connor, 1967; Frith and Snowling, 1983; López and Leekam, 2003). Saldaña and Frith (2007) and Tirado (2013) document that children with ASD have a normal reduction in reading times for expressions which are congruent with previous events, suggesting a relative strength at detecting congruence. It has also been argued that the ability to use context depends on structural language skills, and only ASD participants with poor language skills fail to use visual context (Norbury, 2005; Brock et al., 2008). What is clear from these studies is that different types of context present different processing demands, and autistic performance varies accordingly. Summary and Conclusions Language is a complex multi-layered and multifaceted system. In order to interpret language appropriately, users need a number of skills. Figurative language can be even more demanding in terms of processing. It is acquired relatively late and has a complex nature, which makes it even more difficult for atypical population, such as individuals with ASD, to understand. What skills are deemed necessary for language processing and figurative language, in particular? Adequate structural language competence, adequate semantic competencies and skills and vocabulary size (Norbury, 2004, 2005; Oakhill and Cain, 2012), inferencing skills; a developed conceptual system and a knowledge base (Schneider et al., 1989; Fuchs et al., 2012; Oakhill and Cain, 2012); information integration skills (context; evaluating plausibility and suppressing irrelevant information, Rubio Fernandez, 2007); mentalising and understanding intentions (see Kintsch, 2000 for a computer simulation model). Needless to say, many of these skills co-vary with language (e.g., semantic skills and vocabulary, conceptual knowledge, and the knowledge base are often directly associated with linguistic labels), so studying them in isolation and controlling for their impact on figurative language depends on the kind of measure adopted. Impairment in any one of these areas is sufficient to cause problems in the comprehension of figurative language. For instance, in order to understand one of the most demanding instances of figurative language, metaphor, the user not only needs to have prior experience and knowledge of the concepts that are being associated in a metaphorical expression, but also knowledge of their respective domains and the networks they form with other concepts in these domains (Keil, 1986; Bambini et al., 2011). This requires information integration and processing skills, beyond those required for simple concept combination (Barsalou, 1999; Wu and Barsalou, 2009), and depends on the ability to form associations, analogies and other top-down skills. If we take high-functioning autistic individuals as a test case, the cause of the persistent difficulty in figurative language becomes more evident. In this population, structural language is intact; they present with adequate semantic and conceptual skills, are good at compositional operations at the level of the sentence, perform adequately at a number of inferencing tasks (Tirado, 2013 PhD thesis), and usually pass first-order, and often second-order ToM tasks, and have an age-appropriate knowledge base, as attested by normal IQ scores. The only area where problems persist is information integration and inability to use information from the database adequately: evaluating plausible/implausible events; assessing what is relevant; combining information arising from different modalities. Building on the original proposal by Kintsch (1998), an influential account of (reading) comprehension suggests that success at language processing depends on creating appropriate situation models. This means that the language user needs to create a mental representation of what the message is about, not what the message says (Zwaan, 1999). Based on the evidence in research on problems in the domain of figurative language interpretation, it is highly likely that autistic individuals have problems in building and making use of appropriate situation models. The models they build could in some respects be incomplete. More importantly, they might not be able to make use of them to understand the co-locutor’s intention with the message. It seems as though, they possess the necessary knowledge base, but cannot use it adequately, since they cannot judge plausibility (Tager-Flusberg, 1981; Paul et al., 1988), often fail at certain types of inferences, and are not always good at exploiting contextual information. It has been shown that typical children benefit from visual support and are better at processing visually presented metaphors (Epstein and Gamlin, 1994). However, multi-modal and multi-sensory information appears to be a problem in autism, despite intact visual processing per se (López and Leekam, 2003; Chahboun et al., in preparation). As a consequence, individuals in the autistic spectrum fail to integrate a situation model that integrates the necessary information, the speaker’s intent and the rest of the context in which all this must be used. Directions for Future Research Most of the studies reviewed in this paper are heterogeneous and difficult to compare. They have used different methodologies, test skills in different figurative language domains, and often use largely heterogeneous groups of participants. Thus, quite often the range of participants is from mid-childhood to adulthood. Since one of the intriguing questions in research in developmental deficits is whether one can expect development in the comprehension of the different types of figurative expressions, more homogenous groups are required, in both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies (cf. Melogno et al., 2012b for a similar point). Similarly, the types of expressions selected in those studies vary tremendously, especially those that have been chosen as exponents of the target category. For instance, the degree to which expressions fall in the category of conventional metaphor needs to be tested prior to including it in an experiment. Likewise, other linguistic properties of the stimuli are important: frequency of expression and/or constituent words will affect processing; collocational frequency of the constituents in the expression (e.g., “buckle” and “button” are by far the most frequent complement fillers of “fasten”, as in fasten a buckle/a belt, so these phrases tells us little about argument structure competence in typical and deficit populations alike). The observed dissociation between figurative (non-literal) and literal language processing in ASD lends support to findings about the neural correlates of idiomatic language processing in typical adult populations (Lauro et al., 2008), suggesting a bilateral involvement of fronto-temporal areas for idioms against selective activation of left inferior parietal areas in the case of literal expressions. The recruitment of the prefrontal cortex may reflect an active selection between alternative meanings when idioms are processed. This offers a new perspective for future research comparing the neural and cognitive mechanisms involved in figurative language comprehension in autism and typical populations. Another intriguing line of research are recent accounts of the role of embodiment in human cognition and, specifically, in language comprehension (Barsalou, 2008). It has been suggested that the well-attested communication problems in autism could be partially driven by core (low-level) cognitive mechanisms, such as deficits in temporal coordination and sensori-motor impairment (e.g., motor movement). This type of account is consistent with models of embodied cognition in typical populations and is worth pursuing in future research (Eigsti, 2013). An interesting, yet unexplored perspective are parallel studies of similar pragmatic deficits observed in different developmental disorders. For instance, Lacroix et al. (2010) document problems in idiom comprehension in French speaking children and adolescents with William’s syndrome. Similar results have been found while testing the ability to understand metaphors and sarcasm (Karmiloff-Smith et al., 1995; Annaz et al., 2009). Since WS is characterized by a relative strength in language and social interest, but poor conversational skills, contra impaired spatial cognition, it would be interesting to test how this population compares to the autistic spectrum, especially the higher end, where structural language is spared, too. Even more intriguingly, it has been suggested that the observed figurative language problems in WS may be attributed to poor semantic integration (Hsu, 2013). Finally, if we are right in attributing the figurative language deficit to poor information integration and impaired situation models, appropriate tasks need to be set up to test for exactly these types of skills. Developmental deficits offer a rare glimpse into the, sometimes subtle, dissociations between and within cognitive domains, such as e.g., structural vs. extended (figurative) language, and as such, can shed light on how metaphors and other figurative expressions are processed in typical individuals, what kinds of demands this processing requires and at what cost. Future research should seek to provide a consistent comprehensive account of the mechanisms involved in language comprehension at the neural and cognitive levels in both typical and deficit populations (Dilkina and Lambon Ralph, 2013). Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. 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Neurosci. 9:24. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00024 Received: 14 April 2014; Accepted: 11 January 2015; Published online: 17 February 2015. Edited by: Seana Coulson, University of California at San Diego, USA Reviewed by: Christelle Declercq, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France Valentina Bambini, Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS), Italy Copyright © 2015 Vulchanova, Saldaña, Chahboun and Vulchanov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. *Correspondence: Mila Vulchanova, Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab, Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Edvard Bulls veg 1, 7491 Trondheim, Norway e-mail: mila.vulchanova@ntnu.no COMMENTARY ORIGINAL ARTICLE People also looked at Suggest a Research Topic > 
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doi-org-8359	----	The rise of the blended professional in higher education: a comparison between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search Published: 12 February 2009 The rise of the blended professional in higher education: a comparison between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States Celia Whitchurch1   Higher Education volume 58, pages407–418(2009)Cite this article 2290 Accesses 125 Citations 18 Altmetric Metrics details Abstract This paper builds on earlier work by the author to explore the international dimensions of a study of the changing roles and identities of professional staff in higher education (Whitchurch 2008a, b). It further develops the concept of the blended professional, characterising individuals with identities drawn from both professional and academic domains, and examines the institutional spaces, knowledges, relationships and legitimacies that they construct. Comparisons between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States are used to provide indicators of possible futures for this group of staff, including their positioning in the university community, the challenges they face, and the potentials that they offer to their institutions. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 99 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions References Barnett, R. (2000). Realizing the university in an age of supercomplexity. Buckingham: Open University/SRHE. Google Scholar  Barnett, R., & di Napoli, R. (2008). Changing identities in higher education: Voicing perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge. 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Hiroshima: Research Institute of Higher Education, Hiroshima University. Google Scholar  Rhoades, G. (1996). Reorganising the faculty workforce for flexibility: Part-time professional labour. The Journal of Higher Education, 67(6), 624–659. doi:10.2307/2943815. Article  Google Scholar  Rhoades, G. (1998). Reviewing and rethinking administrative costs. In J. C. Smart (Ed.), Higher education handbook of theory and research (pp. 111–147). NewYork: Agathon Press, sponsored by AIR and ASHE, XIII. Google Scholar  Rhoades, G. (2005). Capitalism, academic style, and shared governance. Academe, 91(3). http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubstes/academe/2005/MJ/Feat/rhod.htm. Whitchurch, C. (2006). Professional managers in UK higher education: Preparing for complex futures. Interim report. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research.html/. Whitchurch, C. (2008a). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of third space professionals in UK higher education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4), 377–396. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00387.x. Article  Google Scholar  Whitchurch, C. (2008b). Professional managers in UK higher education: Preparing for complex futures. Final report. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research.html/. Download references Acknowledgment The author acknowledges the support provided by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education between 2005 and 2007 for the study on which this paper draws. Author information Affiliations Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, UK Celia Whitchurch Authors Celia WhitchurchView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Celia Whitchurch. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Cite this article Whitchurch, C. The rise of the blended professional in higher education: a comparison between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. High Educ 58, 407–418 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9202-4 Download citation Received: 21 August 2008 Accepted: 17 January 2009 Published: 12 February 2009 Issue Date: September 2009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9202-4 Keywords Professional roles Professional identities Blended professionals Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. US$ 39.95 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Subscribe to journal Immediate online access to all issues from 2019. Subscription will auto renew annually. US$ 99 Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Rent this article via DeepDyve. 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doi-org-890	----	Electronic Pathfinders in Academic Libraries: An Analysis of Their Content and Form | Dahl | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Author Candice Dahl is a Master’s Student, Faculty of Information Studies, at the University of Toronto: e-mail:cddahl@sprint.ca. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 62, No 3 (2001) > Dahl Electronic Pathfinders in Academic Libraries: An Analysis of Their Content and Form Candice Dahl Abstract Forty-five electronic pathfinders were selected from nine Canadian university libraries to assess their degree of conformity to suggested guidelines in the existing literature about pathfinders. The content and the format of the chosen pathfinders were assessed in terms of consistency and scope. Also considered were overall readability and whether they were effectively constructed to be used as starting points for further research. The analysis revealed that the guidelines were not uniformly followed, leaving some pathfinders more complex and less useful than others. Further, it demonstrated that specific guidelines must be created for electronic pathfinders because they pose particular problems that are not addressed in the current literature about pathfinders in general. Full Text: PDF DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.62.3.227 Copyright Copyright © The Author(s) Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 1 February: 2 March: 7 April: 4 May: 1 June: 6 July: 4 August: 2 September: 0 October: 2 November: 3 2019 January: 1 February: 2 March: 0 April: 1 May: 1 June: 2 July: 4 August: 0 September: 0 October: 0 November: 0 December: 1 2018 January: 5 February: 0 March: 2 April: 10 May: 6 June: 4 July: 0 August: 1 September: 1 October: 0 November: 2 December: 7 2017 April: 0 May: 38 June: 6 July: 2 August: 6 September: 3 October: 2 November: 2 December: 3 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
doi-org-8873	----	Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics | Annual Review of Applied Linguistics | Cambridge Core Skip to main content Accessibility help We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Login Alert Cancel Log in × × Home Only search content I have access to Home Log in Register Browse subjects What we publish Services About Cambridge Core Cart Cart Institution login Register Log in Cart Home Journals Annual Review of Applied Linguistics Volume 35 Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics EnglishFrançais Annual Review of Applied Linguistics Article contents Abstract INTRODUCTION IDENTITY AND INVESTMENT IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE A MODEL OF INVESTMENT FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER: IDEOLOGY, CAPITAL, IDENTITY THE MODEL IN PRAXIS CONCLUSION References Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2015 Ron Darvin  and Bonny Norton Show author details Ron Darvin Affiliation: University of British Columbiaron.darvin@alumni.ubc.ca; bonny.norton@ubc.ca Bonny Norton Affiliation: University of British Columbiaron.darvin@alumni.ubc.ca; bonny.norton@ubc.ca Corresponding E-mail address: ron.darvin@alumni.ubc.ca ; bonny.norton@ubc.ca Article Metrics Article contents Abstract INTRODUCTION IDENTITY AND INVESTMENT IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE A MODEL OF INVESTMENT FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER: IDEOLOGY, CAPITAL, IDENTITY THE MODEL IN PRAXIS CONCLUSION References Share Cite Rights & Permissions[Opens in a new window] Abstract This article locates Norton's foundational work on identity and investment within the social turn of applied linguistics. It discusses its historical impetus and theoretical anchors, and it illustrates how these ideas have been taken up in recent scholarship. In response to the demands of the new world order, spurred by technology and characterized by mobility, it proposes a comprehensive model of investment, which occurs at the intersection of identity, ideology, and capital. The model recognizes that the spaces in which language acquisition and socialization take place have become increasingly deterritorialized and unbounded, and the systemic patterns of control more invisible. This calls for new questions, analyses, and theories of identity. The model addresses the needs of learners who navigate their way through online and offline contexts and perform identities that have become more fluid and complex. As such, it proposes a more comprehensive and critical examination of the relationship between identity, investment, and language learning. Drawing on two case studies of a female language learner in rural Uganda and a male language learner in urban Canada, the model illustrates how structure and agency, operating across time and space, can accord or refuse learners the power to speak. Type Research Article Information Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 35 , March 2015 , pp. 36 - 56 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000191[Opens in a new window] Copyright Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015  INTRODUCTION Exactly two decades ago, in 1995, Bonny Norton began publishing her research on identity, investment, and imagined communities (Norton Peirce, Reference Norton Peirce1995; Norton, Reference Norton2000, Reference Norton2013), which is now considered foundational in applied linguistics (Block, Reference Block2007; Kramsch, Reference Kramsch and Norton2013; Miller & Kubota, Reference Miller, Kubota, Herschensohn and Young-Scholten2013; Ortega, Reference Ortega2009; Swain & Deters, Reference Swain and Deters2007). She has continued to enrich and refine these ideas, working actively with a diverse range of scholars (Darvin & Norton, Reference Darvin and Norton2014b; De Costa & Norton, Reference De Costa, Norton and Preeceforthcoming; Kanno & Norton, Reference Kanno and Norton2003; Norton & Early, Reference Norton and Early2011; Norton & McKinney, Reference Norton, McKinney and Atkinson2011; Norton & Toohey, Reference Norton and Toohey2011; Pavlenko & Norton, Reference Pavlenko, Norton, Cummins and Davison2007). Norton defines identity as “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future” (Norton, Reference Norton2013, p. 45). Drawing on Weedon's (Reference Weedon1987) notion of subjectivity, she shares the poststructuralist's assertion that language constructs our sense of self, and that identity is multiple, changing, and a site of struggle. By theorizing the complex relationship between the language learner and the social world, she seeks to sharpen the lens through which second language acquisition (SLA) scholarship examines the relations of power associated with the language learning process. This lens challenges educational agents to reflect on the material conditions that allow learning to take place, and how learners, inscribed by race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexual orientation are accorded or refused the right to speak. Conceptualized as a sociological complement to the psychological construct of motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, Reference Dörnyei and Ushioda2009; Murray, Gao, & Lamb, Reference Murray, Gao and Lamb2011), investment holds a significant place in language learning theory for demonstrating the socially and historically constructed relationship between language learner identity and learning commitment. Kramsch (Reference Kramsch and Norton2013, p. 195) notes as follows: Norton's notion of investment . . . accentuates the role of human agency and identity in engaging with the task at hand, in accumulating economic and symbolic capital, in having stakes in the endeavor and in persevering in that endeavor. As Norton has argued, if learners invest in a language, they do so with the understanding that they will acquire a wider range of symbolic and material resources, which will in turn increase the value of their cultural capital and social power. Inspired by the work of Bourdieu (Reference Bourdieu1977, Reference Bourdieu1984, Reference Bourdieu1991), the construct of investment seeks to collapse the dichotomies associated with traditional conceptions of learner identity (good/bad, motivated/unmotivated, anxious/confident, introvert/extrovert) and recognizes that the conditions of power in different learning contexts can position the learners in multiple and often unequal ways, leading to varying learning outcomes. While constructs of motivation frequently view the individual as having a unitary and coherent identity with specific character traits, investment regards the learner as a social being with a complex identity that changes across time and space and is reproduced in social interaction. In addition to asking, “Are students motivated to learn a language?” one asks, “Are students and teachers invested in the language and literacy practices of a given classroom and community?” For example, a student may be a highly motivated learner, but may not be invested in the language practices of a given classroom if the practices are racist, sexist, or homophobic. As identity is fluid, multiple, and a site of struggle, how learners are able to invest in a target language is contingent on the dynamic negotiation of power in different fields, and thus investment is complex, contradictory, and in a state of flux (Norton, Reference Norton2013; Norton Peirce, Reference Norton Peirce1995). Given the considerable interest in the construct of investment by applied linguistics scholars, this article has three objectives. First, we illustrate the diverse ways in which scholars internationally have been drawing on the construct of investment in their identity research, with a focus on more recent scholarship; second, given the social and economic changes that have taken place since the construct was first developed two decades ago, we draw on theoretical advances to propose a model of investment that integrates identity, ideology, and capital; third, we draw on two comparative research studies to illustrate the ways in which the model might serve as a framework for analysis in language learning and applied linguistics. IDENTITY AND INVESTMENT IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Earlier research that drew on Norton's constructs of identity and investment was focused on language learning research in the North American context and focused on the learner and the learning context. Thus McKay and Wong (Reference McKay and Wong1996), for example, drew on investment to explain the English language development of four Mandarin-speaking secondary students in a California school; Skilton-Sylvester (Reference Skilton-Sylvester2002) examined the investments of four Cambodian women in adult English as a second language (ESL) classes in the United States; Potowski (Reference Potowski2004) and Bearse and de Jong (Reference Bearse and de Jong2008) focused on investment in the context of two-way Spanish-English immersion programs; and Haneda (Reference Haneda2005) drew on the construct of investment to understand the engagement of two university students in an advanced Japanese literacy course. In 2004, Pittaway (Reference Pittaway2004) provided a helpful literature review on investment research at that time, and by 2006, Cummins argued that investment had emerged as a “significant explanatory construct” (Reference Jenkins2006, p. 59) in the second language learning literature, using the construct to develop the notion of “identity texts,” explored in greater depth in Cummins & Early (Reference Cummins and Early2010). In more recent years, while scholars in the global North remain committed to identity research, with monographs in abundance (e.g., Block, Reference Block2014; Clark, Reference Clark2009; Higgins, Reference Higgins2011; Kamada, Reference Kamada2010; Kramsch, Reference Kramsch2009; Menard-Warwick, Reference Menard-Warwick2009; Mercer & Williams, Reference Mercer and Williams2014; Norton, Reference Norton2013; Preece, Reference Preeceforthcoming), interest in the construct of investment, more specifically, has been taken up in widely dispersed regions of the world. In 2008, for example, Arkoudis and Davison (Reference Arkoudis and Davison2008) devoted a special issue of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication to the construct of investment, examining Chinese students’ social, cognitive, and linguistic investment in English medium interaction. Articles addressed a wide range of issues, including the investments of college students from nonurban areas in China (Gu, Reference Gu2008), to the relationship between content and English language interaction in the undergraduate classroom (Trent, Reference Trent2008), and the use of an “English Club” to practice English by mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong (Gao, Cheng, & Kelly, Reference Gao, Cheng and Kelly2008). Norton and Gao (Reference Norton and Gao2008) provided a comprehensive analysis of the research studies in the special issue, noting that identity and investment are paramount considerations in understanding Chinese learners of English, whether they are in China or other regions of the world. In a study of Jenny, a Chinese language learner in Singapore, for example, De Costa (Reference De Costa2010) found the construct of investment highly productive, drawing on investment to better understand how and why Jenny embraced standard English to inhabit an identity associated with being an academically able student. Two central questions, which are increasingly debated in the wider applied linguistics community, are “Who owns English?” and “What are learner and teacher investments in the English language?” With reference to Chinese learners in particular, Norton and Gao noted: As Chinese learners of English continue to take greater ownership of the English language, redefine the target language community, and develop unique forms of intercultural competence, scholars interested in English language learning and teaching need to reframe their research questions and reconsider their assumptions. (Norton & Gao, Reference Norton and Gao2008, p. 119) Beyond the North American and Asian context, Norton and her colleagues have been working for over a decade in the African context, and Uganda in particular, to better understand student and teacher investments in digital literacy and the English language (Early & Norton, Reference Early and Norton2014; Mutonyi & Norton, Reference Mutonyi and Norton2007; Norton & Early, Reference Norton and Early2011; Norton, Jones, & Ahimbisibwe, Reference Norton, Jones and Ahimbisibwe2011; Norton & Williams, Reference Norton and Williams2012; Tembe & Norton, Reference Tembe and Norton2008). What they have found is that both Ugandan students and their teachers are highly invested in new literacy practices because digital technology has expanded what is socially imaginable for learners and teachers, extending the range of identities available to community members. Advanced education, professional opportunities, study abroad, and other opportunities have become part of imagined futures and imagined identities. While Norton and her colleagues do not suggest that what is socially imaginable is also socially available in the African context, it was clear that as students and teachers developed valued digital skills, they also gained increasing cultural capital and social power. The investments of female teachers in particular were profound, with one teacher named Betty noting that she “felt like a man” when using a digital camera: I feel very powerful like a man because I had never held a camera in my life. I have always seen only men carrying cameras and taking photos in big public functions like may be independence celebration, political rallies and wedding ceremonies. But now as I move in the community taking pictures with my camera, I feel I am also very powerful, like a man. (Andema, Reference Andema2014, p. 91) Further, while the work of Blommaert (Reference Blommaert2010) has been particularly helpful in theorizing digital resources as “placed resources,” Norton and Williams (Reference Norton and Williams2012) have sought to extend his notion of “uptake” with reference to the construct of investment. While Blommaert has argued that discourses shift their value, meaning, and function as they travel across borders, largely as a result of “dominant indexical frames and hierarchies” (Blommaert, Reference Blommaert2003, p. 616), Norton and Williams have argued that the construct of investment extends the notion of uptake, given that investment indexes issues of identity and imagined futures. Emerging scholars in both the global South and North have brought much energy to the study of identity and investment. In Australia, for example, Ollerhead (Reference Ollerhead2012) has drawn on the constructs of investment and imagined communities to understand teacher responses to learner identity in low-level adult ESL classrooms, illustrating how learners’ hopes for the future are integral to learner identity. In Brazil, Carazzai and Sanches Silva, like Reeves (Reference Reeves2009), have turned their attention to the investments of language teachers rather than language learners. In their doctoral dissertations, Carazzai (Reference Carazzai2013) and Sanches Silva (Reference Sanches Silva2013) studied the construction of teacher identity in the states of Santa Catarina and Mato Grasso du Sul, focusing on investments in learning and teaching English in a context where Portuguese is the dominant language. They found that investments in the English language and the teaching of English are best explained in terms of student teachers’ imagined identities, as well as the opportunities afforded to them for both face-to-face and virtual interaction with English speakers internationally. Mastrella-de-Andrade, likewise, has helped to extend theories of identity and investment to her Portuguese-speaking colleagues in Brazil (Mastrella-de-Andrade & Norton, Reference Mastrella-de-Andrade, Norton and Mastrella-De-Andrade2011). In an intriguing mirror image, Anya (forthcoming), although at the time a graduate student in the United States, conducted data collection in Brazil, where she studied the investments of African American language learners of Portuguese in a study abroad program in the Afro-Brazilian city of Salvador. Findings illustrate how African Americans co-constructed and negotiated multiple racialized, gendered, and classed identities in the learning of Portuguese, and how their investments influenced SLA. In what could be described as a “meta study,” Chang (Reference Chang2011) has examined the graduate student population itself, focusing on two nonnative English-speaking (NNES) international students in an English-speaking graduate school in the United States. Through the lens of investment and imagined communities, Chang argued that the students were able to exert their own agency “to fight their academic battle” (p. 228) and selectively invest in areas that would increase their market value in their current and imagined communities. In the multilingual European context, interest in work on identity and investment has been gathering momentum. Research on English as a lingua franca (Jenkins, Reference Jenkins2006) has drawn considerably on Norton's work, while German-speaking European educators have found the relationship between literacy, identity, and investment productive for classroom-based research with youth (Bertschi-Kaufmann & Rosebrock, Reference Bertschi-Kaufmann and Rosebrock2013). Most recently, in May 2014, an international symposium on the construct of investment was held at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. The organizers, Chiara Bemporad and Thérèse Jeanneret, saw the symposium as an opportunity “to recontextualize the notion of investment in the field of the francophone didactique des langues and to consider its possible developments, articulating theoretical considerations and empirical analyses from various research contexts” (Bemporad & Jeanneret, Reference Bemporad and Jeanneret2014, para. 3) The symposium, which opened with a paper by Norton and Darvin (Reference Norton and Darvin2014), addressed a wide range of issues with regard to the construct of investment, including the challenges of translating research on investment from English to French (Zeiter & Bemporad, Reference Zeiter and Bemporad2014), the political economy of language investment (Duchêne, Reference Duchêne2014), and the relationship between materiality and investment (Dagenais & Toohey, Reference Dagenais and Toohey2014). A special issue of the journal Langage et Société (Bemporad, Reference Bemporadforthcoming) will provide highlights of this important symposium and feature the model of investment presented in the next section of this article. A MODEL OF INVESTMENT FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER: IDEOLOGY, CAPITAL, IDENTITY Norton's study of five immigrant Canadian women in the 1990s captured the concerns of a time when large-scale migrations were changing the political and economic landscape of highly industrialized countries. Migration was viewed as a one-way movement from a country of origin to a country of settlement, and the acquisition of the host country's official language was seen as crucial to cultural integration and meaningful employment. By asserting their identity and reframing relations of power, language learners sought to claim the right to speak in the language of power in the host country. In the past two decades, however, the world has gone through many upheavals. Shifts in the global economic order have led to new relations of power on macro and micro levels, reshaping language ideologies, linguistic capital, and interactions within multilingual and multicultural environments (Blommaert, Reference Blommaert2013; Heller, Reference Heller2011; Kramsch, Reference Kramsch and Norton2013). Through more affordable travel costs, mobile communication devices, Internet connectivity, and social media, learners are able to traverse transnational spaces (Lam & Warriner, Reference Lam and Warriner2012; Warriner, Reference Warriner2008) and oscillate between online and offline worlds, transforming notions of public and private domains, citizenship, and identity (Darvin, Reference Darvin and Preeceforthcoming; Gee & Hayes, Reference Gee and Hayes2011). Moving fluidly across these unbounded spaces has necessitated a communicative competence that involves the capacity to shift effortlessly from one set of communicative norms to another (Blommaert, Reference Blommaert2013). Because of the dynamic nature of these spaces, and the increasing diversity of those who occupy them, the asymmetric distribution of power no longer rests on the simple dichotomy of native speaker and language learner. Beyond inclusion in a target community of speakers or the acquisition of material and symbolic resources, learners are able to participate in a greater variety of spaces in both face-to-face and virtual worlds and assert themselves to varying degrees as legitimate speakers. As social media, SMS, email, and other Web 2.0 functionalities allow them to speak by writing (Cope & Kalantzis, Reference Cope and Kalantzis2012; Jones & Hafner, Reference Jones and Hafner2012; Warschauer & Matuchniak, Reference Warschauer and Matuchniak2010), literacy has become even more essential in being able to claim the right to speak (Janks, Reference Janks2010; Moje & Luke, Reference Moje and Luke2009). Technology has not only reshaped the way we communicate but also enabled new forms of labor and modes of productivity. Together with privatization and deregulation instigated by neoliberal policies, this shifting work landscape has ushered people into more private, isolated spaces. Mechanisms of power become more invisible as the logic of a free market remains to be the postulate of corporate decisions. Through the individualization of labor and the proliferation of precarious employment, exploitation and inequality become even greater (Crompton, Reference Crompton2008). The financial crisis of 2008 has demonstrated quite vividly the polarization wrought by this reality. At the same time, shifts in global economic power, for example, the rise of China and newly industrialized countries, have led to changes in the valuing of languages, consequently transforming language ideologies, which not only shape policy, but also inform the dynamics of multilingual encounters (Bianco, Orton, & Gao, Reference Bianco, Orton and Gao2009; Block, Gray, & Holborow, Reference Block, Gray and Holborow2012; Duchêne & Heller, Reference Duchêne and Heller2012). To respond to this current world order, what we propose is a model of investment that is able to reinvigorate the promise of change that foundational poststructuralist theories sought to achieve (Kramsch, Reference Kramsch and Norton2013) and to lay bare what is becoming increasingly invisible. This impetus requires not only sharpening the focus but also widening the lens: to go beyond the microstructures of power in specific communicative events and to investigate the systemic patterns of control that communicative events are indexical of. This dual perspective establishes the link between the situated and the recursive, and it allows us to examine how discrete events evolve into communicative practices. It is by casting a light on the constructed nature of what is held as normative that one can find the interstices that enable critical inquiry. We take the position that the key constructs that will allow us to achieve this task, together with identity, are ideology and capital (see Figure 1). These three constructs are examined in greater depth below. While ideology has been a much contested construct in recent years, it is through an interrogation of ideology that one can examine more closely how power manifests itself materially in the practices of a classroom, workplace, or community; the positioning of interlocutors; and the structuring of habitus. On the other hand, a more fluid conception of capital that recognizes how its value shifts across spaces enables a greater understanding of how learners gain or lose power as they lead increasingly mobile lives. Figure 1. Darvin and Norton's 2015 Model of Investment. Ideology As globalization accelerates the flow of goods, people, ideas, and resources (Appadurai, Reference Appadurai1990), the lived realities of learners have also become more complex and fraught with contradictions. Duchêne, Moyer, and Roberts (Reference Duchêne, Moyer and Roberts2013) point out that while “the discourses of globalization and neoliberalism are ones of ‘mobility,’ ‘flows,’ ‘flexibility’ and ‘de-regulation,’ many of the practices entailed in globalization are of control and regimentation” (p. 9). It is in what they call “ideological sites” or “sites of control”—public and private institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), work site spaces—where the management of resources and the legitimization of regulatory systems take place, and mapping out these spaces enables an examination of the “soft, invisible, capillary force” of power (p. 10). A more critical examination of the language acquisition process in this age of mobility must therefore lay bare the systemic patterns of control that have been rendered invisible, and to achieve this, De Costa (Reference De Costa2010) asserts the need for an ideology-based theoretical framework. He argues that while the use of constructs like “cultural models,” “subjectivities,” or “positioning” in language learning research do reflect an orientation towards ideology, there is still a need to develop a more comprehensive approach that explicitly calls out ideology and examines the sociopolitical contexts of schools and communities and the shifting values of linguistic capital. One route scholars have taken to do exactly this is language ideology (Irvine & Gal, Reference Irvine, Gal and Duranti2009; Kroskrity, Reference Kroskrity and Duranti2004; McGroarty, Reference McGroarty, Spolsky and Hult2008; Woolard & Schieffelin, Reference Woolard and Schieffelin1994), which highlights how language is an ideologically defined social practice. Communicative events, as the interaction of voices from different social positions, are indexical of ideological processes of dominance and contestation. Blommaert (Reference Blommaert and Brown2006) points out that the very identification of specific languages, each with a system of signs and grammatical structures, together with the assemblage of particular speech communities, is itself a powerful language-ideological effect. The valuing of languages, the establishment of language policies, and the construction of ethnolinguistic identities are inscribed by language ideology, and hence any examination of linguistic exchanges is inevitably an extrapolation of ideological forces at work. While language ideology is an important construct to understand the mechanisms of power in linguistic exchanges, what we wish to employ in this model of investment is a broader construct of ideology, that is, as a normative set of ideas. For Bourdieu (Reference Bourdieu1987), this set of ideas is constructed by symbolic or world-making power, “the power to impose and to inculcate principles of construction of reality” (p. 13). Legitimated authority enables the arbitrary to be misrecognized as the natural order. As this order organizes and regulates, it constructs modes of inclusion and exclusion, and learners are positioned in multiple ways before they even speak. As embodied identities inscribed by race, ethnicity, gender, and social class, learners navigate through spaces where they are not only granted or refused the right to speak, but also the right of entry. Examining how ideologies operate, we believe, enables us to dissect not just the dynamics of power within communicative events, but also the structures of power that can prohibit the entry into specific spaces where these events occur. Hence, integrating the construct of ideology in this model of investment allows us to analyze the relation between communicative practices and systemic patterns of control at both micro and macro levels. Because political and institutional environments operate to transform a particular set of ideas into a dominant way of thinking, Blommaert (Reference Blommaert2005) defines ideology as “materially mediated ideational phenomena” (p. 164). This understanding of ideology as the collusion of the ideational and the material is akin to Foucault's episteme, which operates within sets of practices and institutional conditions, and Bourdieu's notion of reproduction, which connects institutional educational practice and the construction of legitimate knowledge. Ideology, however, should not be understood as a static, monolithic worldview, but as a complex, layered space where ideational, behavioral, and institutional aspects interact and sometimes contradict one another. In this space, dominance and hegemony are processes rather than facts, and the reproduction of determined meanings is concomitant with the performance of innovative practices (Blommaert, Reference Blommaert2005). Such a conception has powerful implications for the issues of structure and agency, and it draws attention to the fact that the reproduction of dominant culture is sustained by both coercion and consent. While habitus is shaped by structures that govern and are perpetuated by ideology, the recognition of ideology as a site of struggle, of competing dominant, residual, and marginal ideas, enables an understanding of identity that has a certain disposition to act and think a certain way, but also has the agency to restructure contexts. Agents act within a spectrum of consent and dissent, and what appears to be consent sometimes may be a matter of hegemonic practices, or orthopraxy—performing hegemonic acts without necessarily subscribing to the ideology that informs them (Blommaert, Reference Blommaert2005). Operationalizing this polylithic and porous conception of ideology, we believe, requires referring to ideologies. Constructed and imposed by structures of power and reproduced through hegemonic practices and consent, ideologies are dominant ways of thinking that organize and stabilize societies while simultaneously determining modes of inclusion and exclusion, and the privileging and marginalization of ideas, people, and relations. This pluralized formulation complements our view of identity as multiple and fluid, and of capital shifting values in different contexts. Not only is it more congruent with the new social order of mobility and fluidity, but it also allows a conception of investment that engenders greater agency and capacity for resistance. Capital Through this more nuanced understanding of ideology, we can also examine more closely the nature of capital, its role in investment, and the ways it can serve as a tool of both social reproduction and transformation. For Bourdieu (Reference Bourdieu and Richardson1986), capital is power and it extends from the material/economic to the cultural and social: Economic capital refers to wealth, property, and income; cultural capital refers to knowledge, educational credentials, and appreciation of specific cultural forms; and social capital refers to connections to networks of power. The value of these forms of capital is determined by ideological structures, but it is continually negotiated in different fields or sites of struggle. The structure of the distribution of the different types and subtypes of capital at a given moment in time represents the immanent structure of the social world, i.e. the set of constraints, inscribed in the very reality of that world, which governs its functioning in a durable way, determining the chances of success and practices. (Bourdieu, Reference Bourdieu and Richardson1986, p. 46) Agents are positioned in the social space based on the volume, composition, and trajectory of their capital. As the rules of the game vary in different fields and continually evolve, the value of one's capital also shifts as it travels across time and space. The form the different types of capital take “once they are perceived and recognized as legitimate” (Bourdieu, Reference Bourdieu1987, p. 4) is what Bourdieu calls symbolic capital, and it is through this conceptualization that we can understand how capital itself is fluid and dynamic, subject to—but not completely constrained by—the dominant ideologies of specific groups or fields. Symbolic capital is particularly relevant in understanding investment in this new world order. As learners operate across transnational contexts and flit in and out of online and offline spaces, this construct points out two significant ideas: First, learners do enter these spaces equipped with capital—for example, their own material resources, linguistic skills, and social networks—and are not empty vessels. Second, occupying new spaces involves not only acquiring new material and symbolic resources but also using the capital that learners already possess as affordances and transforming this capital into something that is regarded as valuable in new contexts. This conversion is always a site of struggle, given that what may be valued in one place may be radically devalued in another. When people move across borders, for instance, the linguistic capital they bring with them is subject to what Blommaert (Reference Blommaert2010) calls different orders of indexicality, that is, their styles and registers are measured against a value system that reflects the biases and assumptions of the larger sociocultural context. Functions that are valid in local settings are imposed on the ways of speaking of transnationals, and discourses only gain value when others grant them value. These two points compel teachers to reflect on the importance of treating the linguistic and cultural capital of learners as affordances rather than constraints and to question and reevaluate the taken-for-granted value systems they use to assess this capital. Identity The conception of identity in this model still aligns well with the theoretical underpinnings of Norton's (Reference Norton2013) work, which defines identity as multiple, a site of struggle, and continually changing over time and space. What this model seeks to do is to elucidate further that identity is a struggle of habitus and desire, of competing ideologies and imagined identities. Governed by different ideologies and possessing varying levels of capital, learners position themselves and are positioned by others in different contexts. This sense of one's place is at the same time a sense of the place of others, and, together with the affinities of habitus experienced in the form of personal attraction or revulsion, is at the root of all processes of cooptation, friendship, love, association, etc., and thereby provides the principle of all durable alliances and connections. (Bourdieu, Reference Bourdieu1987, p. 5) As an internalized system shaped by ideology, habitus is the system by which people make sense of the world. It configures in learners an idea of their “rightful” place in society and predisposes them to do what they believe is expected of them and to develop relations that are deemed appropriate. It is “a system of durable, transposable dispositions . . . principles which generate and organize practices and representations” (Bourdieu, Reference Bourdieu1990, p. 53). As disposition, habitus provides a conceptual understanding of what is reasonable and possible and a tendency to think and act in ways that correspond with a prevailing ideology. At the same time, also because of dominant ideologies, learners are positioned in certain ways by virtue of their gender, race, ethnicity, social class, or sexual orientation. How learners are perceived by others is shaped by prevailing notions of what it means to be man or woman, Black or White, middle class or working class in a specific society. In the same way, also because of habitus, learners in turn position others and accord or refuse them power. Indeed, it is through such mechanisms that power secures itself, and it is through a deliberate and critical awareness of how power operates that ideologies can be challenged (Norton, Reference Norton2013). While the concepts of “positioning” or “subject position” are metonymic of the imposition of power, they can also allow learners to regard themselves as “choosing subjects” (Davies & Harré, Reference Davies and Harré1990), who can rethink this “place” that has been filled and internalized. Although Bourdieu viewed habitus as a set of dispositions that are durable and shaped by history, he recognized that “guided by one's sympathies and antipathies, affections and aversions, tastes and distastes, one makes for oneself an environment in which one feels ‘at home’ and in which one can achieve that fulfillment of one's desire to be which one identifies with happiness” (Bourdieu, Reference Bourdieu2000, p. 150). What learners desire can also be shaped by habitus; however, it is through desire that learners are compelled to act and exercise their agency. Whether it is because learners want to be part of a country or a peer group, to seek romance, or to achieve financial security, learners invest because there is something that they want for themselves—it is part of the structure of desire, as comprehensively theorized by Motha and Lin (Reference Motha and Lin2014). Further, it is in the realm of the imagination—what Norton has called imagined identities (Norton, Reference Norton2013; Kanno & Norton, Reference Kanno and Norton2003) that learners are able to express this desire. Imagination allows learners to re-envision how things are as how they want them to be. THE MODEL IN PRAXIS As presented above, the model we propose responds to the demands and realities of the new world order, locating investment at the intersection of identity, capital, and ideology. Recognizing how power flows in different directions through these contiguous spaces, learners operating in different fields perform multiple identities. Their habitus, shaped by prevailing ideologies, predisposes them to think and act in certain ways, but it is through desire and imagination that they are able to invest in practices that can transform their lives. In this model, learners invest in particular practices not only because they desire specific material or symbolic benefits, but also because they recognize that the capital they possess can serve as affordances to their learning. The valuing of their capital is an affirmation of their identity, a legitimation of their rightful place in different learning contexts. At the same time, because of the pull of ideology, the capital they possess may not be accorded symbolic value by structures of power, or the capital they desire becomes difficult to attain because of systemic patterns of control. Ideology shapes these institutional patterns and practices, and it structures habitus. It is reflected not only in the way learners are positioned in specific contexts, but also how learners position themselves and others. The desire to be part of an imagined community or to take on an imagined identity enables the learner to gain from or to resist these positions. Recognizing that they have the agency to assert their own identities, learners are able to negotiate symbolic capital, reframe relations of power, and challenge normative ways of thinking, in order to claim the right to speak. Built around these ideas, this model extends the question, “To what extent are learners invested in the language and literacy practices of their classrooms and communities?” to include the following: 1. How invested are learners in their present and imagined identities? In what ways are they positioned by others, and how do they, in turn, position interlocutors in ways that grant or refuse power? How can learners gain from or resist these positions? 2. What do learners perceive as benefits of investment, and how can the capital they possess serve as affordances for learning? 3. What systemic patterns of control (policies, codes, institutions) make it difficult to invest and acquire certain capital? How have prevailing ideologies structured learners’ habitus and predisposed them to certain ways of thinking? What we hope to achieve through the framing of these questions is to create a space in which learners are not by default marginalized or resistant, but where they have an agentive capacity to evaluate and negotiate the constraints and opportunities of their social location. While there are structures that indeed subjugate learners and constrain their investment, this model draws attention to how learners may paradoxically contribute to their own subjugation through the performance of hegemonic practices. By raising questions about their own ways of thinking of the status quo, it seeks to enable more opportunities for reflexivity and dissent, so that learners may not only participate in but also transform the multiple spaces of their life worlds. It recognizes that as the spaces they occupy become more deterritorialized, dynamic, and diverse, it becomes easier for them to participate in or retreat from specific contexts. This freedom of movement and the decentralization of spaces in some way diffuse and even reconfigure power, allowing learners to choose not only to invest but also to purposefully divest from particular language and literary practices. As today's learners pursue more mobile lives because of technology, the terrain that they must navigate and negotiate has become more complex. Real and virtual spaces require different literacies and strategies for them to gain entry and participate fully in these spaces. Hence, the learner needs to develop a more durable sense of the communicative “game,” or what Bourdieu (Reference Bourdieu and Richardson1986) calls a sens pratique, or practical sense. This sens pratique is a practical mastery of the logic or immanent necessity of a game, which one gains through experiencing the game. Kramsch and Whiteside (Reference Kramsch and Whiteside2008) drew from sens pratique to develop the notion of symbolic competence, which focuses on individual repertoires in multilingual settings and refers to the shifting of codes to reframe power in specific communicative events. While symbolic competence focuses on the play of linguistic codes as people move from one place to another, Pennycook and Otsuji (Reference Pennycook and Otsuji2014), on the other hand, talk about metrolingual multitasking, which involves “the dynamic relations between semiotic resources, activities, artefacts, and space” (p. 162). They recognize that speakers engage in multiple, fast-paced, sometimes simultaneous activities, where both linguistic and nonlinguistic resources are deployed. As speakers navigate through various spaces, they activate spatial repertoires: “the available and sedimented resources that derive from the repeated language practices of the people involved in the sets of activities related to particular places” (p. 166). This construct conjoins the repertoires that individuals develop through their lived experiences and those that are constituted by the linguistic resources available in different spaces. In both cases, these repertoires are regularized through repetition, in the same way that practical sense is developed through practice and serves very practical purposes. In contrast to symbolic competence and metrolingual multitasking, the practical sense we advocate for here as a necessary component of language learning is one that enables learners to negotiate the mobilities and complexities of the digital age. As learners traverse simultaneous online and offline, local and translocal spaces, this practical sense enables learners to (a) master the rules, norms, genres, and multimodal features specific to different communicative contexts; (b) seamlessly shift codes, practices, and strategies while moving across spaces; and (c) use linguistic and nonlinguistic resources to gain access to, challenge, and transform these spaces. By repeatedly performing multiple repertoires and shifting strategies as required, learners are able to sharpen this competence until it becomes practical sense. Two case studies To illustrate how this model of investment can be used to examine the needs of diverse learners in the digital age, we turn to two case studies of learners of contrasting geographical and social locations: Henrietta in Uganda and Ayrton in Canada. Henrietta is an 18-year-old female student who participated in a study on the use of digital resources for HIV/AIDS education and enhanced language development (Norton et al., Reference Norton, Jones and Ahimbisibwe2011). She lives in a rural village in Uganda that has limited electricity and no running water, with a per-capita income of less than $1 a day. The researchers brought Henrietta and her peers, who had neither the funds nor the digital literacy, to an Internet café in a neighboring town to research HIV/AIDS. By working on this concrete task, the learners were able to develop the skills of navigating the web to find the information they needed. During data collection, Henrietta explained why she thought digital literacy was important and what she had learned from the course: I learnt how to use a computer/introduction to the computer. I learnt to access information on the Internet. I learnt how people can communicate through Internet. I learnt how people get information from the Internet. I learnt the methods of preventing HIV/AIDS and all about AIDS. She elaborated as follows, “My main interest in learning more about computers is to know how they use Internet, to communicate to people in the outside countries.” She stated her belief that knowledge gained through the Internet would enhance self-knowledge, as she would “learn more about [her]self through sharing view with Canadian people.” Her fervent desire was to “join the group of knowledgeable people in the world,” what another student, Jenenie, called becoming “mentally modernized.” It is Henrietta's investment in this imagined identity that will determine to what extent she will invest in the digital literacy practices of the course. To develop her literacy and to continually engage in these transnational conversations may prove to be a huge challenge for Henrietta, however. Not only is her own economic capital limited, but also the technological infrastructure of her local context is poorly resourced. In this case, both her own social location and the economic position of rural Uganda constrain access to the technology necessary for Henrietta to master literacies relevant to the knowledge economy and develop a sens pratique. While she may be driven by a strong desire to learn more about computers and to connect with other people, her social location makes it very difficult for her to enter these new spaces of socialization. Even though her desire to engage in transnational conversations can be seen as a way to increase her social capital, how this perceived benefit will prove to be of durable and controvertible value, that is, recognized as symbolic capital in specific fields, is yet to be seen. Because of the discourses of globalization and technology that construct her own conceptions of what is valuable or not, Henrietta positions herself as inadequate, as one who is not sufficiently “knowledgeable.” This hegemonic view reproduces ideologies where the global is privileged over the local, and the global North is seen as more knowledgeable than the global South. As she seeks to gain access to affordances of learning like devices and books, systemic patterns of control will also determine this access: the allocation of technology budgets to local schools, the development of connectivity infrastructure in rural Uganda, and business processes that impact the affordability of devices. Ideologies that privilege urban versus rural, middle versus lower class, or male versus female will also position Henrietta further and shape her capacity to gain certain affordances. In terms of linguistic capital, although she speaks English, which has become the de facto lingua franca of the Internet, her access to valued forms of English is limited. Indeed, what she finds particularly appealing about the Internet is that it gives her the opportunity to “understand more about English language.” As she noted, “I got communication. I have learnt the English language because the English in Internet has been very create and it has arranged properly.” How other interlocutors will position her as a teenage girl from rural Uganda will shape the dynamics of their interaction, and her linguistic capital will be measured against their own orders of indexicality, as described with reference to Blommaert's young Tanzanian friend, Victoria (Blommaert, Reference Blommaert2003). To contrast with Henrietta's investment, we now turn to Ayrton, a 16-year-old Filipino male who lives in a wealthy neighborhood of Vancouver, and whose family emigrated through the Investor Class, in which migrants need to have a net worth of at least CAN$1.6 million. He participated in a study that examined the digital literacies in home settings of learners with contrasting socioeconomic backgrounds (Darvin & Norton, Reference Darvin and Norton2014a). Ayrton's father is an entrepreneur who continues to manage multiple businesses in the Philippines remotely, and his mother is a homemaker. Each member of the family owns at least two digital devices, including a phone, a laptop, and/or a tablet. Connectivity is never an issue as they move seamlessly from Wi-Fi at home or school to LTE or 3G in public spaces. Whether it's for doing schoolwork, engaging in social media, or getting news updates, technology has been completely integrated into Ayrton's daily life. He is visibly adept in it, multitasking with great ease, while jumping from one application to another. The social position of Ayrton as part of a privileged class in a highly industrialized country has made technology natural, providing him with all the affordances of learning. His parents and older siblings, who are all skilled users, serve as digital literacy role models and shape his conception of what technology is for. Asked about what technology means to him, Ayrton described it as a bridge “that connects me to people as far as Orlando in the United States or people back in the Philippines.” Because his privileged position has allowed him to travel extensively, he does not just seek to connect to a generic “group of knowledgeable people in the world,” but he refers to a concrete network of people he knows in specific geographical locations and who have access to similar technologies. This social capital is gained by the mobility afforded by his social position and itself becomes a form of capital. His access to resources allows him to already claim the identity of “knowledgeable people,” and the social future and identities he imagines are boundless: “With how the world is just connected and how information is at your fingertips, you can be anyone or anything you want to be and it's just right there.” Growing up with an abundance of resources has developed in him a strong sense of agency. He is able to claim ownership of a future that he imagines for himself and that he believes is within reach. Indeed, his possession of economic, cultural, and social capital and his identity as a member of a highly industrialized country allow him to position himself as a legitimate participant and contributor in the different affinity spaces he occupies online. Sharing his father's entrepreneurial spirit, he signed up for an online course on currency trading, where he engages in online discussions with adult professionals from a global network. By carefully curating his social media profiles and shifting language registers as necessary, he is able to conceal his age and express opinions about market trends and opportunities, which are valued by others. Through this sens pratique, he is able to assert his place as a legitimate speaker in these spaces, and gain even greater knowledge valued in capitalist contexts. Although it is his parents who paid a premium for this course, he describes enrolling in it as “one of the greatest investments of [his] life.” In his use of digital resources, Ayrton reflects a very strong entrepreneurial orientation, role-modeled by his father. This identification completely aligns with the neoliberal ideology that regards the individual as homo economicus or “an entrepreneur of one's self” (Foucault, Reference Foucault and Burchell2008), who is held completely accountable for his or her own economic success or failure. In contrast to Henrietta's aspiration to communicate with other people, Ayrton's investment in the imagined identity of a currency trader is much more concrete. Its realization comes with more tangible measurements of success and translates into the accumulation of economic capital. While Henrietta's interest in the digital is more friendship driven, a desire to connect with the rest of the world—an aspiration that does not necessarily translate into greater social mobility, Ayrton's use of technology is primarily interest driven—gathering information that allows him to pursue more profitable ventures. In this case, the habitus of these two learners develops divergent digital tastes and literacies, which leads to the acquisition of varying levels of material and symbolic benefits. CONCLUSION In the new world order characterized by mobility, fluidity, and diversity, operating within the paradox of flow and control, identity has been impacted by more complex issues of structure and agency. In the digital age, the spaces of language learning continue to multiply and evolve with distinct and increasingly invisible structures of power with concomitant implications for conceptions of “good” language learning (Cohen & Griffiths, Reference Cohen and Griffithsin press) and “learner strategies” (Oxford et al., Reference Oxford, Griffiths, Longhini, Cohen, Macaro and Harris2014). To respond to this rapid transformation, we need a model of investment that not only examines the microstructures of power in communicative events but also investigates the systemic patterns of control that recurring communicative practices are indexical of. As people move in and out of increasingly fragmented spaces, a sens pratique or practical sense that responds to the complexities of the digital age enables learners with varying forms of capital not only to navigate these spaces but also to potentially transform them as well. A more macro examination allows us to locate learners in this complex web of power and to recognize how these ideological sites shape disposition, social position, and the conditions in which learners can claim the right to speak. At the same time, we recognize that learners have agency and that they have the capacity to invest in learning that allows them not only to acquire material and symbolic resources in a way that reproduces the status quo, but also to dissect, question, and sometimes resist dominant practices and ways of thinking that have become systemic within different fields. Our hope is that this organic model of investment, designed to respond to more contemporary challenges and opportunities, will contribute to the rich discussion and vibrant research on identity and language learning and teaching in the field of applied linguistics. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ron Darvin, a Vanier Doctoral Scholar, acknowledges the generous support of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program. References Andema, S. (2014). Promoting digital literacy in African education: ICT innovations in a Ugandan primary teachers’ college (Doctoral dissertation). 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doi-org-8951	----	Swiss Medical Weekly - Open Access, data capitalism and academic publishing Latest articles COVID-19 Op-eds About SMW Authors Advertisers search Archive/search toggle menu Toggle Menu 〈 Archive/search Latest articles COVID-19 Op-eds About SMW Authors Advertisers searchArchive/search About us Imprint Open access Editorial board Contact Vision and mission For readers Subscription Current issue COVID-19 Archives Topic collection Supplements Search Services Picture credits Disclaimer Complaints Congresses Job vacancies For authors Guidelines Copyright Submission Article types Supplements For advertisers Media data Portfolio Reader poll Reprints Offer Sales team Review article: Biomedical intelligence Open access, data capitalism and academic publishing DOI: https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2018.14600 Publication Date: 01.01.1970 Swiss Med Wkly. 2018;148:w14600 Hagner Michael Affiliations keyboard_arrow_up keyboard_arrow_down Science Studies, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland Summary Open Access (OA) is widely considered a breakthrough in the history of academic publishing, rendering the knowledge produced by the worldwide scientific community accessible to all. In numerous countries, national governments, funding institutions and research organisations have undertaken enormous efforts to establish OA as the new publishing standard. The benefits and new perspectives, however, cause various challenges. This essay addresses several issues, including that OA is deeply embedded in the logic and practices of data capitalism. Given that OA has proven an attractive business model for commercial publishers, the key predictions of OA-advocates, namely that OA would liberate both scientists and tax payers from the chains of global publishing companies, have not become true. In its conclusion, the paper discusses the opportunities and pitfalls of non-commercial publishing. Keywords: Open Access, data capitalism, academic publishing Introduction In December 2017, many researchers in Switzerland would have received two emails that appear at first glance to be almost unrelated. The first email, from Matthias Egger, President of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), informed them that from 2020, all publications based on research subsidised by the SNF – whether journal articles, book chapters or monographs – must be made available free of charge and in digital format. What Egger euphemistically describes as a joint push to attain a worthwhile objective is in fact a coercive measure that robs researchers of the freedom to publish their research where they see fit. With this step, considered more damaging for book publishing than for publishing articles in periodicals, the bureaucratic dream of controling the venues and media of academic publishing has almost become real [1, 2]. Whether this massive intervening into academic freedom impacts scientific content and quality, only time will tell. The second email was sent by the global publisher Elsevier, one of the agents that, through its unscrupulous pricing policy, has had a ruinous effect on traditional academic publishing. In the email, Elsevier invites researchers to submit their articles to the new mega-journal Heliyon, which publishes research findings from across all disciplines. The quality of this Open Access (OA) journal is said to be guaranteed by a “dedicated expert editorial team” and an editorial board of over 900 researchers. Similar to other mega-journals, a short timeframe of 4 months between submission and publication is promised; the article processing charge (APC) for authors is set at $1,250 per article [3]. Scientific organisations and funding bodies such as the SNF, the Max Planck Society (MPG) or the German Research Foundation (DFG) have been arguing for years that scientific publishing must be freed from the pricing dictatorship of academic publishers. Open access was meant to show the way. Now it looks as though the top science bodies that distribute or receive public funds are acting in concert with the publishing giants that appropriate those funds to their own commercial advantage: the former are making Open Access compulsory for scholarly publications, and the latter stand ready to publish the research findings on OA – for a hefty fee. How could such a bizarre situation have come about? Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, politicians, managers, librarians and some researchers have told a standard narrative about OA. Frequently found on the relevant websites, the narrative goes something like this: OA will usher in a new era in the history of academic publishing by making available all the knowledge produced by the worldwide scientific community, free of charge, to anyone with an internet connection. There should be no more barriers to science in the global exchange of information and ideas, no more obstacles for ordinary citizens wishing to keep abreast of the latest scientific developments. Such prospects sound attractive since, by associating the free circulation of knowledge with the economically motivated hope for increased creativity and efficiency, they allow the sciences to play their part in the global competition for resources and innovation. At the same time, they express a philanthropically motivated aspiration that science’s regrettable – and, from the sciences’ point of view, far from harmless – alienation from the rest of society might be reversed [4]. Experiences of recent years have shown, however, that OA is far more complex than the optimistic standard narrative would lead us to believe. The practice of OA is dominated by a number of different stakeholders with partially conflicting interests. These include politicians, global publishing consortia, funding agencies, science managers, librarians, digital activists, the computer industry, and researchers themselves, with all these being far from forming a homogeneous bloc, and including, in the case of medicine, patients, physicians and patient advocacy groups. From this constellation has emerged a conglomerate made up of monetary flows, moral and epistemic economies, legitimate and less legitimate interests of various stakeholders, post-Gutenbergian technophilia and New Public Management, based on which OA becomes a difficult phenomenon to grasp. Put in the most basic terms: as a business model of academic capitalism, OA is already a reality; as a programme for bringing together the human race in intellectual dialogue and a common quest for knowledge, it remains a utopia. This thesis presupposes, on the one hand, that OA is a humanistic project in the Enlightenment mould, and on the other, that the circulation of knowledge, no less than the circulation of commodities and money, is subject to an economic logic. In accordance with the neoliberal doctrine that every political or legal intervention represents an impediment to market activity, anything standing in the way of OA is seen as an undesirable disruption to global scientific exchange. The alleged paradox that the state and its representatives concerned with scientific management make OA compulsory simply shows that politicians believe in the economic benefits pertaining to online circulation of information and data. The Israeli historian and bestselling author Yuval Noah Hariri put it well when he remarked, apparently without critical intent: “Just as free-market capitalists believe in the invisible hand of the market, so Dataists believe in the invisible hand of the dataflow.” [5] Assuming for a moment that “dataists” are not just “free-market capitalists” with programming expertise, liberality and openness have two meanings in this context: as a commons, OA represents a universally available good; as a commodity, it forms a gigantic open data reservoir which those who enjoy access to the appropriate technologies can draw from at will in pursuit of their own material interests [6]. The end of traditional academic publishing Although the brief history of OA does not allow any firm conclusions to be drawn about which way the scales are tilting, there are several early signs. The loudest calls for OA to be introduced across the board have come from STM, the fields of science, technology and medicine. This is understandable, given the way scientific journals evolved in the second half of the twentieth century. After the Second World War, the British media proprietor Robert Maxwell came to the realisation that far more money could be made from scientific literature than had previously been earned by science publishers, which were mostly modest family firms. After buying Pergamon Press, still a fairly new company at the time, he integrated researchers into the system in a manner very different from that to which they had been accustomed. Scientists were invited to cocktail parties, wined and dined at five-star hotels, given financial incentives to launch journals or allocated a share of the profits [7]. With that, Pergamon Press (which was taken over in 1991 by Elsevier) developed a first model for academic publishing as big business. From the 1970s, this led to increased concentration in the previously diverse market of publishing companies specialising in the natural sciences. By 2000, the market had contracted to a handful of global publishing consortia, Elsevier, Springer and Wiley at the fore, which were able to increase their prices for scientific periodicals more or less at will [2]. At the same time, the natural sciences began defining their originality in quantative terms, particularly through the so-called impact factor of journals, giving rise to the fatal nexus between economic capital, on the side of the publishing houses, and cultural capital, on the side of researchers. By now, it is common knowledge that a journal’s high impact factor correlates with a high reputation and, in a number of cases, a steep price as well – up to 20,000 euros for an annual subscription to a single journal. University libraries, research organisations and funding bodies have had to fork out ever more money for these periodicals. Around the world, libraries spend 7.6 billion euros per annum on scientific journals, which means that, with around 1.5–2 million articles published each year, one article costs an average of 3,800–5,000 euros [8]. This is a rough estimate, because it is based on information given in the “Web of Science”, which is quite selective in incorporating periodicals in languages other than English [9]. In fact, a more realistic estimate might be based on the assumption of 2.5 million articles published each year. Be that as it may, there has been growing outrage that (mostly) public money earmarked for scientific research has been effectively lining the pockets of shareholders, investors and speculators, given that publishing monopolists tend to reinvest only a small percentage of their profits. The profit margin of publishers like Elsevier or Springer exceeds 30%. It can hardly be denied that the publishing companies in question ultimately destroyed the traditional system of academic publishing through their extortionate pricing policies. Yet for all the irreparable damage done by publishers, it should not be forgotten that in recent decades the criteria for evaluating scientific quality have changed fundamentally. The “publish or perish” culture, impact factors and h-indices were not invented by science publishers; they were generated from within the sciences themselves. This unfortunate over-emphasis of quantitative indicators for characterising scientific quality and defining the scientists’ reputation has rendered STM-disciplines vulnerable to commercial interests. To put it bluntly, science publishers have been immensely successful in transforming the sciences’ “cultural capital” (P. Bourdieu) into economic capital [10]. Science policy and economic policy Since the nineteenth century, the modern industrialised nations have speculated – with greater or lesser degrees of success – that the knowledge produced by scientific research can provide a stable basis for economic prosperity. The chemical and pharmaceutical industries are successful and well-known examples of such knowledge transfer. In the 1970’s, the postulated link between science and the economy was given a new twist with the idea of a “knowledge society”, a concept developed in the US by sociologists and economists around 1970, characterising the transformation from industrial to postindustrial society [11, 12]. In such a society, knowledge is declared to be the key reference point for economic growth. Put schematically, the process by which knowledge came to be treated as a quasi-economic resource may be reconstructed in four steps. First, investment in education and science was boosted to the benefit of all sectors. In a second step, those sectors that promised the strongest economic effects were singled out for targeted support. The massive investment in biomedicine since the 1980s, for example, was not motivated just by the wish for improved public health, but was intended in at least equal measure to create new markets that would increase the developed nations’ economic clout. Thirdly, the always problematic distinction between pure and applied research was deconstructed in such a way that pure or theoretical research now appeared as an ideologically charged chimera that ultimately had no right to exist. Science Studies and History of Science – disciplines that set out to offer a more realistic view of scientific practice – bore no small responsibility for this demolition job. What they could hardly have foreseen was that, fourthly, the collapse of the old distinction would prepare the ground for a new one: that between “innovation-relevant research results” [13] and research deemed irrelevant to innovation. This is the stage we find ourselves at now. In essence, the instrumentalisation of knowledge as a resource has become a mandated imperative: sciences are declared legitimate or less legitimate depending on their commercial and societal-use value. This process seems to have been taken the furthest in the United Kingdom, with consequences for universities that have already become apparent [14]. In the face of Brexit, this situation will probably be exacerbated still further. Against this historical background, the digital revolution has become the catalyst for a commercialisation of knowledge. The word has spread that data is the currency of the twenty-first century. Scientific research results can thus become valuable data if they are appropriately packaged and circulate freely enough to attract interest from the big players of data capitalism. Scientific knowledge has taken on a commodity character that it lacked before, when it was produced within a scientific institution and access was limited to a scientific peer group. That such an understanding of knowledge reflects the will of politics as well as business interests is clearly expressed in an amendment to copyright law passed by the German Bundestag in 2013: “It is a fundamental condition for innovative research and the transfer of scientific results into goods and services that information be allowed to flow as freely as possible. […] Knowledge is a crucial factor in global competition. Without a productive science system and effective knowledge transfer, a culture of innovation is unthinkable.” [15] Whereas such statements would have been anachronistic before the rise of the internet, they now authorise the removal of any obstacles that may interfere with the free flow of information and prevent commodified knowledge from spawning innovative economic effects. To be sure, there is a difference between free access to knowledge (OA) and free access to data (Open Data). However, as politicians tend to mention these two issues in the same context, this proves quite revealing, given that they see both in the light of the economic benefits brought by circulation. From this perspective, the imperative to innovate translates into the requirement that the research process terminates in a commercially viable product. When OA is so blatantly championed for its role in stimulating innovation in a knowledge society, and hence for justifying its place in the order of academic capitalism, doubts are justified as to whether it has come any closer to fulfilling its promise to make scientific knowledge primarily a commons rather than a commodity. The close links between OA, the invisible hand of circulating data and the sciences’ subordination to political imperatives are nowhere made clearer than in the European Union’s current research policy. Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, is nothing but an undeclared economic development programme to the tune of some eighty billion euros. In the information brochure put out by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, it is stated that science is expected to provide “solutions to the challenges currently facing Germany, Europe and the world”. Similar mission statements can be read in Switzerland, Britain and many other countries. This is in principle a legitimate demand, albeit one that is not easy to realise. Above all, it needs to be asked what part the potentially problem-solving sciences should play in the ensemble of all the sciences, since even in the STM disciplines there are many researchers with an interest in less topical fields than climate change, Alzheimer’s disease, personalised medicine, nanotechnology or quantum computers. What is to become of them? Disturbingly, the proposed ministerial solution is “facilitating scientific research and further improving collaboration between science and the economy” [16]. This emphasis on commercial utility naturally disadvantages any research in the natural sciences that is geared to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, rather than to application, exploitation and profit. We will only know how such “pure” research has fared under the new dispensation once we have a comprehensive overview of the programme, which has been in place only since 2014. Yet it does not bode well that even the Alliance of German Research Organisations, a federation of top science bodies dominated by the natural sciences, has expressed its concerns about the economic logic behind Horizon 2020 [17]. Enlightenment from Brussels It might be asked what the EU’s research policy, this most trenchant expression of academic capitalism, has to do with OA, other than the general fact that it operates in an environment where OA has been declared the new norm for academic publishing. The link becomes clearer if we consider the example of EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas, a qualified civil engineer who pursued a career in investment banking with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others, before making the switch to politics. In July 2016, Moedas gave a talk at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in which he looked back to the Enlightenment in praising Europe’s epochal importance as a growing “open global research area”. This is not wrong in principle; in 1793, the Marquis de Condorcet wrote in hindsight that the introduction of the printing press had made it possible “to circulate any book required by the circumstances of the moment or the transitory changes of opinion, and, in consequence, all men who speak the same language can become alive to any question discussed anywhere.” [18] This idea was also key to those behind the so-called 2001 Budapest Initiative, which marked the most important step in the world-wide acknowledgment of OA. Brimming with philanthropic enthusiasm, they envisaged “uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.” [19] While Carlos Moedas’ idiosyncratic version of the history of science since the eighteenth-century republic of letters warrants close reading, two aspects must suffice here. On the one hand, Moedas is consistent in speaking only of the natural sciences. This is no personal foible: it mirrors the ideological trajectory of academic capitalism. Since around 1970, theorists of the knowledge society such as Peter Drucker have predicted fairly accurately that manual labour would become ever more irrelevant in the knowledge society, but they drew from this the false conclusion that such a society would be post-capitalist in orientation [20]. Nothing could be further from the truth, as is shown above all by the fact that, in the digital knowledge society, intellectual work that cannot be put to any direct economic use, as represented paradigmatically by the liberal arts, has become increasingly unimportant. There is no need to demonstrate in any detail that such a development plays into the hands of populist movements on the right, which have targeted the liberal arts as an enemy in their anti-intellectual crusade. On the other hand, Modeas sees Open Science in the twenty-first century as essential for “restor[ing] trust and confidence in science”. Is the public standing of the sciences as dire as that of the European Union and politics in general? I would hope not, yet Moedas conjures this spectre only to banish it immediately with a therapeutic proposal that triangulates the public sphere, scientists and data. He suggests that making publications and data completely accessible to a digital public is the precondition for the continued flourishing of the sciences. Dataism is no less at home in the offices of the EU than in Silicon Valley, and since nothing can be a mere end in itself, fetishised transparency is elevated to the status of a panacea on which nothing less than the preservation of democracy is seen to depend: “By continuing to allow the gap between public perception and scientific ambition to increase, we risk, at best, apathy and, at worst, complete distrust at a crucial juncture.” [21] If the words “scientific ambition” are replaced with “political action” in this sentence, we would have here a common interpretation of recent political developments in the USA, Europe and Britain: at first, citizens reacted with apathy, boycotting elections, then with complete distrust, facilitating the rise of populist parties on the right. It is not my task to analyse the simplicity or plausibility of this interpretive template. But by applying this template to the relationship between science and the public sphere, Moedas invokes populism as a background threat: citizens are already talking about the fake news media and lying politicians; if scientists are not careful, they may soon start decrying fake science as well – as rightist populists are already in the habit of doing in the case of climate research, vaccination and Gender Studies [22]. The crisis of scientific expertise, and potential developments within the sciences themselves that may have contributed to this crisis, would merit their own separate essay. Suffice to say that in light of recent developments in the USA, where concepts like “scientifically proven” have been struck from governmental parlance, the scenario conjured up by Moedas seems highly frivolous, to say the least. With his dramatic intervention, Moedas makes clear that he sees Open Access and Open Science as nothing less than the keystone for a new “republic of letters”. Summarily declaring institutions to be in urgent need of reform has always provided a useful pretext for transforming them beyond recognition. Setting aside such trivialities as Moedas’s own credibility and his road-to-Brussels conversion from bank-friendly Saul to citizens’ advocate Paul, as well as his expulsion of the liberal arts from the new republic of letters – how exactly does the EU Commissioner envisage the reality of OA? Instant access to scientific publications for all, text and data mining are to become standard – but will this really allow citizens to scrutinise the work of scientists more effectively? Can Open Access and Open Data build greater trust in science, providing the public with certainty that research findings have not been “falsified, fabricated or plagiarised”? How can laypeople possibly judge such matters for themselves when they lack the necessary qualifications for evaluating scientific research, be it in astrophysics or Assyriology? Such much-needed quality control will continue to be undertaken, by and large, by the experts themselves, as it has been made very clear in a recent statement by three national academies (Académie des Sciences, Leopoldina and the Royal Society) on good practice in evaluation [23]. To that extent, it may be supposed that the standard of Open Science envisaged by Moedas involves reading machines which process data from the viewpoint of commercial viability or applicability. The reality of Open Access In view of the link between OA and data capitalism, a reality check may be in order. OA has shown mixed results. First of all, OA has led to the creation of countless new digital journals with dubious editorial standards. Most are small money-making machines that charge authors fees to publish articles that would never be accepted by more serious journals. By flooding the market in this way, OA has exacerbated the already virulent problem of over-publication and generated even greater opacity through the supposed transparency of its procedures. A constantly updated list of “predatory publishers” is helpful, but it is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the academic publishing industry [24]. A second declaration jointly issued by the Académie des Sciences, the Leopoldina and the Royal Society, rightly ascertains: “These journals lack the essential mechanism of self-correction and critical review that science requires. The number of these pseudo-journals is doubling each year. The public will be, or is already, confused by this flood of ‘scientific articles’ and will not understand what is a valuable publication.” [25] This verdict stands at odds with that pronounced by EU Commissioner Moeda: far from promoting greater transparency, OA has led to greater uncertainty with regard to the quality of scientific publications, since quality control, even in the STM disciplines, is far more fragile than had previously been thought. The idea of OA is not to blame for this development, but rather the fact that OA has so quickly and unforeseeably turned into a lucrative business model. Another consequence of OA has been the introduction of a new academic publishing format: the mega-journal. This is a digital platform, not a traditional journal, which accepts articles from across many or even all scientific disciplines and publishes hundreds if not thousands of papers each year. In most cases, such numbers are only possible if the sole criterion for publication is methodological correctness rather than originality, brilliance or relevance. Hence, this new publishing form was meant to be a reaction to a spreading uneasiness within the scientific community regarding the long publication time, along with the supremacy of non-quantitative parameters like relevance. The first mega-journal was PLOS ONE, a noncommercial project of the US Public Library of Science. Founded in 2007, PLOS ONE published over 30,000 articles a year in its prime (2013 and 2014), and there were some observers who believed that the future of academic publishing lay in such mega-journals: fifty journals as big as PLOS ONE could keep up with global demand by publishing around 1.5 million papers. Such a development has yet to occur. In 2017 only 20,000 articles appeared in PLOS ONE, and its impact factor has declined from 4.411 to 2.806 [26]. It is too early to give a credible explanation for this fall, but this much is clear: although mega-journals occupy a significant niche in the academic publishing market, they are not the gold standard. Moreover, the enormous economic success of PLOS ONE – with a fee of $1,500 per article, the journal reaped a revenue of $30 million in 2017 – motivated commercial rivals to start their own mega-journals. Elsevier’s Heliyon is only the most recent example; Scientific Reports, founded by Springer in 2011, has surpassed PLOS ONE with 25,000 papers published in 2017 alone. Mega-journals evidently compete with each other for authors, whereby variables such as impact factor, fees, turnaround time and other services may prove decisive for their future fate. At any rate, mega-journals are a bold experiment with a still uncertain outcome, since no one can confidently predict the medium- to long-term effects on the quality of scientific publications of a review system that pays heed only to methodological correctness. A further, practically unavoidable, problem may be the mix of economic and epistemic considerations faced by commercial publishers. If a publisher’s earnings rise in proportion to the sheer number of papers published in a mega-journal, there is an obvious risk that the criteria for rejecting an article will become ever less stringent. Institutions such as the Académie des sciences, the Leopoldina and the Royal Society are acutely aware that the conflation of commercial and epistemic interests in digital publishing today poses the most pressing threat to research standards since the Second World War. That OA – quite against its original intentions – has played a role in this development is a fact that has not been taken seriously enough to date. The EU Commissioner is most likely correct in pointing out that Europe is the first region in the world where OA has become the “norm” for academic publishing; but he could not be more wrong in seeing this as the centerpiece of a new “republic of letters” that exists only in his own Panglossian imagination. Whether and how the sciences and the humanities preserve their credibility, their originality and their relevance will depend on a variety of factors, but surely not in the first instance on the discernment of the so-called public, which has hardly inspired a great deal of confidence of late. To be sure, there are fundamental differences among the various scientific disciplines. While it proves perfectly legitimate that patients and patient advocacy groups have access to scientific knowledge, it must be stressed that free access is only one feature of a broader communication network of citizen science. Propagating public discernment across other disciplines ranging from particle physics to Byzantine Studies is all too often guided by dangerous populist calculations. On the other hand, much will depend on the extent to which the STM disciplines succeed in regaining control over academic publishing and breaking the monopoly of commercial publishers, if not bypassing them altogether. In this respect, it is worth casting a glance backwards at the scholarly republic of the seventeenth century, when learned societies such as the Royal Society or the Académie des sciences brought out journals under their own editorial direction. From this point of view, the following sentence from the previously cited paper released by the three science academies is striking: “We would like to see science publishing move away from large corporate interests and a stronger involvement of academies and learned societies in order that any surplus funds may be used for the benefit of science.” [27] Whereas further thought and work must be concentrated on this issue, there is no point in harbouring unrealistic expectations, given that some scholarly societies run journals with pricing practices that do not differ from those of their commercial counterparts. Obviously, the economic mentality has gained ground in the non-profit world of science, and that might be one reason why academic publishing will continue to operate under the market conditions of data capitalism for the foreseeable future. The Open Access strategy of the information companies Within a relatively short period of time, the global publishing monopolists have learned to adapt their business model to OA. Erik Engstrom, CEO of Reed Elsevier, summarised the transformation process several years ago: “In 2013 we continued to make good progress on our strategy to systematically transform our business into a professional information solutions provider that combines content and data with analytics and technology to deliver improved outcomes for customers.” [28] In other words: digital platforms are made available and customers are offered help in uploading, searching, scanning, delivering and processing data and content. In addition, these platforms are communications networks for regulating global data flows among scientists. The RELX Group, including Elsevier with its roughly 3,500 journals and over 48,000 books, has enjoyed great success in this line of business. In 2016 RELX had a turnover of 6.89 billion British pounds, of which Elsevier contributed some 2.32 billion [29]. From a shareholder’s perspective, this is undoubtedly a success story. Evidently, neither boycott initiatives nor international criticism of the publisher’s pricing policy nor its transition to OA have done any damage to the company [30]. One reason for Elsevier’s lasting success is that the company recognised early on the enormous commercial potential of a combination of Facebook for scientists and “professional information solutions provider”. Most scientists are members of one or more of the following networks: Mendeley (five million members), the Social Science Research Network (over two million members), Researchgate (ten million members) and lastly the mega-platform Academia.edu (fifty-eight million members). These four platforms, repositories and social networks began life as philanthropic start-ups, yet the first two have for some years now been owned by Elsevier. It is probably only a matter of time before the remaining two are entirely caught in the web of data capitalism. Good money is already being made with these networks, and it will only increase over time. The more members they have, the greater the volume of articles and other meta-data which the networks will be able to mine and exploit at will. No one will be able to prevent cost pressures from building up once again, only this time it will not be libraries footing the bill but the scientists themselves. A start has already been made. Through the friendly collaboration of its 58 million members, Academia.edu now has access to so many digitally formatted articles that it has begun offering premium memberships for $100 a year. In return, premium members can “search the full text and citations of our millions of papers” and receive constant updates on when and where they are cited by whom [31]. Human vanity has always been a money-spinner, yet when it is additionally encouraged and rewarded by the political settings, digital academic capitalism can thrive without impediment. To be sure, all publications uploaded to Academia.edu and other such networks are OA for members, but there is still a price to be paid in the form of the data uploaded to the network. Moreover, it is far from unlikely that the annual fee for premium membership will sooner or later be levied on everyone. Anyone who entrusts his or her data archive, publications repository and scholarly contacts to a commercial cloud that uses the available data as a research resource, relying on it for global visibility and contacts with fellow researchers, is no less vulnerable to extortion than a research library forced to pay absurd prices for journals. No wonder the old formula, “publish or perish”, has since been updated to “promote or perish” [32]. Who controls the academic publishing system? In light of the above, I would argue that the badly damaged system of academic publishing will not be restored to full health by OA per se, but at most by the sciences themselves taking greater control over their publications. Two pathways are currently emerging for how this might be achieved, at least to some extent. One involves the previously mentioned possibility of scientists regaining partial control over the publishing industry and so providing the global concerns with noncommercial competition. The other is for national or international consortia to make contracts with the most important concerns to guarantee price stability, at least for a certain period. Both options are realistic, but each has its pitfalls. In early 2015, employees at the Max Planck Digital Library published a kind of manifesto declaring that the time was now ripe for a radical changeover from subscriptions to OA [33]. This was in line with both EU and SNF stipulations. A few weeks after the article appeared, the Max Planck Society (MPG) announced that three in-house OA journals based at Max Planck institutes had been transferred to Springer Science and Business Media [34]. These journals – Living Reviews in Relativity, in Solar Physics, and in Computational Astrophysics – had quickly established a high reputation and seemed to provide a successful model for nonprofit journals. No reasons for the handover were given at the time, but according to statements from one of the researchers involved, the organisational and administrative costs of running these journals was so great that the decision was made to transfer them to a commercial publisher [35]. This argument is perfectly reasonable, and it points to the difficulties for research institutions to establish and maintain excellent nonprofit journals. Similarly to Swiss Medical Weekly, these three journals are all Platinum OA, meaning that authors are not required to pay APCs. While this is good news for authors, it also raises the question as to which kind of business model these journals are operating on. After all, it would be naïve to think that Springer acquired them on philanthropic grounds, as a loss-making investment rather than a source of revenue. In the past, we read on the Living Reviews in Relativity website: “Founded and supported by the Max Planck Society.” This sentence has recently been deleted and replaced by the following: „Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Society“ [36]. As the case may be, according to Springer Nature, the costs for Living Reviews are covered in-house, because these journals are part of a wider physics and astronomy business [37]. It must still be seen whether either the Living Reviews will remain Platinum OAs in the future or Springer will impose APCs at some point in time. In another case, the MPG has found a way to run a noncommercial journal: the Cambridge-based journal eLife, co-founded in 2011 with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Wellcome Trust. Despite enjoying financial and strategic backing from these institutions, eLife shows in exemplary fashion that quality, professionalism and success are not to be had for nothing. APCs of $2,500 for each article accepted for publication were introduced on 1 January 2017. The rationale for the new policy was plausibly set out on the journal’s website [38]. For one thing, the number of published articles could be significantly increased: from 27 in 2012 to more than 1,082 in 2016. The journal was also facing costs of 3.4 million GBP for editors, reviewers, staff, online systems, marketing and other services. In addition, it was investing over 1.4 million GBP in technology and innovation [39]. The example of eLife shows that, even for a nonprofit journal, scientific seriousness, market-oriented professionalism, adaptation to the latest developments in information technology and customer-friendly service that can compete with commercial providers come at a significant cost. From a scientific point of view, eLife has undoubtedly been a successful role model, particularly as it has bucked the trend set by the mega-journals. The percentage of papers accepted for publication lies at around 15%, with originality and brilliance playing a decisive role. At the same time, the journal’s editors and financial backers pay no attention to its impact factor. Its reputation is determined by the intrinsic worth of the articles published in eLife, not defined by questionable quantitative parameters [40]. From this perspective, there are grounds for hope that there are indeed serious alternatives to commercial providers, although the high cost barriers cast doubt on whether this is a business model that lends itself to imitation. Even with fees for authors, considerable public subsidies are still needed to keep the journal afloat. In 2016 the cost per article was over 5,400 Euros (1082 papers with expenditure of 4.8 million GBP), conspicuously higher than the average price in the traditional subscription model. There are cheaper options, of course, but the principle stands that editorial independence, market competitiveness and fair pay for personnel come at a price for nonprofit projects. It remains to be seen whether states, international partnerships, scientific organisations, funding bodies and scientists themselves are in a position to compete with commercial publishers. Clearly, they will only succeed in doing so through collaboration, attractive offerings and a willingness to experiment, not through the kind of coercive measures taken by the SNF and other funding bodies. There are other aspects that indicate just how hard it will be to return academic publishing to the stewardship of the sciences. A 2016 study on science publishing in Switzerland showed that the number of articles in scientific journals catalogued by Scopus had more than doubled between 2001 and 2015 from 14,000 to 31,000 [41]. These statistics are roughly in keeping with the classic 1963 study by Derek de Solla Price, who found that the number of journals had doubled approximately every fifteen years between 1660 and 1960 [42]. Even more interestingly in our context, in 2001 around 50% of all articles appeared in journals owned by the big four monopolists Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and Taylor & Francis. By 2015 this had fallen to 35%, but the absolute number of articles published by these companies has still almost doubled. In the same year, some 16% of all articles were published with gold open access. Unfortunately, the study does not indicate the proportion of articles appearing in OA journals belonging to the big four. Although I do not have access to comparable figures for EU countries and the USA, I would assume that in educational institutions where the STM disciplines are strongly represented, publishing conditions are similar to those in Switzerland. Under such conditions, it would be unrealistic to expect that scientists will defect en masse to noncommercial publishing avenues. It is much more likely that they will continue to work with these publishers, particularly in countries or scientific institutions that can afford to pay APCs. A number of financially privileged stakeholders have already adapted to this situation. Since 2016, ETH Zurich has had its own budget for financing articles by ETH researchers published in one of Wiley’s OA journals [43]. The Max Planck Society, for its part, pays its scientists up to 3,000 Euros per article (under certain conditions) so that their research can appear on OA. Disregarding the fact that only a few institutions can afford to pay APCs for their researchers, agreements with individual publishers are clearly problematic for the transition to noncommercial publishing platforms. Why would scientists scrape together 2,500 Euros to publish in eLife, for example, when the same article could appear in a Wiley journal without them having to devote a thought to finance? This question may soon be posed in a very different way in Germany if the talks currently underway between the Alliance of German Research Organisations and the publishers Elsevier, Springer and Wiley arrive at a successful conclusion. Held under the keyword DEAL, the talks envisage national licensing contracts for all the digital journals owned by these publishers. At the same time, they would allow OA publishing to take place within this licensing framework. In effect, this would mean that all scientists working at public German research institutes and all students would have free access to the entire portfolio of the big players, and they could also publish in their OA journals at no extra cost [44]. At present, negotiations with Springer and Wiley appear to be going well, those with Elsevier rather less so [44]. If a deal is eventually reached, it would open a new chapter in the history of academic publishing, in spite of Dutch university libraries having already negotiated a less extensive Open Access deal with commercial publishers [46]. Never before has an entire state entered into a contractual agreement with publishers about the modes for publishing and accessing scientific research findings. That matters have come so far is due in no small measure to the unscrupulous conduct of those same publishers, which bled dry their previous negotiating partners, libraries, by skillfully playing them off against each other. To that extent, the German initiative is only logical. It would indisputably secure access to the relevant literature across the nation. This comes at a not inconsiderable price, however. Firstly, the monopoly position of these publishers towards their lesser competitors will be reinforced. Bad experiences with monopoly-like power in the realm of academic publishing, as well as with the internet giants Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, appear to have given science organisations and politicians no pause for thought. Secondly, the gap between rich and poor in the academic world will widen still further. Researchers in structurally weak countries will gain nothing even as their German colleagues draw on practically unlimited resources. Thirdly, DEAL reveals a blatant contradiction between the option of strengthening noncommercial publishing and the consolidation of contracts with global concerns. As already indicated, why should an individual scientist in Germany decide to publish an article in a nonprofit OA, having to pay an APC for the privilege, if the same article can appear free of charge in OA format in a journal belonging to one of the publishers covered in the licensing agreement? Why should scientists invest their time and energy in a nonprofit project if the state has regulated everything for them in advance? And here a fourth problem becomes apparent: the fact that the state (or the EU) is meddling too much in the modes of academic publishing through its funding institutions. One does not need to be a hardened cynic to feel reminded of practices in the former East Germany or the Soviet Union; one just needs to be old enough. The major difference, of course, is that in this case data-capitalist concerns will profit from state intervention. Whether the Alliance of German Research Organisations intended it or not, it is demonstrating the Matthew Effect, a not uncommon phenomenon in the history of science: “to everyone who has, more will be given.” [47] There is thus a significant discrepancy between the reality of academic publishing and the optimism of politicians and science functionaries who praise OA as a panacea for all the ills afflicting science culture. In all likelihood, OA will continue to prevail under the conditions of academic and data capitalism, if for no other reason than that it has been – and for the foreseeable future will continue to be – mandated by powerful politicians, scientific organisations and funding bodies. Individual scientists and institutions have made remarkable efforts to revitalise noncommercial forms of publication. In my view, this is the only way that the desperately needed reform of academic publishing in the STM disciplines can be achieved. Yet, it remains to be seen whether such tender shoots are able to survive and flourish in the wilderness of economically dictated interests, criteria and categories, which have unfortunately infiltrated the sciences themselves. It cannot be ruled out that nonprofit OA publishing will one day be cited as a textbook example of the “tragedy of the commons”. Acknowledgement Translated by Robert Savage. Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. Credits Header image: © Rigmanyi | Dreamstime.com Correspondence Prof. Dr. Michael Hagner, ETH Zürich, Science Studies, Clausiusstrasse 22, RZ, CH-8092 Zürich, Mhagner[at]ethz.ch References 1 Hagner M. Open access als Traum der Verwaltungen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 6, 2009. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/forschung-und-lehre/debatte-open-access-als-traum-der-verwaltungen-1773583.html 2 Hagner M. Gute Bücher benötigen Zeit und Papier. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. May 23, 2014. https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/gute-buecher-benoetigen-zeit-und-papier-1.18307870 3 https://www.journals.elsevier.com/heliyon/ 4 Hagner M. Zur Sache des Buches. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag; 2015. pp 63–130. 5 Harari YN. Big data, Google and the end of free will. Financial Times Magazine. Aug 26, 2016. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/50bb4830-6a4c-11e6-ae5b-a7cc5dd5a28c.html#axzz4ITEeTSei 6 Holmwood J. Markets versus Dialogue: The debate over open access ignores competing philosophies of openness. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/10/21/markets-versus-dialogue/ 7 Buranyi S. Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? The Guardian. June 27, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science 8 Vogel G, Kuperschmidt K. A bald open-access push in Germany could change the future of academic publishing. News from Science. 2017;23. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/bold-open-access-push-germany-could-change-future-academic-publishing 9 Jochum U. Die politischen Zahlen der MPDL. https://uwejochum.github.io/5artikel/2018/02/02/politische-zahlen-mpdl/ 10 Bourdieu P. La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les édition de minuit; 1979. 11 Drucker P. The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to our Changing Society. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1969. 12 Bell D. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books; 1973. 13 House of Commons, Science and Technology Committee. Bridging the Valley of Death: Improving the Commercialisation of Research. London: The Stationery Office; 2013. p 99 14 Brown R, Carasso H. Everything for Sale? The Marketisation of UK Higher Education. London: Routledge; 2013. 15 Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Nutzung verwaister und vergriffener Werke und einer weiteren Änderung des Urheberrechtsgesetzes vom May 8, 2013. p 9. http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/134/1713423.pdf 16 https://www.bmbf.de/pub/horizont_202_im_Blick_2.Auflage.pdf 17 http://www.leopoldina.org/fileadmin/redaktion/Publikationen/Allianz/2016_07_13_Allianz_ZwischenEval_Horizon2020_dt.pdf 18 Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet. Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2012. p 72. 19 Budapest Open Access Initiative. http://www.budapestopenAccessinitiative.org/read 20 Drucker P. The Rise of Knowledge Society. Wilson Q. 1993;17(2):52–71. Available at: http://archive.wilsonquarterly.com/essays/rise-knowledge-society-0. 21 Moedas SC. Europe’s voyage towards an open global research area https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/moedas/announcements/europes-voyage-towards-open-global-research-area_en 22 Schmoll H. Unterwegs zur Lügenwissenschaft. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Aug 26, 2016. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/forschung-und-lehre/eu-forschungspolitik-hin-zur-luegenwissenschaft-14399432-p2.html?printPagedArticle=true#pageIndex_2 23 https://royalsociety.org/~/media/policy/Publications/2017/08-12-2017-royal-society-leopoldina-and-academie-des-sciences-call-for-more-support-for-research-evaluators.pdf [Full disclosure: I belonged to the working group, which has prepared this statement]. 24 https://beallslist.weebly.com 25 Statement on scientific publications by three national Academies (Academie des sciences, Leopoldina and Royal Society). https://www.leopoldina.org/uploads/tx_leopublication/2016_Joint_Statement_on_scientific_publications.pdf 26 Davis SP. Future of the OA Megajournal. The Scholarly Kitchen. Jan 10, 2018. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/01/10/future-oa-megajournal/ 27 https://www.leopoldina.org/uploads/tx_leopublication/2016_Joint_Statement_on_scientific_publications.pdf 28 Elsevier R. Annual Reports and Financial Statements 2013. http://www.reedelsevier.com/investorcentre/reports%202007/Documents/2013/reed_elsevier_ar_2013.pdf 29 https://www.wallstreet-online.de/aktien/reed-elsevier-aktie/bilanz 30 https://www.mediadb.eu/datenbanken/internationale-medienkonzerne/relx-group.html 31 http://support.academia.edu/customer/en/portal/articles/2852510-benefits-of-academia-premium 32 Duffy BE, Pooley JD. Facebook für Academics: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu. Social Media Society. 2017;January-March:1-11. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305117696523 33 Schimmer R, Geschuhn KK, Vogler A. Disrupting the subscription journals’ business model for the necessary large-scale transformation to open access. pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:2148961:7/component/escidoc:2149096/MPDL_OA-Transition_White_Paper.pdf 34 http://www.mpg.de/9293322/living-reviews-springer 35 Email from Bruce Allen (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) to the author, January 22, 2018. 36 http://www.springer.com/physics/theoretical%2C+mathematical+%26+computational+physics/journal/41114 37 Email from Ramon Khanna (Springer Nature) to the author, February 12, 2018. 38 https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/b6365b76/setting-a-fee-for-publication 39 https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/d457b4cd/annual-report-2016-in-review 40 http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/08/qa-outgoing-hhmi-chief-reflects-leading-19-billion-biomedical-charity 41 Machado SA, Hoppmann L, Knaus J, Palzenberger M. Analysis of the international journal publishing activities in Switzerland with special emphasis on gold open access publishing. Max-Planck Digital Library. https://zenodo.org/record/167381/files/MPDL_Data_Paper_final.pdf 42 de Solla Price DJ. Little Science, Big Science. New York: Columbia University Press; 1963. pp 7–11. 43 https://www.ethz.ch/content/associates/services/de/news-und-veranstaltungen/intern-aktuell/archiv/2016/09/eth-bibliothek-uebernimmt-publikationsgebuehren-bei-open-access-zeitschriften-des-verlags-wiley.html 44 https://www.hrk.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung/meldung/deal-bundesweite-lizenzierung-der-angebote-grosser-wissenschaftsverlage-verhandlungen-mit-elsevier/ 45 Mittermaier B. From the DEAL engine room — an interview with Bernhard Mittermaier. LIBREAS Library Ideas. 2017;32. http://libreas.eu/ausgabe32/mittermaier_en/. 46 http://openaccess.nl/en/in-the-netherlands/publisher-deals 47 Merton RK. The Matthew Effect in Science. Science. 1968;159(3810):56–63. doi:].https://doi.org/10.1126/science.159.3810.56 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.159.3810.56 Copyright Published under the copyright license “Attribution – Non-Commercial – NoDerivatives 4.0”. No commercial reuse without permission. See: emh.ch/en/emh/rights-and-licences/ Peer reviewed article file_download Downloads keyboard_arrow_up keyboard_arrow_down PDF share Share keyboard_arrow_up keyboard_arrow_down PubMed GoogleScholar Facebook Twitter GooglePlus toc Jump To keyboard_arrow_up keyboard_arrow_down Abstract Main text keyboard_arrow_up keyboard_arrow_down Introduction The end of traditional academic publishing Science policy and economic policy Enlightenment from Brussels The reality of Open Access The Open Access strategy of the information companies Who controls the academic publishing system? 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Farnsburgerstrasse 8 CH-4132 Muttenz Tel. +41 (0)61 467 85 55 Fax +41 (0)61 467 85 56 e-mail: Editorial office   Privacy policy Links EMH Media Schweizerische Ärztezeitung Swiss Medical Forum Primary and Hospital Care Cardiovascular Medicine Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Synapse Swiss Medical Informatics Verpassen Sie keinen Artikel! close keyboard_arrow_up EMHEMH Media SAEZSchweizerische Ärztezeitung SMFSwiss Medical Forum PHCPrimary and Hospital Care CVMCardiovascular Medicine SANPSwiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy SMISwiss Medical Informatics SYNSynapse In order to offer you a better user experience, we use cookies. Additional information can be found here. ACCEPT 
doi-org-9106	----	Project MUSE - Faculty Status, Tenure, and Professional Identity: A Pilot Study of Academic Librarians in New England [Skip to Content] Institutional Login LOG IN browse or Search: menu Advanced Search Browse MyMUSE Account Log In / Sign Up Change My Account User Settings Access via Institution MyMUSE Library Search History View History Purchase History MyMUSE Alerts Contact Support portal: Libraries and the Academy Faculty Status, Tenure, and Professional Identity: A Pilot Study of Academic Librarians in New England Shin Freedman portal: Libraries and the Academy Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 14, Number 4, October 2014 pp. 533-565 10.1353/pla.2014.0023 Article View Citation Additional Information Purchase/rental options available: Buy Issue for $20 at JHUP Abstract Faculty status, tenure, and professional identity have been long-lasting issues for academic librarians for nearly forty years, yet there is little agreement on the benefits of faculty status. This paper examines faculty status and tenure for academic librarians and presents the results of a survey inquiry into professional identity, current and expected roles, views on faculty status and tenure, and personnel status of academic librarians in the New England area. The study affirms that 45 percent of the respondents have some combination of faculty status, tenure status, and faculty plus tenure status, and that 65 percent of academic librarians do not have tenure. While all academic librarians perceive strong professional development support, only those with faculty status and tenure (and librarians involved with new and emerging areas of study) see themselves having more career advancement and development opportunities. This research concludes that librarians’ professional identities are closely matched with five traditional roles. Four new or emerging roles, which may be referred to as “educator,” “teacher,” “information professional,” and “facilitator of learning,” reveal significant differences across personnel status. collapse You are not currently authenticated. If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution or have your own login and password to Project MUSE Authenticate Purchase/rental options available: Buy Issue for $20 at JHUP Recommend Additional Information ISSN 1530-7131 Print ISSN 1531-2542 Pages pp. 533-565 Launched on MUSE 2014-10-09 Open Access No Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. about MUSE Story Publishers Discovery Partners Advisory Board Journal Subscribers Book Customers Conferences what's on muse Open Access Journals Books MUSE in Focus T.S. Eliot Prose resources News & Announcements Promotional Material Get Alerts Presentations information for Publishers Librarians Individuals Instructors Contact Contact Us Help Policy & Terms Accessibility Privacy Policy Terms of Use 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218 +1 (410) 516-6989 muse@press.jhu.edu ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus ©2020 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. Back To Top This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. 
doi-org-9407	----	Multilingual access: Language hegemony and the need for discoverability in multiple languages | McElroy | College & Research Libraries News Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Subscribe Alerts About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Subscribe Alerts About About College & Research Libraries News (C&RL News) is the official newsmagazine and publication of record of the Association of College & Research Libraries,  providing articles on the latest trends and practices affecting academic and research libraries. About The Authors Kelly McElroy is student engagement and community outreach librarian, email: kelly.mcelroy@oregonstate.edu, at the Oregon State University Libraries Laurie M. Bridges is instruction and outreach librarian, email: laurie.bridges@oregonstate.edu, at the Oregon State University Libraries Article Tools Print this article How to cite item C&RL RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular The American Civil War: A collection of free online primary sources (95638 views) 2018 top trends in academic libraries: A review of the trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education (69745 views) 2016 top trends in academic libraries: A review of the trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education (44708 views) More >> Home > Vol 79, No 11 (2018) > McElroy Multilingual access: Language hegemony and the need for discoverability in multiple languages Kelly McElroy, Laurie M. Bridges Abstract It is widely accepted that English is the current lingua franca, especially in the scientific community. With approximately 527 million native speakers globally, English ranks as the third most-spoken language (after Chinese and Hindu-Urdu), but there are also an estimated 1.5 billion English-language learners in the world. The preeminence of English reflects the political power of the English-speaking world, carrying privileges for those who can speak, write, and read in English, and disadvantages to those who cannot. This is also the case in scholarly communication. Linguist Nicholas Subtirelu identifies three privileges for native English speakers: 1) easier access to social, political, and educational institutions; 2) access to additional forms of capital; and 3) avoiding negative opinions of one’s speech. For example, we were both born into families that speak American English at home, we were surrounded by English books and media growing up, and our entire education was in English. Even defining who counts as a “native” speaker can be refracted through other social identities. As college-educated white Americans, our English is never questioned, but the same is not true for many equally fluent people around the world.   Full Text: PDF HTML DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.79.11.617 Copyright Kelly McElroy, Laurie M. Bridges Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 29 February: 23 March: 15 April: 50 May: 24 June: 38 July: 35 August: 19 September: 24 October: 36 November: 62 2019 January: 79 February: 43 March: 40 April: 80 May: 46 June: 26 July: 43 August: 28 September: 25 October: 58 November: 59 December: 44 2018 January: 0 February: 0 March: 0 April: 0 May: 0 June: 0 July: 0 August: 0 September: 0 October: 0 November: 10 December: 384 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0099-0086 | Online ISSN: 2150-6698 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6698 
doi-org-9575	----	Open Educational Resources: A Literature Review | Journal of Mason Graduate Research Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer Current Archives About About the Journal Editorial Team Submissions Licensing and Copyright Privacy Statement Contact Search Search Register Login Home / Archives / Vol. 6 No. 1 (2018): Research to Understand Change / Articles Open Educational Resources: A Literature Review Maimoona Al Abri George Mason University Nada Dabbagh George Mason University DOI: https://doi.org/10.13021/G8jmgr.v6i1.2386 Keywords: higher education, open educational resources, K-12, pedagogy, teaching and learning Abstract The open educational resources (OER) movement is an emerging trend in higher education contexts, primarily due to the ubiquitous use of technology and access to the internet. This literature review focuses on the concept of OER, its essential definitions, its potential benefits, its open nature, and various aspects of adoption. The research findings indicate that the OER movement has not expanded fully into educational sectors, and the level of faculty and student awareness is quite low. The research also reveals that the current status of OER adoption in educational sectors is minimal. Additionally, OER adoption has encountered several obstacles; potential users have difficulty finding the proper OER materials, and there are quality control issues with resources. However, students saved a significant amount of money when OER replaced traditional textbooks. Many critical issues related to OER adoption must be resolved, and others may arise as more faculty and students begin to use these resources. PDF Published 2019-01-23 Issue Vol. 6 No. 1 (2018): Research to Understand Change Section Articles Copyright (c) 2018 Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Mason Journals is a service of the George Mason University Libraries' Mason Publishing Group. 
doi-org-9532	----	Project MUSE - Neutrality and Its Discontents: An Essay on the Ethics of Librarianship [Skip to Content] Institutional Login LOG IN browse or Search: menu Advanced Search Browse MyMUSE Account Log In / Sign Up Change My Account User Settings Access via Institution MyMUSE Library Search History View History Purchase History MyMUSE Alerts Contact Support portal: Libraries and the Academy portal: Libraries and the Academy Volume 19, Number 1, January 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press Article View Download Save View Citation contents Additional Information Neutrality and Its Discontents:An Essay on the Ethics of Librarianship John Wenzler (bio) abstract This essay analyzes the debate about neutrality in the library literature and identifies a fundamental moral dilemma that generates debate. It then advances an argument in favor of library neutrality based on Wayne Bivens-Tatum's intellectual history of library values in Libraries and the Enlightenment and the ideal of liberal neutrality developed by such political philosophers as Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls, and Martha Nussbaum. In conclusion, the essay responds to potential objections to its pro-neutrality thesis by liberal and radical authors. Questioning Library Neutrality The ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe.1 American Library Association In the last 10 years or so, and especially since the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, "neutrality" has become a dirty word for many librarians committed to social justice. In 2008, Library Juice Press published Questioning Library Neutrality, a collection of articles from the Progressive Librarian that critiqued the idea of library neutrality from various perspectives.2 Since then, articles and presentations rejecting the [End Page 55] concept of neutrality as a fundamental flaw in the traditional ethos of librarianship have become increasingly common in the mainstream discourse of the profession. A few examples illustrate the trend: • The American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in 2015 included the presentation "'But We're Neutral!' and Other Librarian Fictions Confronted by #critlib."3 • In 2017, American Libraries published an editorial titled "Never Neutral: Critical Librarianship and Technology."4 • In 2018, the president's program at the ALA Midwinter Meeting asked: "Are libraries neutral? Have they ever been? Should they be?"5 The critique of neutrality includes three strands. First, critics argue that maintaining a professional stance of impartiality undermines the ability of librarians to advocate for social justice through their work. Neutrality encourages moral cowardliness—conscious or not—by allowing librarians to hide behind false claims of evenhandedness as they capitulate to an unjust status quo. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu summarized this argument when he observed: "If you are in a situation where an elephant is sitting on the tail of a mouse and you say, 'Oh no, no, no, I am neutral,' the mouse is not going to appreciate your neutrality."6 For critics, library neutrality means supporting the strong against the weak, the oppressors against the oppressed, and the majority against the marginalized. The second strand of the critique argues that neutrality is a myth. In Social Justice and Library Work, Stephen Bales asserts that "library neutrality is a myth hiding a bias …all positions are political positions (some practitioners are just more honest in their admission of this)."7 According to this argument, those who assert that libraries ought to be neutral ignore deeper structural forces that shape our social world. False claims of neutrality legitimize the prerogatives of privileged social groups by making their advantages appear natural and inevitable. The concept of "white privilege" illustrates the argument. It is hard for white people to acknowledge that biased social institutions tend to give them more wealth and power because such an admission undermines meritocratic justifications of the existing distribution of social advantage based on the assumption that people basically get what they deserve through hard work.8 For critics, anyone who believes in the myth of neutrality fails to see how current institutions might be changed to improve social justice. The third strand of the critique argues that neutrality diminishes the importance of librarianship by reducing librarians to mere technicians. According to librarian Joseph Good: Neutral responses to the vital issues of gay marriage, African-American reparations, and affirmative action continually jeopardize the library's relevance in contemporary society. If the librarian cannot be motivated to take a stand on pressing social issues out of a sense of moral duty, certainly the librarian should break his or her neutrality in the name of self-interest.9 If librarians merely process, manage, and distribute information without evaluating it, Good believes that they have minimal social importance. Good's anxiety that neutrality [End Page 56] neuters librarianship resonates with broader anxieties about the value of librarianship in the digital age. At a time when librarians wonder if the Internet will render the profession superfluous, machines seem more likely to replace librarians who simply process data than those who are politically engaged. Defending Library Neutrality Somewhat surprisingly, the critique of neutrality has encountered little resistance in the literature of librarianship so far. In 2014, a library director blogging about the "Myth of Library Neutrality" observed: I recently attempted to find information supporting the idea of library neutrality, but had a hard time finding anything other than opinion pieces by those questioning the concept. It looks like what we have ended up with is outdated discourse that does not reflect what the library profession is doing and how they actually feel about it.10 In his 2015 book, The Dialectic of Academic Librarianship, Stephen Bales points to what he sees as a dearth of recent scholarly publications in favor of nonpartisan librarianship. Other than opinion pieces and listserv disputes, calls for neutrality, it seems, are beginning to be relegated to the official statements of professional associations, boilerplate lectures in college classrooms, and textbooks, all of which often benefit by avoiding openly stated political positions.11 If belief in library neutrality is as pervasive as the critique supposes, one wonders why persistent criticism has not met with more opposition in the literature. Perhaps, as Bales suggests, the critique has been so successful that it is no longer possible to offer a rational defense of neutrality. Perhaps, in contrast, the virtues of neutrality are so obvious to most librarians that they see no need for theoretical justification. Perhaps the pro and con debate about neutrality at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in 2018 reflects a growing awareness of the critique and will lead to increasing scholarly debate. For now, the most vigorous defense of library neutrality can still be found in a 1975 book by David Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason: Essays on Intellectual Freedom in the Academy, the Press, and the Library.12 The central essay of the book, "Social Responsibility vs. the Library Bill of Rights," was published in Library Journal in 1972 as part of an intense debate about the ethics of librarianship that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s in response to the widespread social protests of that era. Berninghausen was director of the School of Library Science at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and had been a strong advocate of intellectual freedom throughout his career. He chaired the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) of the ALA for several years and supported intellectual freedom as a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he sought to make intellectual freedom a fundamental ethical mandate of the library profession. He fought against efforts to force librarians to sign loyalty oaths during the McCarthy era, when there were widespread accusations of suspected Communist activities, often with little evidence.13 He also strove to make the ALA more effective in supporting librarians who had been disciplined for resisting attempts to censor library collections.14 [End Page 57] Berninghausen's 1972 essay was prompted by debate within the ALA about whether the social responsibilities of librarians should go beyond protecting intellectual freedom as defined by the Library Bill of Rights. In the ALA, as in many other organizations in the 1970s, the consensus New Deal liberalism of the post-World War II era was being challenged by radicals opposed to racial segregation and the Vietnam War. A growing number of Americans believed that there were fundamental flaws in American society that could be resolved only by radical change. ALA members committed to these ideas formed the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) and argued that librarians ought to take a clear stand in favor of progressive social movements. They proposed a broader definition of "social responsibility" that contrasted with the ideal of intellectual freedom that Berninghausen had championed throughout his career. In 1970, the SRRT issued a report that framed their understanding of the social role of the library as an alternative to the more limited political agenda that Berninghausen had defended as chair of the IFC: There are two conflicting definitions of Social Responsibility held by members of the ALA at present. The first is traditional, conservative and variously phrased: "The function of a library is to have factual material on both sides of the question. The library is a reservoir for information and our business is to conserve it and wait till our users require its contents. The library is a source of ideas, not a promoter of them." The second definition of "social responsibility" is considered radical, new, activist. It can best be summed up by a definition put forth by ALA's Committee on Organization (COO): "Social responsibilities can be defined as the relationships that librarians and libraries have to non-library problems that relate to the social welfare of our society."15 Although the report embraces intellectual freedom, it asserts that defending intellectual freedom represents an overly narrow political agenda. In a period of intense social conflict, the SRRT wanted librarians to take a stand on broader questions of social justice. Berninghausen maintained that adopting the SRRT's radical definition of social responsibility would destroy rather than expand the ALA's political effectiveness. In his eyes, taking an activist position on "non-library problems" meant abandoning effective commitment to intellectual freedom. He argued that a library could be an "advocacy" library or a "Library Bill of Rights" library, but not both. By promoting specific positions on questions of ongoing social debate, libraries undermined their role as impartial advocates in favor of open-minded democratic discourse: "America's librarians cannot afford to be neutral about their commitment to preserve the freedom to read for everyone. At the same time, as professionals, they must remain neutral about the issues of the day regardless of what they may do as private citizens."16 Although Berninghausen acknowledged that the country faced many social problems and that librarians had an obligation to contribute to the solution of these problems as citizens, he argued that librarians' commitment to the professional ideal of intellectual freedom had to take priority over personal political commitments while working in the library. The question is why Berninghausen believed that advocacy was incompatible with intellectual freedom. Why is fighting racism, economic inequality, or nuclear proliferation incompatible with defending patrons' right to read whatever they want? The conflict is not immediately obvious. In fact, the AAUP takes the opposite position for its members. For university professors, having intellectual freedom means having the right to express [End Page 58] their political opinions without fear of institutional retribution. All that the AAUP requires is a commitment to scholarly accuracy and the willingness to "show respect to the opinions of others" in intellectual debate.17 In the academy, defending intellectual freedom means creating an environment that promotes open-minded discussion of ideas where everyone is encouraged to articulate, defend, and justify their values. So, why would Berninghausen believe that intellectual freedom in the library requires that librarians suppress their opinions in their professional activities? In hindsight, I think that Berninghausen's attempt to answer this question was marred by his intense engagement with the ongoing political struggles within the ALA. As the chair of the IFC, he saw the SRRT's rejection of the "traditional, conservative" interpretation of social responsibility as a direct attack against himself, his committee, and the ideals that he had championed throughout his career. Moreover, he was dismayed by the apparent embrace of the SRRT's position by the library press. His book includes extensive complaints about Library Journal's abandonment of objective journalism, in part stemming from his belief that he had been unfairly criticized by the magazine. The inflammatory title of Berninghausen's book reflects his unwillingness—in the heat of an ongoing political fight—to grant a fair hearing to his opponents. For Berninghausen, advocacy was incompatible with intellectual freedom because activist librarians had taken a "flight from reason" to embrace irrational dogmatism. For example, he argued that librarians who thought that libraries should endorse the environmental politics of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring prioritized "gut feelings" over rational debate. They "feel that they are right because they are sincere in their beliefs and because they hold strong convictions."18 There was no middle ground in Berninghausen's analysis that would allow a librarian to endorse a radical political position without becoming a "rigid," "intransigent" extremist who sincerely believed "that anyone who does not view the world precisely as they do should be forced to conform or cease to exist."19 Berninghausen believed that adopting the SRRT's vision of librarianship was equivalent to adopting left-wing political dogmatism just as damaging to democratic values as the right-wing McCarthyism that Berninghausen had fought against in the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, due to the inherent right-leaning political tendencies of the nation, Bern-inghausen argued that the activism of left-wing extremists almost always contributed to the ultimate triumph of right-wing extremism in American politics by undermining democratic traditions that hold all forms of authoritarianism at bay. Berninghausen's intransigence prevented him from acknowledging that political activism is not inherently inconsistent with fair and open-minded debate. A librarian can be completely committed to the arguments of Silent Spring without closing her mind to alternative perspectives. Antinuclear activists can try to convince other citizens of the accuracy of their views without seeking to impose their conclusions on others through force or censorship. Most of the librarians who responded to Berninghausen's original article in Library Journal disagreed with him on these grounds.20 They argued that the irrational library ideologues that Berninghausen admonished in his essay existed only in his imagination. They failed to see themselves in [End Page 59] Berninghausen's account and did not agree that advocating for a broader interpretation of a librarian's social responsibility meant abandoning their commitment to intellectual freedom. A Deeper Moral Dilemma Although Berninghausen's attacks against his critics weakened his argument, I still believe that his description of a stark contrast between "social responsibility" and "intellectual freedom" points to a troubling moral dilemma at the heart of librarianship in a liberal democratic society. The dilemma results from two powerful moral intuitions that pull librarians in opposite directions whenever their own moral values differ significantly from the moral values of their patrons. I will call these intuitions Proposition A (activist) and Proposition N (neutrality). Proposition A asserts that we ought to do everything in our power to prevent injustice regardless of whether we started it. A witness who fails to prevent a crime when she has the power do so is almost as culpable as the person who commits the crime, in the eyes of most. And the more power someone has, the more responsibility she has. A trained, gun-carrying policeman has greater responsibility to stop a mugging than does a frail, elderly citizen. Bosses have more responsibility to limit injustice in their organizations than do their subordinates. This intuitive sense of responsibility to fight injustice initiated by others—or by society at large—is at the heart of discontent with library neutrality. According to the critics, librarians who fail to use the influence conferred on them by their education and their social status to reduce ongoing social injustice are as culpable as witnesses who do nothing to stop ongoing crimes. Proposition N asserts that it is wrong for someone in a position of authority to impose her moral values on others. Most citizens in liberal democratic societies believe in the fundamental moral autonomy of their fellow citizens. Government officials should not censor political ideas that they disagree with. Bosses should not impose their beliefs on employees. The desire to respect the moral autonomy of all citizens is at the heart of the ideal of library neutrality. When the Freedom to Read Statement of the ALA says that librarians "do not foster education by imposing as mentors the patterns of their own thought," it asks librarians to respect the intellectual autonomy of their patrons.21 Instead of serving as moral educators, librarians provide information that allows patrons to make up their own minds. When the overall moral worldview of a librarian is largely in harmony with the worldview of her patrons, propositions A and N usually are compatible with each other. The dilemma comes when librarians encounter patrons whose moral ends are fundamentally at odds with their own. Then, it often seems that the best way for librarians to use their authority to prevent injustice is to use their influence to impose the "patterns of their own thought" on the patron. Thus, the only way to accomplish proposition A is to violate proposition N, or vice versa. A few thought experiments illustrate the dilemma. [End Page 60] Scenario A As a history major in college, librarian A developed the conviction that socialism is a delusionary ideal that leads to social evil. After studying several socialist revolutions that resulted in authoritarian societies, he became convinced that the quixotic dreams of socialism are based on a false understanding of human nature that always leads to tragedy. Patron A is a doorman at a luxury hotel who comes to the library with a conviction—based on his experience with employers who have exploited him and his daily observation of the extremes of wealth and poverty in front of his hotel—that our social order is deeply immoral. In the reference interview, patron A expresses a desire to read Das Kapital and similar types of socialist literature to better understand what is wrong with our society. During the interview, librarian A struggles with a dilemma. By helping patron A access the writings of Marxist theorists, the librarian would contribute to his miseducation. The librarian knows that the material is flawed but will be seductive to the patron in his current frame of mind. What if patron A—enticed by the fantasies of socialism—inspires his friends to engage in protests that lead to unnecessary pain and suffering? But if the librarian nudges his patron toward sound political conclusions by warning him about the errors of his chosen authors or by directing him toward more accurate social theorists, does he violate the intellectual autonomy of his patron? Scenario B Librarian B recently graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, where he learned that homosexuality is a natural and morally blameless form of human desire. Prompted by the experience of a close friend who was forced to go through conversion therapy as a teenager, he wrote a paper on conversion therapy demonstrating that it is pseudoscientific nonsense that causes unnecessary suffering for those forced to endure it. Patron B is a middle-aged father troubled by homosexual tendencies that he has observed in his son. His son has not yet come out as gay, but the father is worried that the boy is headed toward an unhappy life of social exclusion. Patron B recently heard a radio interview about a book called A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality by Joseph Nicolosi and wants to learn more about reparative therapy. He asks the librarian to help him find Nicolosi's book and others like it. During the reference interview, librarian B struggles with a moral dilemma. He knows that reparative therapy is nonsense, but he fears that it will be attractive to the patron in his current frame of mind. If the librarian simply helps the patron find the books he wants, he may encourage a course of action that will cause much suffering for the patron's family. However, if librarian B warns the patron about Nicolosi's errors and directs him toward authors who will give the patron a better understanding of what his son is experiencing, is librarian B using his authority to undermine the patron's intellectual autonomy and his ability to develop his own moral opinions? [End Page 61] Scenario C Librarian C is a born-again Christian who suffered from sexual confusion until he had a conversion experience when he was 21. His moral values are based on his study of scripture, the guidance of his pastor, and the moral intuitions derived from his close relationship to God. Librarian C knows that giving in to the type of homosexual desires that tormented him as a teenager alienates sinners from God and leads to unnecessary suffering both in this life and the next. Patron C is a 15-year-old boy who has been troubled by increasingly strong homosexual fantasies. In the reference interview, patron C expresses the desire to learn more about where his desires come from and what he should do about them. He has been afraid to talk with anyone he knows because his family and friends disapprove of homosexuality. Somewhere, he heard about book called The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens. Does the library have it or books like that? Librarian C's dilemma is like that of librarian A or B. If he simply directs the patron—without warning—toward the literature that the patron has requested, he may doom the patron to a life of sin. The librarian knows that those books are misleading, but they are likely to seduce the patron in his current frame of mind. Does the librarian's obligation to respect the patron's intellectual autonomy take precedence over his obligation to protect the patron from moral corruption? Separation of Spheres In these thought experiments, the tension between advocacy and neutrality does not necessarily derive from irrationality, dogmatism, or an unwillingness to consider alternative points of view. It comes from something deeper and more profound—from our society's ongoing debate about the legitimacy of conflicting systems of moral value in which reasonable people may disagree. Three factors lead to the librarians' dilemmas: 1. Moral and political beliefs matter. Is socialism a utopian fantasy or a viable political option? Is homosexuality a natural form of sexual desire or a dangerous perversion? Actions based on the wrong answers to these questions lead to injustice and suffering. 2. There is no universal agreement about what is morally good, and there probably never will be. As one social theorist has argued: "Many of our deepest moral and metaphysical beliefs, like how to live a good life or which God to worship, are inherently contestable—reasonable people can and will disagree."22 3. Librarians serve as an interface (gatekeeper?) between patrons and the information that patrons seek to develop and defend their values. Our authority comes from our official role as mediators between patrons and organized collections of evidence that support different points of view. If we choose, we can use our authority to favor our own views at the expense of alternatives. Our influence derives from several aspects of library work: a. As in my thought experiments, the reference interview gives librarians a chance to guide patrons to data and arguments consistent with our own views. b. Collection and preservation decisions can favor information consistent with our own values. [End Page 62] c. Metadata created by librarians to organize collections can impose moral judgment through categorization by, for example, labeling some religious communities as cults or some forms of sexual desire as psychological disorders.23 d. Search algorithms created (or adopted) by librarians can make it easier to find information consistent with our own values and harder to find evidence that challenges our biases.24 So, when and how should we use our professional authority to direct patrons to the correct moral views as we see them? Perhaps there is no systematic theoretical resolution to the conflict between proposition A and proposition N. In practice, most librarians will be guided by intuition and experience when they encounter these dilemmas in their work. Can we go beyond that? Can we determine if proposition A or proposition N ought to have priority when they come into conflict in the work of librarianship? That, to me, is the deep question at the heart of the debate about library neutrality. Despite Berninghausen's hyperbole, his essay offers a powerful means of addressing the dilemma through a strict segregation between our private and our professional lives. He argues that librarians can meet the demands of both proposition A and proposition N by applying them in different spheres. "In their private, personal lives, librarians exercise their rights as citizens to play active roles as partisan proponents and supporters of social, political, or religious causes and organizations."25 As citizens, family members, and friends, proposition A takes precedence, and librarians should use their influence to fight for social justice as they understand it. However, as librarians, proposition N takes precedence: "In their professional work, which they consider a part of the communication system by which human beings maintain contact with the world around them, librarians maintain as high a degree of impartiality and neutrality as is humanly possible."26 For Berninghausen, the library is an institution devoted to the support of intellectual freedom for all citizens, and the goals of the institution take precedence over the private moral convictions of librarians in their professional work. At times, this priority leads to internal conflict because our professional commitments prevent us from performing moral acts we would be obligated to perform in our private lives. However, the importance of preserving the long-term value of the library as a source of intellectual autonomy for everyone makes professional restraint worthwhile. Although Berninghausen strives to provide moral clarity, the blunt alternative that he offers between social activism and librarianship may have the opposite effect for many librarians. If the Library Bill of Rights requires parking our moral values outside every time we go to work, maybe something is wrong with it. Why should librarians restrict their social advocacy precisely in the arena where their training and expertise give them the greatest social influence? Why exactly are the Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights so important to librarianship in the first place? A Library Neutrality Syllogism Answering these questions has been difficult for me because the values expressed in the Library Bill of Rights seem so obvious that they hardly need justification. Who could disagree when the Library Bill of Rights asserts that "materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation"? [End Page 63] Who could argue when the ALA's Freedom to Read Statement says that "the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad"? For most of my career, such sentiments have been easy platitudes, the inevitable moral landscape of librarianship, rather than controversial political commitments that could be challenged. But the critique of library neutrality interrupts my dogmatic slumbers. Recent United States elections make me wonder if librarians really ought to "trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe," as the Freedom to Read Statement asserts. In a "post truth" era, faith in the critical judgment of the ordinary individuals may be disastrous. Can librarians really assume that patrons will recognize fake news for what it is if we do not "protect" them from propaganda or if we refuse to "foster education by imposing as mentors the patterns of [our] own thought"? The neutrality debate forces me to interrogate the deeper political assumptions implicit in the platitudes so confidently expressed in mid-twentieth century ALA documents. Are they still viable for twenty-first century librarianship? My attempt to think through these questions has led me to the library neutrality syllogism summarized here. The following sections of the essay will flesh out the steps of the argument and then respond to potential objections. Major Premise: Libraries and the Enlightenment In Libraries and the Enlightenment (2012), Wayne Bivens-Tatum, author of the Academic Librarian blog, argues that "the philosophical and political principles of the European Enlightenment provide the philosophical foundation of American academic and public libraries."27 These principles include a commitment to liberal democracy. Minor Premise: Liberal Neutrality Several twentieth century American political philosophers, including Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls, and Martha Nussbaum, argue that "neutrality between different conceptions of the good" is essential to a liberal political state. If a state fails to maintain neutrality between different moral ideas, it fails to treat every citizen with the equal care and respect she deserves as a member of a liberal society. Conclusion: Librarians Should Be Neutral between Different Conceptions of the Good If Bivens-Tatum is right about the political principles of American librarianship and if Dworkin, Rawls, and Nussbaum are right about liberal neutrality, librarians should do their best to maintain neutrality between differing moral ideals to provide an intellectual environment in which every citizen has an equal opportunity to discover, develop, and defend her own conceptions of the good. [End Page 64] Libraries and the Enlightenment Bivens-Tatum traces the historical origins and the ongoing "telos" of American librarianship to ideas developed by European Enlightenment thinkers in the seventeenth century, who believed in the power of human reason rather than traditional authority. Although the scholarship about the Enlightenment is vast, Bivens-Tatum relies on a recent analysis by intellectual historian Jonathan Israel to summarize Enlightenment ideals. In A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy, Israel argues: Radical Enlightenment is a set of basic principles that can be summed up concisely as: democracy; racial and sexual equality; individual liberty of lifestyle; full freedom of thought, expression, and the press …Its chief maxim is that all men have the same basic needs, rights, and status irrespective of what they believe or what religious, economic, or ethnic group they belong to, and that consequently all ought to be treated alike, on the basis of equity, whether black or white, male or female, religious or nonreligious.28 Israel does not argue that all seventeenth century Enlightenment thinkers were ready to grant "full freedom of thought" to everyone immediately. Many famous Enlightenment philosophers denied equal rights to women, non-Christians, the poor, or non-Europeans. Many American revolutionaries steeped in Enlightenment ideals proclaimed that "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence while they continued to own slaves.29 Nevertheless, Israel argues that Enlightenment thinkers developed a new understanding of the relationship between the individual and society that encouraged democratic equality. As Enlightenment ideas became more successful, that ideal was applied to broader and more inclusive groups of human beings. The belief that all people are capable of reason and ought to have the freedom to develop their own moral and political ideals is central to Enlightenment values. In his famous 1784 essay "What Is Enlightenment?" Immanuel Kant stated, "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another."30 The idea that everyone can reason for themselves undermines paternalistic forms of religion and society, which assume that most people are not capable of finding the truth on their own. Traditional pre-Enlightenment rulers in Europe believed that access to truth was limited to a small, educated elite and that political power should be restricted to a small class of aristocrats. Most people were destined to serve the will of God or the needs of the state rather than to pursue their own ends. The liberal conception of society as an institution that can only be justified by the benefits it brings to its individual citizens is built on the Enlighten-ment's ideal of autonomy. Bivens-Tatum argues that American libraries have earned social legitimacy based on their promise to promote Enlightenment values. Academic libraries primarily serve the modern university's quest for knowledge as an end unto itself. Before the Civil War, most American universities focused on moral training for ministers and political elites in specific religious traditions. Because "instruction was dependent on studying a few classical texts closely, or through recitation from textbooks, there was hardly any need for academic libraries to support the curricula." College libraries were "just not that important" because there was little need for intellectual exploration beyond the approved [End Page 65] texts.31 Only when American universities began to adopt the Enlightenment model of German universities at the end of the nineteenth century did American academic libraries became important. As the search for new knowledge became the primary purpose of the university, large and well-organized libraries were needed to store the endless accumulation of learning and to support the independent exploration of scholars. American public libraries gained popular support as a means of promoting the intellectual self-development of democratic citizens. Bivens-Tatum demonstrates that the earliest publicly funded libraries—also built in the middle to late nineteenth century—were justified as a supplement to public schools because they allowed adults to continue the education that the schools had started. Access to a library was valuable to democratic society because "the largest possible number of persons should be induced to read and understand questions going down to the very foundations of social order, which are constantly presenting themselves, and which we, as a people, are constantly required to decide."32 Although there has been debate about whether public libraries actually do enlighten the public instead of merely entertaining them, justifications for using tax dollars to pay for libraries continue to focus on their role in promoting the free inquiry necessary for a liberal democracy.33 Bivens-Tatum does not address the Freedom to Read Statement directly, but the document buttresses the connection that he makes between the Enlightenment and the ethos of American librarianship. The language used by the ALA in the 1953 statement closely resembles Kant's 1784 essay on enlightenment. According to Kant, "Nothing is required for this enlightenment, however, except freedom; and the freedom in question is the least harmful of all, namely, the freedom to use reason publicly in all matters …The public use of one's reason must always be free, and it alone can bring about enlightenment among mankind."34 Kant's emphasis on intellectual independence is mirrored in the ALA's credo: "We believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture."35 The public library embodies the intellectual self-reliance prized by Kant. Unlike a school or a church where intellectual development is directed by a master, the library creates an open intellectual environment where individuals are guided by their own curiosity. I believe that Bivens-Tatum succeeds in his effort to trace the origins and ongoing purpose of library values to the Enlightenment. His historical account shows that the ideals of librarianship in a liberal democracy are not eternal truths inherent in the universe but are embedded in specific social institutions designed to achieve specific political ends. [End Page 66] Liberal Neutrality The thesis of liberal neutrality was developed by several American political philosophers in the late twentieth century in response to the same political conflicts that led to the ALA debate about library neutrality during the 1970s. In a famous 1978 essay on "Liberalism," Ronald Dworkin asked if liberalism still was a viable political philosophy after the disaster of the Vietnam War—conducted by Americans who called themselves liberals—and the dissolution of the New Deal liberal consensus. In the 1970s, many believed that Vietnam "exposed hidden connections between liberalism and exploitation" and decided that "the line between liberalism and conservatism was …[a] sham."36 To continue to believe in liberalism as a morally coherent political philosophy, Dworkin sought to find a deeper principle beneath the flawed policies of Cold War politicians. The principle that Dworkin proposed is that liberal "government must be neutral on what might be called the question of the good life."37 Because people have differing ideas about "what gives value to life," liberals believe that the only way "for the government to treat all its citizens as free, or as independent, or with equal dignity" is to allow everyone to live according to their own standards of virtue as much as is practically possible. According to Dworkin, the ideal of liberal neutrality is compatible with differing political and economic policies. Dworkin himself supported a market economy modified by income redistribution and a social safety net but thought that liberal neutrality also was compatible with more extreme versions of laissez-faire or with socialism. The key difference between liberalism and competing political philosophies is not a matter of specific economic policies but the fundamental belief that citizens ought to decide for themselves how to live their lives. Non-liberal political philosophies assume that the government must have its own "theory of what human beings ought to be" and then develop policies that encourage citizens to live according to appropriate standards of virtue.38 Liberalism focuses on increasing the autonomy of citizens to choose their own version of the good life, whereas other forms of government encourage (with more or less force) citizens to live a good life as the government has defined it. In Political Liberalism (1993), John Rawls, perhaps the most influential American political philosopher of the twentieth century, built a complete system of political morality out of the insights in Dworkin's essay.39 According to Rawls, pluralistic democratic societies are composed of groups of people who believe in a wide variety of "comprehensive" moral doctrines, including Catholicism, Lutheranism, Islam, Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Marxism, and many others. Comprehensive moral philosophies offer a thoroughgoing account of the universe and human nature to explain the standards of virtue that ought to govern human behavior. Differing comprehensive philosophies offer conflicting accounts. For example, Muslims believe that human behavior ought to be consistent with the word of God as transcribed by Muhammad in the Quran, whereas Utilitarians dismiss all forms of religious belief and argue that human behavior ought to be governed by the desire to produce the greatest amount of collective happiness for humanity. Other comprehensive moral philosophies offer many other incompatible theories of virtue. According to Rawls, most political philosophers in the past assumed that political virtue must be embedded in a comprehensive moral doctrine. To build a just society, the philosopher assumes that leaders must first evaluate the various moral systems available [End Page 67] to them. Then, after choosing the right comprehensive theory of value, leaders can evaluate specific political policies based on how well the policies promote their chosen standards of virtue. Rawls considers "political liberalism" an alternative to comprehensive political philosophies because it is based on limited standards of political justice that need not choose between competing comprehensive theories of morality. In a pluralistic democratic society, Rawls believes that almost everyone can agree on shared standards of social justice even if they never will agree about the existence of God or other contested moral questions. Social justice in a liberal society focuses on the virtues of shared civic life, in which diverse communities with differing moral ideals must cooperate to achieve social ends, rather than on the virtues of comprehensive moral systems. Governmental neutrality between differing comprehensive systems of value is a fundamental feature of justice in a politically liberal state, according to Rawls. Neutrality is necessary to achieve a state that can be legitimate for everyone regardless of their comprehensive system of values. Because no one would agree that a society that systematically suppresses her own values is just, everyone must agree not to use the power of the state to impose their views on others. For everyone who agrees to play by the rules of liberal democracy—and does not use force or intimidation to impose their beliefs on others—the state should not privilege any one view above others. The University of Chicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who adopted Rawls's political liberalism, offers a powerful explanation of how governmental neutrality promotes a society in which all citizens are treated with dignity: Respect in political liberalism is, first and foremost, respect for persons, not respect for the doctrines they hold, for the grounding of those doctrines, or for anything else about them. It is because we respect persons that we think that their comprehensive doctrines deserve space to unfold themselves, and deserve respectful, nonderogatory treatment from government …For a public official in a leading role to say "X's doctrine is not as well grounded as Y's" is, inevitably, to denigrate X, and we want our political principles to show equal respect to X and Y.40 Although Nussbaum supports Rawls's overall theory, she develops an important critique of one aspect of his argument. Rawls thought that liberal societies should be open to all "reasonable" doctrines. So, Nussbaum asks, what makes a doctrine unreasonable? How do we determine what doctrines ought not be tolerated in a pluralistic democracy? Rawls, at times, tried to define unreasonable doctrines as those that are obviously inaccurate or are based on faulty logic. But Nussbaum argues that Rawls's theory is a moral and political account of society, and its definition of "unreasonable" also should be moral and political. For her, an unreasonable doctrine is one that rejects liberalism's moral premise that every citizen ought to be treated with equal respect. Thus, the state ought not condone "hate speech" that attacks the fundamental political rights of other groups in society, but everyone who respects the dignity of their fellow citizens should be free to develop, follow, and promote their own values—regardless of content—without discrimination or bias from the state.41 [End Page 68] Library Neutrality and Political Liberalism Political liberalism grounds the ideals assumed in the Library Bill of Rights in a broader theory of social justice. According to Rawls and Nussbaum, liberal neutrality is the best means of achieving the enlightened democratic society that libraries are designed to support according to Bivens-Tatum. Rawls's distinction between comprehensive moral systems and the more limited system of political justice provides deeper theoretical justification for Berninghausen's distinction between the private and the professional lives of librarians. In their private lives, librarians have the same rights as any other citizen to develop, support, and promote their own comprehensive conceptions of the good. In their professional lives, librarians who work as public officials have an obligation to treat all comprehensive doctrines with equal respect, including doctrines that they vigorously oppose in their private lives. According to this view, the neutrality of the public library makes it especially valuable as a means of promoting self-development in politically liberal societies. Nussbaum argues that "real freedom to live according to one's own view also requires protecting the spaces in which people may leave one view and opt for another, and also the spaces in which children learn about options so that they can really live their own lives."42 It is hard to imagine spaces better suited to encouraging the exploration of options than public libraries. And it is hard to imagine a more important political responsibility for librarians than to "protect" those spaces by making sure that libraries continue to provide a wide diversity of views for citizens to explore. This account addresses the primary criticisms of neutrality articulated in recent library discourse. Against the charge that neutrality protects the strong against the weak, the political liberal argues that the purpose of neutrality is precisely to protect the opinions of the minority against the tyranny of the majority. In a democratic society, the danger often is that the majority will use its influence to impose its comprehensive system of moral values on a minority. By protecting a space where all views receive equal respect—including those of the majority, the minority, the powerful, and the poor—the library can counterbalance the tendency to enforce conformity of opinion in democratic communities. Of course, no library exists in the perfectly liberal society imagined by Rawls. Marred by persistent racism, sexism, and increasing economic inequality, twenty-first century America has not come close to achieving a political order in which every citizen receives equal respect. If librarians ignore these distressing realities and act as if our society has already achieved social justice, many of the inequities in the surrounding environment will be replicated within the library walls. Affirmative action within the library can mitigate the consequences of injustice outside the library while maintaining the ideal of neutrality between different conceptions of the good.43 Librarians ought to seek out and collect [End Page 69] viewpoints infrequently expressed in the mass media because they are inconsistent with the interests of those who have money and power. Making sure that unpopular and unconventional opinions are available in the library and increasing their visibility is a useful means of countering biases of conventional wisdom. However, from the perspective of political liberalism, the goal always is to expand the diversity of options available to patrons rather than to direct them to conclusions that the librarian considers correct. For the library to emphasize specific doctrines—either minority or majority—because they are "right" would undermine the library's role as a space that treats everyone with equal respect and gives them the opportunity to explore differing options of the good. Political liberalism also answers the charge that library neutrality is an ahistorical, apolitical myth. Because it grounds library values in the philosophical vision of the European Enlightenment and commits the library to the support of liberal democracy, this argument does not pretend that neutrality is a natural ideal that transcends politics. The library's neutrality is embedded in and limited by its political commitments. The library should not remain neutral when citizens, especially those who have power, refuse to play by the rules of political liberalism by using violence, threats, or intimidation to suppress the free expression of others. The library should, however, remain neutral between different conceptions of the good adopted by groups of citizens who are competing for political influence in democratic ways. Liberal and Radical Critiques Critics of the library neutrality syllogism fall into two camps, depending on which premise of the syllogism they challenge. Liberal critics accept the major premise that libraries are founded on Enlightenment ideals but reject the minor premise that liberal democratic institutions ought to be neutral. Radical critics reject the major premise that libraries ought to support Enlightenment values. They may agree with Bivens-Tatum's historical account, but they disagree with the claim that liberalism ought to guide librarianship in the future. The Liberal Critique In the philosophical literature, liberal political theorists who reject liberal neutrality have been called perfectionists. They believe that a successful liberal society depends on specific types of virtue that the government must promote. From their perspective, simply taking a hands-off approach to political discourse and allowing the marketplace of ideas to determine what people believe does not offer adequate protection against irrational forces that threaten to overwhelm democratic societies.44 Rawls argues that most pre-twentieth century liberals, such as Kant and John Stuart Mill, were perfectionists who did not make his distinction between comprehensive theories of justice and the more limited theory of political justice. They were "comprehensive liberals" rather than "political liberals." Both Mill and Kant developed comprehensive moral theories that emphasized reason and believed that the government should discourage traditional religious dogmatism. In contrast to political liberals like Rawls, who believe that the government must maintain neutrality between scientific and religious accounts of the good life, liberal perfectionists agree with Mill and Kant that the government [End Page 70] has a responsibility to actively defend society against dogmatic ways of thinking that undermine rational discourse. At the end of Libraries and the Enlightenment, Bivens-Tatum rejects library neutrality in favor of a comprehensive theory of Enlightenment rationalism. He argues: Librarians cannot be, and should not be, neutral at all. Intellectual freedom should not mean the freedom to believe nonsense, but only to read it. And as proponents of intellectual freedom, librarians are by default implicated in the entire scheme of Enlightenment values I have elaborated …Intellectual freedom does mean that libraries should provide all information to all people, but it does not mean that librarians have to remain neutral towards that information.45 Here, Bivens-Tatum embeds librarianship in a thoroughgoing scheme of Enlightenment rationalism. The moral obligation of librarians is not simply to preserve a place where citizens can explore different points of view but also to promote scientific reason against "nonsense." Because Bivens-Tatum believes that librarians ought to collect and provide access to all points of view regardless of their validity, the implications of his non-neutrality are subtle. However, his stance suggests that librarians have a responsibility to advise patrons on which views are more enlightened. In my reference desk thought experiments, he would presumably expect librarians to warn patrons about any nonsense in their chosen texts while directing them toward more enlightened authors. At one point, Bivens-Tatum argues that "sectarian religious views on homosexuality" contradict the enlightened views that librarians ought to promote.46 He also expresses cautious support for efforts of early twentieth century public libraries to Americanize "immigrants from countries without democracies."47 While he advocates respect for all cultures, BivensTatum suggests that libraries have a positive role to play in educating immigrants in habits of mind required for successful democracy. His argument suggests that not all comprehensive moral cultures are compatible with liberal democracy and that libraries ought to promote and encourage cultures consistent with democracy. Bivens-Tatum's belief that librarians have an active role to play in the fight against nonsense is particularly attractive at a time when many liberals worry that fake news and anti-intellectualism are undermining democratic discourse in Western societies. In a "post truth" world where many Americans refuse to believe in global warming, want to teach creationism in public schools, or believe that vaccinations cause autism, it seems important for librarians to stand up for reason. Recently, science itself has indicated that scientific reasoning needs help to get traction in the popular mind. Social psychologists and behavioral economists argue that our minds are governed by motivated reasoning and naturally gravitate toward ideas that are emotionally satisfying rather than toward reasoned argument and objective evidence.48 Fake news spreads faster than objective reporting on social networks because it is designed to trigger powerful emotional instincts that go deeper than our commitment to reason.49 If librarians fail to take the side of reason in such an irrational world, how can we expect our dedication to rational discourse and democratic liberalism to be effective? As attractive as it is, Bivens-Tatum's comprehensive, non-neutral embrace of Enlightenment rationalism leads to difficult questions about who is qualified to be a librarian. [End Page 71] Should people who disagree with the theory of global warming or the theory of evolution be allowed to serve on the reference desk, where they might mislead patrons? What about a librarian who believes in the Gospels, the Torah, the Book of Mormon, the Quran, or the Apache Creation Story? For me, none of these religious myths has any more rational warrant than arguments against global warming. As a library director, should I refuse to hire anyone who maintains religious beliefs at odds with my scientific understanding of the universe or at least force the employee to toe the line of science on the reference desk? What about librarians who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, perhaps because they believed some of the news about Trump and Hillary Clinton that was distributed by Russian trolls? Can someone who was irrational enough to vote for a politician based on false information distributed by foreign agents be trusted to distinguish nonsense from reason working at the reference desk? Bivens-Tatum's rejection of library neutrality on perfectionist grounds harkens back to an earlier version of the Library Bill of Rights. According to Berninghausen, the Library Bill Rights used to include a clause saying that "books 'of sound factual authority' should not be proscribed or removed from libraries."50 Including the qualifier "of sound factual authority" gave librarians leeway to keep nonsense out of their collections. However, after a public librarian in Illinois rejected a Protestant journal that criticized Catholicism because the journal lacked "sound factual authority," the ALA decided to remove the phrase from the 1967 version of the Library Bill of Rights instead of trying to determine whether Catholicism was more factual than Protestantism. This change made the Library Bill of Rights more consistent with Nussbaum's interpretation of liberal neutrality, in which the state does not take an official stance on the scientific beliefs held by different groups in society. As indicated in the Freedom to Read Statement, the neutral approach requires faith in the critical judgment of ordinary individuals rather than in the moral guidance of librarians to protect democratic societies from authoritarian demagogues. It may be impossible to give any definitive proof in advance that such faith is justified, especially with our growing understanding of the power of irrational ideas and undemocratic impulses in human nature. Nevertheless, if faith in the judgment of ordinary citizens is not justified, I doubt that librarians can fix the problem by "imposing our own patterns" of thought on patrons—at least, I do not think that library paternalism could fix the problem in any way that is consistent with democracy. Thus, my ultimate argument against perfectionism is less a matter of evidence and proof and more a matter of hope and faith. Librarians should build their institutions with the expectation that citizens will use them to expand the scope of democratic freedom and hope that their faith in the critical judgment of ordinary people is justified. We will see what happens. [End Page 72] The Radical Critique Radical critics of the library neutrality syllogism do not care if liberalism requires a neutral state because they reject liberalism itself. Conservative radicals reject liberalism on behalf of traditional moral values that they believe have been abandoned by modern society. They want to ground morality in traditional cultural beliefs because they believe that liberal, individualistic societies render people rootless and alienated.51 Revolutionary radicals reject liberal individualism not on behalf of abandoned social orders of the past but on possible social orders of the future. They argue that liberalism prevents people from achieving alternative social arrangements more consistent with human aspirations because liberal neutrality makes oppressive institutions seem inevitable by embedding them in false beliefs about human nature that are impervious to political change. Although conservative radicals appear to have more influence in contemporary American politics, I will focus on revolutionary radicals here because they are more influential in the current discourse of librarianship. Whereas I have argued that liberal neutrality means that everyone in a democratic society should have equal opportunity to promote their moral views if they play by the rules of democratic discourse, radicals argue that the rules are rigged. Playing by the rules necessarily leads to inequities that undermine efforts to achieve social justice because liberalism encourages people to seek individualistic solutions to systematic problems that can be resolved only through collective action. For example, Andrew Carnegie contributed generously to public libraries because he wanted to give everyone in America the opportunity to become self-made entrepreneurs like himself. The resulting ubiquity of public libraries in the United States as arenas of self-improvement encourages the poor and ambitious to improve their social condition by increasing the "human capital" that they can sell in the marketplace rather than by joining together with others to seek political solutions to inequality. Public libraries may allow the lucky few to emulate Carnegie, but they encourage neglect of collective responses to inequality that have the potential to increase social justice in a more comprehensive way. In her essay "Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression," nina de jesus articulates the radical rejection of library neutrality with explicit directness. Her analysis is based on the social theory of Andrea Smith, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside. Smith argues that white supremacy, slavery, and genocide are inherent in the social institutions of modern capitalist societies.52 For me, the fundamental claim in her analysis is that white supremacy and genocide are essential rather than accidental features of modern liberal societies. Almost no one today—certainly no one whom I would call "liberal"—would defend white supremacy as a good thing. And few people—certainly no one whom I would consider honest and well-informed—would deny that white supremacy continues to exist in modern American society. Where Smith and de jesus disagree with me is in their assertion that it is impossible to get rid of white supremacy, slavery, and genocide without doing away with capitalism and liberalism. From their perspective, trying to eliminate white supremacy while playing by the rules of liberal democracy is like using a little bucket to remove the water from a boat full of holes. Faster than reformers can remedy social injustices generated by capitalism, the moral flaws at the heart of system create more violence and exploitation. [End Page 73] Because de jesus considers liberal democracy rotten to the core, she argues that any institution—including libraries—that supports it contributes to the ongoing oppression of nonwhite people around the world: "The ideal of libraries as liberal institutions existing to make democracy 'better,' thus stronger, is no less than an ideal wherein the genocide of Indigenous peoples is finally completed (putting democracy in its strongest position)."53 By "creating better citizens," libraries contribute to the reproduction of an unjust social order based on violence. Librarians who assert that their institutions are politically neutral thus legitimize the violent oppression of indigenous people perpetuated by capitalism. Specifically, as institutions that collect and organize knowledge, libraries support the commodification of information through intellectual property rights. Although libraries try to share information with a broader audience, they participate in a system in which information becomes property by restricting access to information according to copyright rules. Only by "breaking and disrupting the system of intellectual property and other aspects of capitalism, especially the publishing industry" can librarians hope to make their work contribute to social justice instead of racial oppression, according to de jesus. As a citizen, I disagree with Smith's and de jesus's political analysis because I am convinced by Israel's and Bivens-Tatum's argument that Enlightenment ideals and liberal values genuinely promote human freedom despite the obvious flaws of modern capitalist societies. Even if I agreed with de jesus, I doubt that rejecting library neutrality would be the best strategy for disseminating her views. Librarians who seek to maintain neutrality between different conceptions of the good have an obligation to make Smith's analysis available to their patrons regardless of whether they agree with it so that patrons can decide for themselves. A library committed to neutrality that hired de jesus would ask her not to give preference to Smith's social analysis over alternative theories while she was at work, but de jesus would be free to write articles defending Smith or to engage in social activism to "unsettle America" on her own time without worrying about losing her job.54 Thus, de jesus's conception of the good would get a hearing and a chance to prove to citizens that it is preferable to the alternatives. If, in contrast, librarians were expected to actively engage in the moral education of patrons, de jesus would have more freedom to fight against the oppressive preconceptions of liberalism at work, but librarians who disagree with her would also have more liberty to dismiss her views. While de jesus thinks that "the enlightenment is and was evil because it is the ideology of colonialism," Bivens-Tatum considers it the ultimate source of beneficial modern social values.55 Presumably, BivensTatum would dismiss de jesus's article as an expression of moral nonsense that library patrons should be free to read but not to believe. Consequently, a patron who visited the library while Bivens-Tatum was at the reference desk would receive a radically different moral education than a patron who came while de jesus was on duty. And, if government agencies that hire librarians expected them to be morally engaged rather than morally neutral in their work, many agencies would [End Page 74] likely prefer to hire librarians who agree with Bivens-Tatum or me over librarians who agree with de jesus or Smith. In conservative districts where traditional religious views hold sway, it would be difficult for any of us to get work. Ultimately, radical views that currently reflect minority opinions will more likely get heard if librarians are committed to neutrality than if they are committed to radicalism. Perhaps one could argue that a commitment to library neutrality is a huge missed opportunity because the practice of librarianship confers superior moral insight on librarians. Perhaps the psychological tendencies that entice someone into a career of librarianship are more conducive to the discovery of moral truth than the tendencies that lead to a career as a banker or a dentist. Perhaps daily exposure to a wide variety of literature, diverse systems of information retrieval, and the social needs of patrons makes librarians more sensitive to moral reality than the average citizen. Perhaps librarians are like the philosophers in Plato's allegory of the cave who have escaped the distortions of vulgar opinion to see moral truth in the full light of day. If becoming a librarian imbues us with a deeper understanding of the evils of capitalism that remain obscure to most of our fellow citizens, perhaps we have a moral obligation to lead the way to a better society instead of passively hiding our insight behind false claims of neutrality. Perhaps the profession of librarianship is particularly well-suited to produce an intellectual vanguard committed to social justice.56 I doubt that I can provide a definitive deductive argument against this view any more than I can prove that democracy will not be destroyed by the inherent irrationality of human nature. So far, however, political movements led by vanguards with superior moral insight have not gone well. In China, Eastern Europe, and Cuba, they produced totalitarian societies in which the government tried to mold the thoughts and actions of citizens in a particularly pervasive way. My hope still is that the best political responses to the challenges of our collective life will emerge from open discourse in a democratic society that respects the intellectual autonomy of all its citizens. Even if the economic individualism of a market society generates economic injustice, it does not necessarily follow that the intellectual independence encouraged by liberal morality and by the ethos of American librarianship also is unjust. Individuals can agree to participate in collective action through unions and radical politics without abandoning their moral autonomy to decide for themselves what is right and wrong.57 Faith in the moral independence of democratic citizens may be disastrous in a society distorted either by the fundamental irrationality of human nature or by systematic violence embedded in our institutions, but it still seems the best bet that we can make in an uncertain world. John WenzlerJohn Wenzler is dean of libraries at California State University East Bay; he may be reached by e-mail at: John.wenzler@csueastbay.edu. Notes 1. American Library Association (ALA), "The Freedom to Read Statement," June 30, 2004, http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement. 2. Alison Lewis, ed., Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian (Duluth, MN: Library Juice, 2008). 3. Annie Pho, Emily Drabinski, Fobazi Ettarh, Kelly McElroy, and Nicole Pagowsky, "'But We're Neutral!' And Other Librarian Fictions Confronted by #critlib," presentation at ALA Annual Conference, San Francisco, June 28, 2015. 4. Meredith Farkas, "Never Neutral: Critical Librarianship & Technology," American Libraries, January 3, 2017, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/01/03/never-neutral-critlib-technology/. 5. Amy Carlton, "Are Libraries Neutral? Highlights from the Midwinter President's Program," American Libraries, June 1, 2018, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/are-libraries-neutral/. 6. Reuters, "Tutu Chides Bush on Oversimplifying U.S. Terror War," March 17, 2004. Cited by Robert Jensen, "The Myth of the Neutral Professional," in Lewis, Questioning Library Neutrality, 91. 7. Stephen Bales, Social Justice and Library Work: A Guide to Theory and Practice (Cambridge, MA: Chandos, 2017), 14. 8. Francis E. Kendall, "Understanding White Privilege," 2002, https://www.cpt.org/files/Undoing%20Racism%20-%20Understanding%20White%20Privilege%20-%20Kendall.pdf. 9. Joseph Good, "The Hottest Place in Hell: The Crisis of Neutrality in Contemporary Librarianship," in Lewis, Questioning Library Neutrality, 144. 10. Candise Branum, "The Myth of Library Neutrality," blog, May 15, 2014, https://candisebranum.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/the-myth-of-library-neutrality/. 11. Stephen Bales, The Dialectic of Academic Librarianship: A Critical Approach (Sacramento, CA: Library Juice, 2015), 132. 12. David K. Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason: Essays on Intellectual Freedom in the Academy, the Press, and the Library (Chicago: ALA, 1975). 13. For an overview of Berninghausen's work on the Intellectual Freedom Committee, see Louise S. Robbins, Censorship and the American Library: The American Library Association's Response to Threats to Intellectual Freedom, 1939–1969 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996), especially, 29–105. 14. In chapter 8 of The Flight from Reason, "ALA's Program to Defend Defenders of Intellectual Freedom," 128–56, Berninghausen describes efforts to increase support for librarians fired or disciplined for resisting censorship. 15. Cited by Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason, 110. 16. Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason, 108. 17. American Association of University Professors (AAUP), "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure. 18. Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason, 119. 19. Ibid., 108. 20. Several responses to Berninghausen's essay were included in the January 1, 1973, issue of the Library Journal. See Robert F. Wedgeworth, "The Berninghausen Debate," Library Journal 98, 1 (1973): 25–41. The article includes 22 responses to the essay. Four of responses agreed with Berninghausen; 18 were critical to a greater or lesser extent. 21. ALA, "The Freedom to Read Statement." 22. Samuel Hammond, "The Future of Liberalism and the Politicization of Everything," January 25, 2017, https://niskanencenter.org/blog/future-liberalism-politicization-everything/. 23. See K. R. Roberto, ed., Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008) for discussion of how cataloging and metadata can reinforce bias. 24. For a recent account of how search algorithms can reinforce biased perspectives, see Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New York: NYU Press, 2018). 25. Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason, 123. 26. Ibid., 122. 27. Wayne Bivens-Tatum, Libraries and the Enlightenment (Los Angeles: Library Juice, 2012), 185. 28. Jonathan I. Israel, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750 (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2001), 41. 29. See Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States (New York: Norton, 2018), 109–52 for a good account of the Enlightenment ideals of the founders of the United States and how their ideals were compromised by slavery. 30. Immanuel Kant, "An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" trans. Mary C. Smith, 1784, http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html. 31. Bivens-Tatum, Libraries and the Enlightenment, 83. 32. Boston Public Library, "Upon the Objects to Be Attained by the Establishment of a Public Library: Report of the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1852," cited by Bivens-Tatum in Libraries and the Enlightenment, 107. 33. For a recent discussion of the entertainment versus education debate, see John Buschman, "On Democracy and Libraries," Library Quarterly 88, 1 (2018): 23–40. Buschman analyzes Wayne A. Wiegand's Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2015). Interestingly, Wiegand argues that his social history undermines the thesis that public libraries support democracy. Buschman argues that Wiegand misinterprets the evidence discovered in his own research because he understands "supporting democracy" in an overly narrow way. For Buschman, democratic education goes beyond wonkish interest in public policy such as reading the ballot propositions or knowing who your congressman is (for which libraries provide little help, according to Wiegand). Training for democratic citizenship includes broader forms of self-development and community engagement, which are widely supported by libraries, according to Wiegand's history. 34. Kant, "An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" 35. ALA, "The Freedom to Read Statement." 36. Ronald Dworkin, "Liberalism," chap. 6 in Stuart Hampshire, T. M. Scanlon, Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, and Ronald Dworkin, Public and Private Morality (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 113–14. 37. Dworkin, "Liberalism," 127. 38. Ibid. 39. John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993). 40. Martha C. Nussbaum, "Perfectionist Liberalism and Political Liberalism," Philosophy & Public Affairs 39, 1 (2011): 33. 41. The question of "hate speech" is challenging in this context. I define "hate speech" as speech that does not play by the rules of liberal discourse because it deliberately creates prejudice that hinders targeted groups from participating in civic life. Thus, libraries ought not be neutral about it. Of course, one must be careful about using a loose definition of "hate speech" as a backdoor escape from neutrality in general by defining any idea that one does not like as hate speech. Nevertheless, the challenge of applying the distinction in practice should not lead us to throw up our hands and not even try, as "free speech absolutists" tend to do. This is an important question that goes beyond the scope of the current essay. For a good discussion, see Jeremy Waldron, "Dignity and Defamation: The Visibility of Hate," Harvard Law Review 123, 7 (2010): 1596–657. 42. Nussbaum, "Perfectionist Liberalism and Political Liberalism," 36. 43. Deciding exactly how and when to use affirmative action is a challenging question to which I cannot do justice here. Thomas Nagel, "The Policy of Preference," Philosophy & Public Affairs 2, 4 (1973): 348–63 is a good introduction to moral questions about affirmative action from a liberal perspective. 44. Two political philosophers who have argued against liberal neutrality are Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1986) and George Sher, Beyond Neutrality: Perfectionism and Politics (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 45. Bivens-Tatum, Libraries and the Enlightenment, 187. 46. Ibid., 133. 47. Ibid., 112. 48. A great deal has been written on these topics. For an overview of some of the recent research, see Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). 49. Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral, "The Spread of True and False News Online," Science 359, 6308 (2018): 1146–51. 50. Berninghausen, The Flight from Reason, 9. 51. For a relatively recent philosophical defense of conservatism, see Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984). 52. nina de jesus, "Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression," In the Library with the Lead Pipe, September 24, 2014, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/locating-the-library-in-institutional-oppression. de jesus cites Andrea Smith, "Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy—Centre for World Dialogue," Global Dialogue 12, 2 (2010): 1–13. 53. de jesus, "Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression." 54. On "Unsettling America," de jesus refers to the website "Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice," https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/about/. If de jesus were an academic librarian, she might write articles in support of Andrea Smith on the university's time. For academic librarians, who often are expected to engage in scholarship as part of their work, the commitment to neutrality applies to their work with collections and patrons, not to their work as scholars. As scholars, librarians should have the intellectual freedom to articulate controversial opinions related to their areas of expertise without fear of losing their position. Neutrality applies at the reference desk or in collection development, where librarians should not give preference even to their own scholarship in relation to the work of intellectual opponents. 55. de jesus, "Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression." 56. See Fobazi Ettarh, "Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves," In the Library with the Lead Pipe, January 10, 2018, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/, for an interesting discussion of the idea that "librarianship is a sacred calling" and the sense of moral superiority sometimes associated with the profession of librarianship. 57. For an economic/political analysis that comes closest to my current views on these questions, see Robert Kuttner, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? (New York: Norton, 2018), especially chapter 11, "Liberalism, Populism, Fascism." 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doi-org-9704	----	Academic Freedom and Librarians’ Research and Scholarship in Canadian Universities | Kandiuk | College & Research Libraries Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About MAIN MENU Home Current Issue Past Issues Publish Alerts Fora About About College & Research Libraries (C&RL) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. About The Authors Mary Kandiuk is Visual Arts, Design & Theatre Librarian / Senior Librarian at York University; email: mkandiuk@yorku.ca. Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens is Librarian at University of Toronto Mississauga; email: harriet.sonne@utoronto.ca. Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item Supplementary files C&RL News RBM ALA JobLIST About ACRL Advertising Information Most Popular Information Code-Switching: A Study of Language Preferences in Academic Libraries (15227 views) Shame: The Emotional Basis of Library Anxiety (13021 views) The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy: Academic Librarians' Involvement in Critical Library Instruction (10611 views) More >> Home > Vol 79, No 7 (2018) > Kandiuk Academic Freedom and Librarians’ Research and Scholarship in Canadian Universities Mary Kandiuk, Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens Abstract This study examines the extent to which librarians employed at Canadian universities have academic freedom protection with respect to the right and responsibility to engage in research and scholarship as part of their normal workload and the right to pursue unrestricted lines of inquiry in research and scholarship. An analysis of the terms and conditions of employment for Canadian academic librarians and the results of a nationwide survey reveal that the majority are protected by academic freedom in their contractual agreements. The findings also reveal that the inclusion of research and scholarship as part of normal workload is a challenge for many librarians, definitions for research and scholarship vary across institutions, and time constraints impede the ability of librarians to conduct research and scholarship. Full Text: PDF HTML DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.7.931 Copyright Mary Kandiuk, Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Article Views (Last 12 Months) No data available Contact ACRL for article usage statistics from 2010-April 2017. Article Views (By Year/Month) 2020 January: 34 February: 46 March: 39 April: 38 May: 43 June: 40 July: 34 August: 32 September: 59 October: 30 November: 35 2019 January: 91 February: 72 March: 72 April: 55 May: 56 June: 34 July: 44 August: 20 September: 21 October: 33 November: 21 December: 26 2018 January: 34 February: 42 March: 12 April: 3 May: 14 June: 2 July: 7 August: 5 September: 4 October: 119 November: 200 December: 88 © 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association Print ISSN: 0010-0870 | Online ISSN: 2150-6701 ALA Privacy Policy ISSN: 2150-6701 
doi-org-9768	----	Solutions for Subject Guides | Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research Quick jump to page content Main Navigation Main Content Sidebar Register Login Toggle navigation Current Archives Announcements About About the Journal Submissions Editorial Team Contact Search Home Archives Vol 3 No 2 (2008) Professional Development Solutions for Subject Guides Article Sidebar HTML PDF Published: Dec 16, 2008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v3i2.907 Main Article Content Donald Moses Holland College Jennifer Richard Acadia University Downloads Download data is not yet available. Article Details How to Cite Moses, D., & Richard, J. (2008). Solutions for Subject Guides. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v3i2.907 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Issue Vol 3 No 2 (2008) Section Professional Development This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. As a condition of publication in Partnership, all authors agree to the following terms of licensing/copyright ownership: First publication rights to original work accepted for publication is granted to Partnership but copyright for all work published in the journal is retained by the author(s). Works published in Partnership will be distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Authors grant permission for their work to be indexed in full text form in commercial indexes and non-commercial indexes. This may include but is not limited to, indexes such as Proquest, EBSCO, Erudit etc. Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Partnership. It will be the responsibility of the authors to secure all necessary copyright permissions for the use of 3rd-party materials in their manuscript. Authors will be required to provide written evidence of this permission upon acceptance of their manuscript. Authors agree their abstracts may be translated into French.  Note: This license applies to all works published after February 1, 2016. Articles published before this date are under CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Author Biography Jennifer Richard, Acadia University Vaughan Memorial Library Research Services Librarian III Open Journal Systems Usage Statistics Information We log anonymous usage statistics. Please read the privacy information for details. Language English Français (Canada) Information For Readers For Authors For Librarians Current Issue Contact us anytime to discuss your ideas and works-in-progress. Follow @partnershipj on Twitter Google Scholar profile   
doi-org-9857	----	A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students | SpringerLink Advertisement Search Log in Search SpringerLink Search A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students Download PDF Download PDF Open Access Published: 22 September 2015 A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students Lane Fischer1 , John Hilton III1 , T. Jared Robinson2 & David A. Wiley3   Journal of Computing in Higher Education volume 27, pages159–172(2015)Cite this article 34k Accesses 67 Citations 217 Altmetric Metrics details An Erratum to this article is available Abstract In some educational settings, the cost of textbooks approaches or even exceeds the cost of tuition. Given limited resources, it is important to better understand the impacts of free open educational resources (OER) on student outcomes. Utilizing digital resources such as OER can substantially reduce costs for students. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the adoption of no-cost open digital textbooks significantly predicted students’ completion of courses, class achievement, and enrollment intensity during and after semesters in which OER were used. This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental design with propensity-score matched groups to examine differences in outcomes between students that used OER and those who did not. The demographics of the initial sample of 16,727 included 4909 students in the treatment condition with a pool of 11,818 in the control condition. There were statistically significant differences between groups, with most favoring students utilizing OER. Introduction Textbooks have traditionally been an essential part of the post-secondary experience for the majority of students in the United States. In a typical scenario, a professor assigns a textbook as the core instructional material for her class; students are obligated to purchase this book and use it to study the material in preparation for each class period. While the costs of these textbooks vary, Hilton et al. (2014) found that, across a series of general education courses (including science, math, humanities, and business) at seven different colleges, the average textbook price was approximately $90.00. While all students face high textbook costs, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may face particular difficulties. Paulsen and St. John (2002) found that low and lower-middle income students reported that the financial implications of attending college were important factors in their choices regarding college. Provasnik and Plenty (2008) reported that individuals with lower incomes are more likely to delay college enrollment than wealthier peers. For some college students, the total cost of textbooks can exceed total tuition costs (Goodwin 2011). Some students, then, may be forced either not to purchase textbooks (presumably resulting in less learning) or take fewer classes (resulting in slower time to graduation) in order to manage or reduce college costs (Buczynski 2007). Electronic textbooks promise a more affordable option for students. Electronic textbooks typically cost less than traditional textbooks due to the lack of printing costs. Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. (2013) found that utilizing electronic textbooks did not negatively impact student cognitive outcomes. Another, even less expensive solution to rising textbook costs can be found in the utilization of open educational resources (OER). We next present a review of literature relating to OER and studies pertaining to the perceptions and efficacy of OER. Review of literature The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has defined open educational resources as: teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge (Hewlett 2013). OER materials eschew traditional copyright in lieu of licenses that allow others to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the materials (Hilton et al. 2010; Wiley et al. 2014). The vast majority of the OER utilized in this study were available for free online. Thus, digital versions could be accessed on a wide variety of devices. Open textbooks, which are a collection of OER aggregated in a manner that resembles a traditional textbook, take many shapes and forms. Typically, free digital versions of the textbook are made available to students. In addition, students who wish to purchase print versions of the textbooks can do so, at prices as low as $5 per textbook. While the quality of open textbooks varies, many go through rigorous editorial and design processes. Perhaps not surprisingly, students are favorably disposed towards replacing costly commercial textbooks with free open textbooks. Bliss et al. (2013) studied open textbook adoption at eight different institutions of higher education. Fifty-eight teachers and 490 students across the eight colleges completed surveys regarding their experiences in utilizing the open texts. Bliss and colleagues found that approximately 50 % of students said that the OER textbooks were of the same quality as traditional textbooks and nearly 40 % said that they were better. In their free-response comments, students focused on several benefits of the open textbooks, including cost-savings. For example, one student said, “I have no expendable income. Without this free text I would not be able to take this course.” In the same study, researchers found that 55 % of teachers adopting OER reported that the open materials were of the same quality as the materials they had previously used, and 35 % felt that they were better. One teacher in the study pointed out that “The materials were free to my students, which reduced a barrier to their chances for academic success.” While Stratton et al. (2007) noted that results have been mixed in studies examining the relationship between student finances and their success in continuing through completion, several studies have indicated that greater financial resources correlate positively with student persistence. For example, Paulsen and St. John (2002) demonstrated that “the responsiveness of poor and working-class students to tuition increases is alarmingly high–reducing their probability of persisting by 16 and 19 %, respectively, per $1000 increment in tuition” (p. 229). While Paulsen and St. John did not discuss the cost of textbooks, it is interesting to note that the figure they used for an increase in tuition ($1000), is approximately the same amount of money full-time college students typically spend on textbooks per year. Thus one could argue that reducing textbook costs to zero could potentially increase persistence rates. While not usually measured directly, it is possible that the use of no-cost or low-cost OER might free students’ resources to support increased credit loads which then enhance progress toward graduation. Wiley et al. (2015) analyzed the cost savings in courses with sections that used OER and sections that did not. The average cost of commercial textbooks across the courses was $140.85 which represented a potential total cost of $1,324,017.68 for that sample. In that instance, OER could have saved over one million dollars in textbook costs, which could have been applied directly to tuition for additional courses. While financial reasons might be particularly persuasive to students and other educational stakeholders, the core purpose of education is to support learning. If the adoption of open textbooks decreases costs but also negatively influences student learning, educators should well view them with skepticism. While encouraging this skepticism, the authors fully acknowledge that institutions and educators everywhere trade improved affordability for lower outcomes on a regular basis. For example, colleges universally forego providing a full-time tutor for each student. Even though Bloom’s two-sigma work suggests this would greatly increase student learning, colleges instead choose to place students in educationally sub-optimal but significantly more affordable classes with many other students and a single instructor. Because this particular trade of sub-optimization for affordability is well established and broadly accepted, it is essentially invisible to many faculty. By contrast, a decrease in student learning associated with the adoption of open textbooks would be novel and likely to draw the negative attention of faculty, students, and other stakeholders. However, if learning outcomes actually improved in settings where open textbooks are utilized, there may be significant policy implications. Perhaps because OER is relatively new, little research has been performed on how its utilization influences student learning. To date, six studies have compared student performance with and without implementing OER. These studies vary in rigor and all state that there are limitations to their findings. Nevertheless, they constitute the research done to the present time. Lovett et al. (2008) measured the efficacy of an OER statistics module in comparison with the traditional educational model at Carnegie Mellon University. In two separate semesters, they invited students who had registered for an introductory statistics class at Carnegie Mellon to participate in an experimental online version of the course. Of those who volunteered, approximately one-third were randomly selected to take the online course, while the remaining two-thirds who had volunteered became the control group. The control group took the traditional, face-to-face statistics class at Carnegie Mellon. Researchers compared the results of these two groups in fall 2005 by examining their test scores (three midterms and one final exam), and found that there was no significant difference between the two groups. This experiment was replicated in spring 2006 with the same, non-significant, result. Thus, utilizing OER resulted in cost-savings without improving—or sacrificing—learning outcomes. In another study focused on Carnegie Mellon’s open statistics modules, Bowen et al. (2014) compared the use of a traditional textbook in a face-to-face lecture class with that of a blended approach utilizing OER. Six hundred and five students took the OER version of the course, while 2439 took the traditional version. Bowen and colleagues found that, while students who utilized OER scored slightly higher than their peers on standardized exams, the difference was not statistically significant. A potential confound was that those utilizing OER received blended learning instead of traditional face-to-face instruction. Thus it is possible that the pedagogy masked the influence of OER. Nevertheless, it is relevant to note that in this study that the use of OER did not lead to lower student outcomes. In a non-experimental case study, Hilton and Laman (2012) compared the performance of 690 students using an open textbook in an introductory psychology class to the performance of 370 students who used a traditional textbook in a previous semester. They concluded that students who used the open textbook achieved better grades in the course, had a lower withdrawal rate, and scored better on the final examination. Feldstein et al. (2012) found that students in courses using open textbooks typically had higher grades and lower failure and withdrawal rates than those in courses with traditional textbooks. However, they did note significant limitations to their study suggesting that they provided only interesting data to be more rigorously pursued in the future. Similarly, a case study presented by Hilton et al. (2013) focused on four math classes at Scottsdale Community College. These classes used the same departmental exam for each course for several years, which allowed faculty members to compare how students did on department exams when OER were used as compared with previous semesters. OER replaced traditional learning materials in fall 2012, and student results at the end of this semester were approximately the same as those obtained by students in fall 2011 and fall 2010. Pawlyshyn et al. (2013) found that when OER material was integrated into the math courses at Mercy College, student learning significantly increased. The pass rates of math courses increased from 63.6 % in fall 2011 (when traditional learning materials were employed) to 68.9 % in fall 2012 when all courses were taught with OER. Similarly, students who were enrolled in OER versions of a reading course performed better than their peers who enrolled in the same course using non-OER materials. Recent research indicates that a majority of faculty members perceive OER to be of approximately the same quality as traditional textbooks. Allen and Seaman (2014) surveyed 2144 college professors regarding OER. Of the 34 % (729) who were aware of OER, 61.5 % indicated OER had about the same “trusted quality” as traditional resources, 26.3 % said that traditional resources were superior, and 12.1 % said that OER were superior. Similarly, 68.2 % said that the “proven efficacy” were about the same, 16.5 % said that OER had superior efficacy, and 15.3 % said that traditional resources had superior efficacy. Allen et al. (2015) studied an experimental class of 478 students that used OER known as ChemWiki for its primary textbook, while a control class of 448 utilized a commercial textbook. These two sections were taught the same semester at consecutive hours using the same faculty member and teaching assistants in order to control for potential confounds. Students in these classes received the same exams. No significant differences were found between the two groups. Beginning of the semester pre-tests combined with final exams showed no significant differences in individual learning gains between the two groups, thus indicating that OER could be substituted without any negative impact on learning. While the aforementioned research provided interesting contextual case studies and varying degrees of statistical rigor, much more work needs to be done to ascertain the relationships between the use of OER and student academic performance. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to explore whether the use of open textbooks at 10 colleges significantly predicted learning outcomes in a group of 16,727 post-secondary students. In the present study we sought to address the following questions: 1. Comparing students who utilize OER and those who do not, is there a difference in the number of students who complete a course? 2. Comparing students who utilize OER and those who do not, is there a difference in the number of students who pass a course with a C- or better grade? 3. Comparing students who utilize OER with those who do not, is there a difference in the course grade? 4. Comparing students who utilize OER and those who do not, is there a difference in the number of credits they take in the semester they used OER (fall)? 5. Comparing students who utilize OER and those who do not, is there a difference in the number of credits they take the semester after the one in which they utilized OER (winter)? Methods Participants The initial data set consisted of 4128 students enrolled in undergraduate courses from the following 4-year colleges: Chadron State College, Mercy College, Peru, and Pittsburg State University. There were also 12,599 students enrolled in the following community colleges: Middlesex Community College, Middle Valley Community College, Onondaga Community College, Santa Ana Community College, Salt Lake Community College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. Courses included a wide range of content including mathematics, English, psychology, biology, chemistry, business, history, education and developmental courses. Only 15 courses included sections in which either OER (treatment) or commercial textbooks (control) were used. Courses that included only OER sections or only commercial textbook sections were not included in the course-by-course analyses. The initial sample included 4909 students in the treatment condition with 11,818 in the control condition. Females represented 59.8 % of the sample. Minority students represented 57.5 % of the sample. Ages of students ranged from 15 to 87 with a mean of 22.63 and a standard deviation of 6.8. Data analysis We estimated differences between the treatment and control groups across five important outcomes: (1) rates of completion of courses, (2) rates of passing courses with a C- or better grade, (3) course grade, as measured by the numerical grade (for example, A = 4.0), (4) enrollment intensity (credit load) in fall semester when they used OER, and (5) enrollment intensity (credit load) in the following semester (winter) while controlling for credit load in fall semester. Outcomes 1 and 2 were estimated using Chi square tests of independence. Outcomes 3 and 4 were estimated using an Independent Samples t test. Outcome 5 was estimated using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Propensity score matching across the entire sample was applied to outcomes 4 and 5. Because of naturally occurring average differences in course difficulty across departments and teachers, each course was considered separately for outcomes 1–3. Propensity score matching within each course resulted in small sample sizes and therefore was not applied in outcomes 1–3. Propensity score matching In order to enhance the clarity of prediction of persistence outcomes based on textbook condition we used propensity score matching to create subsets of students who were statistically similar across three important covariates: age, gender, and minority status. Propensity score matching homogenizes comparison samples and reduces variance associated with covariates. (Guo and Fraser 2010). Propensity score matching has been particularly helpful in educational research where random assignment is logistically difficult to achieve (see, for example, Riegle-Crumb and King 2010; Robinson et al. 2014). Using SPSS, we used logistic regression to create propensity scores by regressing the bivariate treatment condition on age, gender, and minority status. We created matched samples using nearest neighbor matching within calipers (Guo and Fraser 2010). The original sample included 16,727 students with 11,818 in the control condition and 4909 in the treatment. There was a 2.4–1 ratio of available controls to be matched to treatment subjects. We used the formula ε ≤ .25 σρ where ε is the caliper and σρ indicates the standard deviation of the propensity scores of the original sample (Rosenbaum and Rubin 1985). This resulted in a caliper of 0.01 for this study. The initial logistic regression required subjects to have all relevant covariates (as in no missing data). Given this requirement and the narrow caliper used in this study, the procedure matched 4147 treatment subjects with 4147 controls. Of the 4909 available treatment subjects, 762 were not included because of missing data or because there was no matching control subject within the narrow selection caliper. Propensity score matching led to improved balance in gender and minority status across groups but had little effect on age, which was relatively well matched in the original sample (see Table 1). Table 1 Demographics of groups before and after propensity score matchingFull size table Results Completion When comparing the groups within each course in terms of completion, the pattern across the 15 courses showed almost no significant differences. In two courses, Business 110 and Biology 111, students in the treatment condition showed a significantly higher rate of completion than students in the control condition. In the case of Business 110, the differences in withdrawal rates were quite clear; 21 % of students in the commercial textbook condition withdrew from the course while only 6 % of students in the OER condition withdrew from the course (see Table 2). Table 2 Course by course outcomesFull size table Passing with a C- or better grade When comparing the groups within each course in terms of C- or better, the pattern across the 15 courses was mixed. In nine courses there were no significant differences in achievement. In five courses, students in the treatment condition were more likely to pass the course than students in the control condition. In one course, Business 110, students in the control condition surpassed students in the treatment condition in terms of the percentage who had a C- or better (see Table 2). Course grade When comparing the groups within each course in terms of course grade, the pattern across the 15 courses was also mixed. In 10 courses there were no significant differences in course grade. In 4 courses the students in the treatment condition achieved higher grades than students in the control condition. In one course, Business 110, students in the control condition received higher grades than students in the treatment condition (see Table 2). Enrollment intensity in fall semester An independent samples t-test was conducted to test whether there were differences between the treatment and control groups in terms of their credit loads in the fall semester when they used OER. The treatment group’s mean credit load was 13.29, which was significantly higher than the control group’s mean of 11.14. [t(8101) = 27.81, p < .01]. Enrollment intensity in winter semester An ANCOVA was conducted to test whether there were differences between the treatment and control groups’ credit loads in winter semester while controlling for the effects of credit load in fall semester. Credit load in the fall semester was a significant covariate that needed to be controlled [F(1, 6440) = 1224.96, p < .01)]. Credit load in the fall semester was held constant at 12.54. After removing the variance associated with the fall credit load, the marginal mean winter credit load for the treatment group was 10.71, while the marginal mean winter credit load for the control group was 9.16 (see Fig. 1). There remained a significant difference between the treatment and control groups in terms of credit load in the winter semester [F(1, 6440) = 154.08, p < .01)]. Fig. 1 Difference in winter credit load holding fall credit load constant Full size image Discussion This is by far the largest study of its kind conducted to date—nearly 5000 post-secondary students using OER and over 11,000 control students using commercial textbooks, distributed among ten institutions across the United States, enrolled in 15 different undergraduate courses. In three key measures of student success—course completion, final grade of C- or higher, course grade– students whose faculty chose OER generally performed as well or better than students whose faculty assigned commercial textbooks. In two key measures of enrollment intensity, which is an indicator of student progress toward graduation, students in courses that used OER were significantly different than students in courses with commercial textbooks. Even when controlling for differences in previous enrollment, students in courses using OER enrolled in a significantly higher number of credits in the next semester. This may be due to the cost savings associated with OER. In community college settings where tuition costs are based directly on the number of credits taken with no cap on costs for “full-time” enrollment, funds saved on textbooks can be applied directly to enrollment in additional courses. The mechanisms underlying these improvements differ from those typically hypothesized to underlie improvement in student outcomes. Historically, comparison studies of instructional products have often been conducted to test hypotheses about differences in student outcomes attributable to alternate modes of delivery or instructional design approach (see Russell 2015). The authors do not believe differences of mode of delivery or instructional design between OER and commercial textbooks to be the primary mechanisms responsible for the differences in outcomes observed in this study. On the contrary, our informal review reveals strikingly similar, essentially equivalent instructional designs in the OER and commercial textbooks. We believe the effects demonstrated in this study result from differing degrees of access and affordability facilitated by open licenses used by OER. The moderate differences in completion rates and final grades between the control and treatment groups are likely a function of access. Some percentage of students in the control group probably failed to purchase the commercial materials assigned by their faculty due to cost or other factors. For example, one survey suggested that 23 % of students regularly forego purchasing required textbooks due to their high cost (Florida Virtual Campus 2012). Students’ lack of access to the core instructional materials for the course put them at an academic disadvantage. All students in the treatment group had access to all the course materials from the very first day of class because they were openly licensed. Consequently, we would expect some enhanced probability of success for members of the treatment group. The differences in enrollment intensity between the control and treatment groups are likely a function of affordability. Students whose faculty assign OER save a significant amount of money compared to students whose faculty assign commercial textbooks. Some treatment students will chose to reinvest these savings by taking an additional course in order to accelerate their graduation. Consequently, we would expect members of the treatment group to take more credits than the control group, on average. Detecting differences in student outcomes based on access and affordability, rather than instructional design, points to several new horizons for educational research. Hundreds of millions of dollars and person-hours have been invested in improving in-class instructional designs, intelligent tutoring systems, adaptive instructional systems, and other design-related innovations intended to improve student outcomes. The current study demonstrates that at least one non-instructional design option exists that can effectively improve student outcomes. Limitations Although this was a robust sample size, the nesting of subjects in a relatively limited number of courses that included both treatment and control sections precluded the use of multi-level modeling, which may have helped account for some patterns in the results. Multi-level modeling might be supported when the number of nests is greater than twenty, which was not possible in this case. The examination of three important outcomes was restricted to rough course-by-course analyses. Although an overall pattern of results seems to have emerged, the course-by-course analysis is less than ideal. Within those courses, propensity score matching was contraindicated which leaves the apparent pattern more confounded than might be desired. The propensity score matching used in the analyses of enrollment intensity may have given a clearer picture of an important outcome, enrollment intensity. Even so, propensity score matching should not be considered to be a panacea that guarantees causal claims. It does homogenize comparison groups across important confounds and enhances statements of probability. However, the number and variety of confounds in educational research is so large that, even with the most sophisticated controls, causal claims are rarely justified. In this study, conclusions should be taken as statements of enhanced probability and not causation. Future directions The authors hope this study will encourage others to pursue similar research. Very little is known about the efficacy of OER and additional large-scale studies of the efficacy of OER are needed. As the number of courses using OER proliferate within institutions, and especially as some sections may use commercial textbooks while others use OER, institutions may be able to conduct multi-level modeled designs that account for department and teacher influences on outcomes. Thus far, outcomes have been compared with the availability of OER versus commercial textbooks. There are several important covariates to be considered. Both the OER and the commercial textbooks should be evaluated for quality. There is no guarantee that either resource would be particularly effective. The Open Textbook Initiative (http://open.umn.edu) has undertaken efforts to evaluate OER textbooks across ten dimensions. This is a very encouraging development. An additional important covariate is how much students actually used either resource. Rather than conclude that there are no differences in outcome based on availability, quality and usage covariates would be helpful controls. Additional covariates to consider are prior student achievement and teacher effects. It may be that teachers that explore, use, and develop OER are systematically different than other teachers. Subsequent research that can approximate these covariates will result in cleaner estimates of possible differences in student outcomes between OER and non-OER sections. This study focused on five measures of student success—course completion, final grade, final grade of C- or higher, enrollment intensity, and enrollment intensity in the following semester. Replicative studies in these areas are needed. Moreover, there are several other areas in which student success could be measured. For example, do students in classes with OER receive more “A” grades than students using traditional textbooks? Is there a quantifiable difference in how students perform on final exams based on the textbook they use? These and other similar questions could be profitably pursued. We also believe there are other opportunities to improve student outcomes that manipulate variables other than the design of the instruction, and hope this study will encourage other researchers to search for these variables. References Allen, G., Guzman-Alvarez, A., Molinaro, M., & Larsen, D. (2015). Assessing the impact and efficacy of the Open-Access ChemWiki Textbook Project. Educause Learning Initiative Brief. Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2014). Opening the curriculum: Open educational resources in US higher education, 2014. Pearson: Babson Survey Research Group. Google Scholar  Bliss, T. J., Hilton III, J., Wiley, D., & Thanos, K. (2013). The cost and quality of online open textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. First Monday, 18(1), 1–7. Article  Google Scholar  Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2014). Interactive learning online at public universities: Evidence from a six-campus randomized trial. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(1), 94–111. Article  Google Scholar  Buczynski, J. A. (2007). Faculty begin to replace textbooks with “freely” accessible online resources. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 11(4), 169–179. Article  Google Scholar  Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton III, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/index.php?article=533 Florida Virtual Campus. (2012). 2012 Florida Student Textbook Survey. Tallahassee, FL. Retrieved from http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/%5Cpdf%5C2012_Florida_Student_Textbook_Survey.pdf Goodwin, M. A. L. (2011). The Open Course Library: Using open educational resources to improve community college access (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Pullman, WA: Washington State University. Guo, S., & Fraser, M. W. (2014). Propensity score analysis: Statistical methods and applications (Vol. 11). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Google Scholar  Hewlett (2013). Open educational resources. http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources Hilton III, J. L., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(4), 37–50. Google Scholar  Hilton III, J. L., Robinson, T. J., Wiley, D. A., & Ackerman, J. D. (2014). Cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15(2), 1–18. Google Scholar  Hilton III, J. L., & Laman, C. (2012). One college’s use of an open psychology textbook. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 27(3), 265–272. Article  Google Scholar  Hilton III, J. L., Wiley, D., Stein, J., & Johnson, A. (2010). The four ‘R’s of openness and ALMS analysis: Frameworks for open educational resources. Open Learning, 25(1), 37–44. Article  Google Scholar  Lovett, M., Meyer, O., & Thille, C. (2008). The open learning initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2008(1), Art-13. Article  Google Scholar  Paulsen, M. B., & St John, E. P. (2002). Social class and college costs: Examining the financial nexus between college choice and persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(2), 189–236. Article  Google Scholar  Pawlyshyn, N., Braddlee, D., Casper, L., & Miller, H. (2013). Adopting OER: A case study of cross-institutional collaboration and innovation. http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/adopting-oer-case-study-crossinstitutional-collaboration-and-innovation Provasnik, S., & Planty, M. (2008). Community colleges: Special supplement to the condition of education 2008. Statistical Analysis Report. NCES 2008-033. National Center for Education Statistics. Riegle-Crumb, C., & King, B. (2010). Questioning a white male advantage in STEM examining disparities in college major by gender and race/ethnicity. Educational Researcher, 39(9), 656–664. Article  Google Scholar  Robinson, T. J., Fischer, L., Wiley, D., & Hilton, J. (2014). The impact of open textbooks on secondary science learning outcomes. Educational Researcher, 43(7), 341–351. Article  Google Scholar  Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J., Courduff, J., Carter, K., & Bennett, D. (2013). Electronic versus traditional print textbooks: A comparison study on the influence of university students’ learning. Computers & Education, 63, 259–266. Article  Google Scholar  Rosenbaum, P. R., & Rubin, D. B. (1985). Constructing a control group using multivariate matched sampling methods that incorporate the propensity score. The American Statistician, 39(1), 33–38. Google Scholar  Russell, T. L. (2015). No significant difference. Retrieved from http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/ Stratton, L. S., O’Toole, D. M., & Wetzel, J. N. (2007). Are the factors affecting dropout behavior related to initial enrollment intensity for college undergraduates? Research in Higher Education, 48(4), 453–485. Article  Google Scholar  Wiley, D., Bliss, T. J., & McEwen, M. (2014). Open educational resources: A review of the literature. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 781–789). New York: Springer. Wiley, D., Hilton, J., Fischer, L., & Puente, B. (2015). Mad, glad, sad, rad: A framework of evaluating the academic return on investment in textbooks and other educational materials. Manuscript submitted for publication Download references Acknowledgments This research was funded by a Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation #OPP1063523. The Gates Foundation funded this independently conducted research without influence over the design, data collection, analysis or interpretation of the results. Author information Affiliations Brigham Young University, 340-E MCKB, Provo, UT, 84602, USA Lane Fischer & John Hilton III Michigan State Department of Education, Lansing, MI, USA T. Jared Robinson Lumen Learning, Portland, OR, USA David A. Wiley Authors Lane FischerView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar John Hilton IIIView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar T. Jared RobinsonView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar David A. WileyView author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Lane Fischer. Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors have no conflict of interest in the execution or outcomes of this study. Rights and permissions This article is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team. About this article Cite this article Fischer, L., Hilton, J., Robinson, T.J. et al. A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. J Comput High Educ 27, 159–172 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-015-9101-x Download citation Published: 22 September 2015 Issue Date: December 2015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-015-9101-x Keywords Open educational resources Improving classroom teaching Media in education Pedagogical issues Post-secondary education Download PDF Advertisement Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips Switch Edition Academic Edition Corporate Edition Home Impressum Legal information Privacy statement California Privacy Statement How we use cookies Manage cookies/Do not sell my data Accessibility Contact us Not logged in - 40.76.139.33 Not affiliated Springer Nature © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature. 
doi-org-9931	----	Research guides as library instruction tools | Emerald Insight Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access Advanced search Research guides as library instruction tools Bradley Brazzeal (Mississippi State University Libraries, Mississippi State, Mississippi, USA) Reference Services Review ISSN: 0090-7324 Publication date: 1 July 2006 Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine how guidelines for information literacy and library instruction can be incorporated into online research guides and provide examples from guides that have done this. Design/methodology/approach – Online research guides in forestry were identified and examined using the ACRL's “Information literacy competency standards for higher education” and guidelines for library instruction set forth in LaGuardia and Oka's Becoming a Library Teacher. Findings – While some research guides simply provide unannotated links to online resources, others seek to engage the user by incorporating features that correspond directly to elements of a library instruction session. Originality/value – The study presents practical ways in which online research guides can serve as library instruction tools. Keywords Research Guides and handbooks Library instruction Literacy Forestry Citation Brazzeal, B. (2006), "Research guides as library instruction tools", Reference Services Review, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 358-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320610685319 Download as .RIS Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing Limited Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Please note you do not have access to teaching notes You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account. Login To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button. Rent from Deepdyve If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team. Contact us Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window Opens in new window © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited Services Authors Opens in new window Editors Opens in new window Librarians Opens in new window Researchers Opens in new window Reviewers Opens in new window About About Emerald Opens in new window Working for Emerald Opens in new window Contact us Opens in new window Publication sitemap Policies and information Privacy notice Site policies Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window COVID-19 policy Opens in new window × Support & Feedback Manage cookies We’re listening — tell us what you think Something didn’t work… Report bugs here All feedback is valuable Please share your general feedback Member of Emerald Engage? You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here. You can also find out more about Emerald Engage. Join us on our journey Platform update page Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates Questions & More Information Answers to the most commonly asked questions here 
dx-doi-org-410	----	The Adoption of an Open Textbook in a Large Physics Course: An Analysis of Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions | The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Home About About the Journal Submissions Evidence of Student Achievement Editorial Team Privacy Statement Contact Current Archives Resources Conferences Search Register Search Search Register Login Home / Archives / Vol. 18 No. 4 (2017): Special Issue: Outcomes of Openness: Empirical Reports on the Implementation of OER / Research Articles The Adoption of an Open Textbook in a Large Physics Course: An Analysis of Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions Christina Hendricks University of British Columbia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9461-4200 Stefan A. Reinsberg University of British Columbia Georg W Rieger University of British Columbia DOI: https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3006 Keywords: open educational resources, open textbooks, online learning Abstract Assigning open textbooks in college and university courses can help students save money on increasingly expensive commercial textbooks, and recent research shows that this savings can often be achieved with little to no sacrifice in textbook quality or student learning outcomes. We add to this body of research by examining the use of an open textbook in an introductory physics course at a large research university in Canada that enrols approximately 800-900 students per year. In this course, the instructors revised an open textbook and combined it with other learning resources onto a single website, whereas more than one source of learning materials was used previously. We used the COUP framework to structure our analysis, focusing on cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions in relation to the open textbook assigned in the course. Through the use of a survey of students and data about student learning outcomes in the form of final exam and course grades, and shifts on the pre-/post- Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey, we show that student savings by moving to an open textbook were accompanied by little change in learning outcomes. We also show that the vast majority of survey respondents perceived the open textbook to be of the same or better quality than commercial textbooks used in their other courses. Further, many of them appreciated the fact that the textbook was customized to this particular course—which is made possible by the use of a textbook with an open license. Author Biographies Christina Hendricks, University of British Columbia Professor of Teaching, Philosophy Stefan A. Reinsberg, University of British Columbia Assisant Professor, Physics and Astronomy Georg W Rieger, University of British Columbia Instructor, Physics and Astronomy HTML PDF MP3 EPUB Appendix to "The adoption of an open textbook in a large physics course: An analysis of cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions" Published 2017-06-16 How to Cite Hendricks, C., Reinsberg, S. A., & Rieger, G. W. (2017). The Adoption of an Open Textbook in a Large Physics Course: An Analysis of Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3006 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 18 No. 4 (2017): Special Issue: Outcomes of Openness: Empirical Reports on the Implementation of OER Section Research Articles Copyright (c) 2017 Christina Hendricks, Stefan A. Reinsberg, Georg W Rieger This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The copyright of all content published in IRRODL is retained by the authors. This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely distributed as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific and/or scholarly archive. You are free to Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms below:  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.   Formerly named the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. SSCI impact factor of 0.734 with a H5 index of 36. ISSN: 1492-3831 Editor-in-Chief: Rory McGreal Associate Editors: Connie Blomgren Dietmar Kennepohl Subscribe to Mailing List:   Information For Readers For Authors For Reviewers For Librarians IRRODL INDEXING SCOPUS Thompson Reuters: Social Sciences Citation Index Cabell Publishing Inc. DOAJ EBSCOhost ERIC ERIH PLUS Érudit Google Scholar H.W. Wilson Company Index Copernicus International OCLC Education Index ProQuest Taylor & Francis Ulrich's Web OUR SPONSORS Athabasca University AU Press SSHRC INFORMATION For Readers For Authors For Librarians Open Access Policy About Open Journal Systems STAY CONNECTED RSS 2.0 (current issue) RSS 1.0 (current issue) Atom 1.0 (current issue)                 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 
dx-doi-org-4314	----	Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate | The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Home About About the Journal Submissions Evidence of Student Achievement Editorial Team Privacy Statement Contact Current Archives Resources Conferences Search Register Search Search Register Login Home / Archives / Vol. 17 No. 6 (2016) / Research Articles Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate John Levi Hilton III Brigham Young University Lane Fischer Brigham Young University David Wiley Brigham Young University Linda William Tidewater Community College DOI: https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i6.2686 Keywords: open educational resources, computers in education, textbooks, financing education Abstract Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to replace traditional textbooks in higher education.  Previous studies indicate that use of OER results in high student and faculty satisfaction, lower costs, and similar or better educational outcomes. In this case study, we compared students using traditional textbooks with those using OER at Tidewater Community College to compare their performance on what we call course throughput rates, which is an aggregate of three variables – drop rates, withdrawal rates, and C or better rates. Two self-selecting cohorts were compared over four semesters, with statistically significant results. The study found that, subject to the limitations discussed, students who use OER perform significantly better on the course throughput rate than their peers who use traditional textbooks, in both face-to-face and online courses that use OER. This suggests that OER are a promising avenue for reducing the costs of higher education while increasing academic success. Author Biographies John Levi Hilton III, Brigham Young University John Hilton III is a an Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. Lane Fischer, Brigham Young University Lane Fischer is an Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology and Special Education at Brigham Young University. David Wiley, Brigham Young University David Wiley is an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young University and the Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning Linda William, Tidewater Community College Linda Williams is a professor of business at Tidewater Community College. HTML PDF MP3 EPUB Published 2016-12-06 How to Cite Hilton III, J. L., Fischer, L., Wiley, D., & William, L. (2016). Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(6). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i6.2686 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 17 No. 6 (2016) Section Research Articles Copyright (c) 2016 John Levi Hilton III, Lane Fischer, David Wiley, Linda William This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The copyright of all content published in IRRODL is retained by the authors. This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely distributed as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific and/or scholarly archive. You are free to Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms below:  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.   Formerly named the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. SSCI impact factor of 0.734 with a H5 index of 36. ISSN: 1492-3831 Editor-in-Chief: Rory McGreal Associate Editors: Connie Blomgren Dietmar Kennepohl Subscribe to Mailing List:   Information For Readers For Authors For Reviewers For Librarians IRRODL INDEXING SCOPUS Thompson Reuters: Social Sciences Citation Index Cabell Publishing Inc. DOAJ EBSCOhost ERIC ERIH PLUS Érudit Google Scholar H.W. Wilson Company Index Copernicus International OCLC Education Index ProQuest Taylor & Francis Ulrich's Web OUR SPONSORS Athabasca University AU Press SSHRC INFORMATION For Readers For Authors For Librarians Open Access Policy About Open Journal Systems STAY CONNECTED RSS 2.0 (current issue) RSS 1.0 (current issue) Atom 1.0 (current issue)                 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 
edlab-tc-columbia-edu-3799	----	The Commodification of the Library Patron - Kalliopi Mathios - Blog at Gottesman Libraries ✖ This website uses cookies and similar technologies to understand visitors' experiences. By continuing to use this website, you accept our use of cookies and similar technologies,Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy. Navigation Blog Projects People Log in Sign Up Get free access to popular teaching and learning tools created by and for educators with a Gottesman Libraries EdLab Account. Create Account Log in All Posts All Posts View Comments Kalliopi Mathios Jul 31 2019 - 09:02 AM Share The Commodification of the Library Patron Neoliberalism, Platform Capitalism, and the Commodification of the Library Patron Many librarians separate what they do at work with the world at large, and view the library as an autonomous space that provides methods, services, and resources for a more just society, contributing to a public good. These notions often simplify or ignore complex contemporary issues, and typically align with library mission statements and what Stephen Bales calls “Big Ideas” like Truth, or Freedom[1]. Karen P. Nicholson provides a thorough overview of how we might conceptualize space/time in information studies, and extends this idea to include how we think about the library and direct political action. She argues “changes ‘out there’ require librarians immediate action ‘in here’”[2]. The inability to view the library’s mission as separate from sociopolitical realities outside of the library negatively impact what happens inside the library, and taps into work concerning libraries as neutral actors[3]. The need for librarians to act within the institutions we work has never been more pressing. Libraries are not immune to neoliberal capitalist influences, yet some librarians fail to fully engage with our current political, social, and economic reality. Bales argues that “By drawing the magic cap down over [their] ears so as to deny that there are any monsters’, such librarians have reduced themselves to being components of the academic library qua static social institution, instead of as a catalyst for the library as a phenomenon that is constantly in the act of becoming”[4]. One could argue that this reduction happens not only in the academic library, but also in public libraries and other private non-profit institutions as well. While this may be true, recent research cited in this essay contributes to a healthy discourse concerning the future of libraries and learning, free and equitable access to information, and responsiveness to the current technological paradigm. By engaging with the groundwork laid by researchers within and outside of the LIS field, librarians can take first steps to inform their practice and counteract the ill effects of capitalism and neoliberalism. It is with this research in mind that I approach the steady increase in subscription-based services and platform products now embedded within library digital infrastructures. Critical examination of product platforms in relation to library and information studies is less readily available than research examining cloud platform technologies and libraries, despite the proliferation of platform-based library products. Ultimately librarians must come out of hiding and face the world we find ourselves in despite fears or professional apprehensions. Positive change requires an active engagement with “becoming”[5], and accepting that neoliberal platform capitalism and its requirements of lifelong learning demand more strategic efforts and careful approaches that grant patrons agency over their library use. Neoliberal Platform Capitalism It comes as no surprise that the library adopts neoliberal strategies arguably in an effort to survive the contemporary economic climate, along with others adapting to a competition saturated environment. David Harvey explains neoliberalism’s initial appearance as a political and economic theory aiming to liberate “individual entrepreneurial freedoms” and its totalizing effects on society in his introduction to A Brief Introduction to Neoliberalism: The process of neoliberalization has, however, entailed much ‘creative destruction’, not only of prior institutional frameworks and powers (even challenging traditional forms of state sovereignty) but also of divisions of labour, social relations, welfare provisions, technological mixes, ways of life and thought, reproductive activities, attachments to land and habits of the heart[6]. Jamie Ann Lee and Marika Cifor offer a recent critical analysis of neoliberalism’s prevalence within information studies. They write “neoliberalism has come to define and structure our labor and work lives in detrimental ways. Whether one is positioned within academia and studying or teaching LIS, or working as an informational professional in governmental, academic, corporate, non-profit, or community settings, competition has come to form the basis of daily interactions with limiting and delimiting effects”[7]. While neoliberalism and its detrimental effects on the library require librarians to act within their institutions to provide counter-hegemonic strategies[8] and leadership, neoliberal policies in practice come to affect every member of the library community, including library patrons[9] I want to consider how these sociopolitical and economic pressures impact how libraries engage with library patrons, and have resulted in the commodification of the library patron. While research is more readily available concerning the commodification of data, information, and knowledge, seemingly none exists to investigate the extent to which neoliberal agendas, hand-in-hand with library stakeholders, have transformed library patrons into commodities, subject to exchange and exploitation[10]. While library patrons are not exchanged in a literal sense, patron data and online behavior, all of which is tied to their library card and status as a library patron, can easily be seen as fair game for libraries to illustrate their worth and value to vendors, governments, and funding entities. Nick Srnicek outlines platforms as “digital infrastructures that enable two or more groups to interact. They therefore position themselves as intermediaries that bring together different users: customers, advertisers, service providers, producers, suppliers, and even physical objects”[11]. In a product platform environment, “platforms appear as an optimal form for extracting data and using them to gain an edge over competitors”[12]. As libraries work with more closely product platforms, and library software ecosystems reflect platform capitalist realities, critical thought could be applied to the consequences of partnering with product platforms and possibly acting in violation of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Library Bill of Rights as it relates to patron privacy and surveillance[13]. The Commodification of the Library Patron The commodification of the library patron is inherently different from earlier claims of library patrons as customers or consumers. In the library patron as customer model, patrons receive marketing related to their interests, visit the library coffee shop, buy library tote bags and branded mugs from the library gift shop, listen to the library’s podcast, and receive customer service that aims to ensure the patron will return to the library and continue using services. Patron recommendations and borrowing habits inform acquisitions. The library patron as consumer highlights the sale of library merchandise and content in ways that were not historically necessary, as libraries respond to budget needs[14], and crumbling infrastructure[15]. It can be argued that in our new reality, the economy “is dominated by a new class, which does not own the means of production but rather has ownership over information”[16]. Libraries, once assumed to be at best neutral actors in society, may in fact be complicit in leveraging large patron populations for better license rates and access to products that promise patron engagement. In this scenario, the library gains usage statistics alongside well-designed platforms offering popular content, and vendors win by gaining access to patron platform behavior and personal data in an effort to beat out competitors, increase their dominance in the market, and ultimately increase profits. While it may be a strategic move, the ethics of such commodification are dehumanizing and in need of examination. Discussions surrounding the library’s institutional decision to compete with the likes of Barnes and Noble and Amazon by providing more on-demand services and coffee shops only break the ice in what is likely to become a glacial issue for libraries and library patrons, and this initial phase of commercialization of the library provided a foundation for the later commodification of the library patron. The library-patron-as-customer model fails to explain the ways in which platform technologies not only change our sense of library space and technical infrastructure, but also change the way in which the library conceptualizes its offerings. New norms allowing for human-centric design to be considered next to machine-centric design[17] illustrate the pressing need for library software systems to work together more efficiently to deliver new outcomes. In this environment library services and resources take a back seat as libraries increase their holdings of unowned subscription and license-based material, and allow for the library patron to emerge as a single, constant focal point. In other words, libraries can count on their patrons more than they can count on traditional library lending models. Meeting community and patron needs often appear as justifications for this shift, though developments in neoliberal platform capitalism suggest hidden motives and consequences. The vast majority library vendor agreements grant patrons free access to limited resources that are not owned by the library, but licensed to them under specific terms. Through these license and subscription agreements, vendors receive payment along with minimally obstructed access to library patrons and their platform behavior via account creation processes and other data analytics means. In partnering with the neoliberal platform capitalist world out there, the library has adopted the same modes and methods in here, viewing library patrons as a commodity offered up in exchange for tokens of innovation and the faulty premise of a growth of in collections. The library-patron-as-commodity takes many eerie forms and extends beyond the vendor platform; it can include providing patron metrics illustrating success of government-funded programming despite a lack of structural improvements, patron data used for marketing and advertising purposes, and direct patron access for political campaigning. More institutionalized examples include a lack of criticality in entering agreements with vendors and blanket acceptance of vendor privacy policies, and the development of a patron-centric library service platforms. Product Platform Vendors & Library Holdings Recently New York City's public libraries including Queens Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and New York Public Library announced their plans to suspend contracts with video-streaming vendor Kanopy citing unsustainable pricing models as the main motivator in ending their agreements. Despite the fact that only 1% of library card holders used the service, the total annual subscription cost for Queens Public Library totaled around $125,000 per year[18]. In response to the cancellation, Kanopy issued an email to those patrons who had used the service and provided their email address as a requirement of the account creation process. The email notified patrons of the libraries' plan to suspend service, highlighted popular films available via their streaming platform, and heralded the importance of film as a public cultural resource. Many viewed this as an attempt by Kanopy to pull at the heart strings of patrons to garner public support for their platform by subtly encouraging patrons to contact their libraries in an effort to circumvent library professionals and directly pander to their library provided and reliant user-base. While these libraries acted in good faith by cancelling their subscription due to predatory pricing practices, it should not surprise us that Kanopy utilized patron emails to garner support for their platform, which sits somewhere between what Srnicek labels a product and lean platform[19]. Surveillance, Privacy, and Ethics Library research concerning patron privacy has been conducted since, and arguably well before, the ALA developed its Code of Ethics in 1939. A variety of research investigates the collection and sale of patron data but research is less readily available when pertaining to the use of patron data specifically used in a call to action in support of a vendor. Kanopy’s actions suggest that the library serves no other purpose other than to provide it with a reliable viewership. Librarians must pay close attention to vendors’ direct advertising to library patrons, and what is outlined in or missing from their agreements, as libraries tend to market free products and services. Despite what it looks like on the patron end, these services come at a cost that includes and surpasses financial costs. Many of the data collection methods used by third-party vendors are normalized within platform capitalism and not within library and information science, yet the normalization of analytics and surveillance trends developed outside of the library world increasingly find their way into acceptance at the library. Many vendors include user features in their platforms as a way to organize materials, market new products or features, make recommendations, and observe patron behavior. Patrons come to expect these features as they encounter them throughout the digital landscape on platforms like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, all of which are notorious for packaging and repurposing user data for various means to the company’s benefit. Legacy Software and Emerging Options Research shows that people are more likely to use a system when it makes a given task easier, and patron experiences on library websites impact opinions about the library and librarians[20]. One could argue that when a patron experiences functionality issues with library software, it creates a negative impression of the library and librarians and may deter library use. While companies like Bibliocommons pay close attention to user-interface design, many library catalogs fail to compete with the design and functionality of subscription-based product platforms. Despite the fact that “platforms are designed in a way that makes them attractive to its varied users,” they often fail to illustrate a comprehensive understanding of library workflows and processes[21]. While traditional Integrated Library Systems (ILS) software perhaps understands the heart of librarianship best, the software fails to keep up with technological developments and changes in library workflows. Patrons and librarians frequently complain about functionality, speed, and reliability in aging library software ecosystems, creating an opportunity for corporate platforms to capitalize on the need for better systems. Marshall Breeding’s yearly review of software trends in libraries across the globe provides a reliable temperature check for library software development. In his 2018 report, Breeding notes that more academic libraries are moving away from traditional ILS providers, and moving towards new modular products provided by Library Service Platforms (LSP)[22]. The LSP is comprised of micro-services in which libraries have more options to customize their product and choose modules that fit their needs rather than purchase a bundle of vendor-determined services. This cost effective and flexible option has attracted many academic libraries with a need to consolidate a variety of resources from multiple providers for a seamless user experience for both users and technical service librarians. No longer a fringe alternative, LSPs seem to be the mainstream choice for academic libraries. One LSP making quick strides is an open-source option called FOLIO. Duke University, Cornell University, and The University of Chicago are among its earliest adopters. Breeding says FOLIO is poised to join or even disrupt the traditional library software market, which has been dominated by vendors with generations of library experience[23]. As the FOLIO project develops from the work of librarians and software developers across the country, it provides a better alternative to other new software options aiming to consolidate library workflows into “customer management”, which serves as a thinly veiled mask supporting the commodification of library patrons. OCLC’s latest product Wise deemphasizes library workflows by “dethroning” bibliographic data as the centerpiece of library systems and replacing it with the library patron[24]. OCLC argues that placing the patron at the center of the library platform will strengthen library communities, as “its design centers on customer relationship management and marketing services[25]. The conceptual design of OCLC’s Wise closely aligns with product platform agendas like those of Facebook and Google, where a combination of user-generated data and profiled users provide a technical infrastructure for advertising, data harvesting, and beating out competitors[26]. In critically looking at Wise, particular attention should be brought to their claim that bibliographic records take precedence over patron records and engagement, and that any “dethroning” is even necessary. One could argue that the traditional ILS does not contain a true center; library legacy systems contain a multitude of functions for complex library workflows essentially decentralizing any single facet of the library. Relationships between patrons, acquisitions, cataloging and metadata, email notices, fines and fees, and electronic resource management all work together to reflect the complexities of librarianship and library patronage. Arguably, library software has not disenfranchised patrons more than library classification systems, fines and fees policies, or the myriad of long standing inequities within and outside of library science reflecting a social reality that disproportionately marginalizes individuals that do not fit the dominant norm. It seems odd that OCLC, a global leader in library software and metadata, would approach the ILS as an area in need of restructuring, when attention to metadata schemas, classification, and information retrieval seem equally if not more pressing. OCLC’s Wise does not promise to enhance the patron experience, deliver new services, or challenge traditional library or societal paradigms; its main prerogative is to lean into platform capitalism by commodifying the very communities it aims to serve to maximize its profit, grow its presence, and continue the process of privatization in public and private non-profit institutions. For example, OCLC’s Wise “leverages user-generated content” which includes tagging, list features, reviews, and easily shareable media, despite that these features are already available in the library software market. In this model, the library catalog does not provide avenues to new materials, service offerings, or the relationships between them, as much as it provides pathways to increase the quantity of trackable patron data. While utilizing a methodology developed by platform capitalists to keep users on the platform for purposes of advertising conversion and other profit-generating activity, OCLC has also co-opted patron-centric design to market their product as acting in patrons’ and libraries’ best interests. Vendors that herald patron-centric design risk twisting library terminology for for profit. In its efforts to sway patrons, Kanopy similarly referred to its product as a free public resource, ignoring that libraries subscribed and paid for service[27]. It is imperative that librarians clarify the terminology used in practice, as tactics used to sway public opinion in support of neoliberal practices often adopt terminology in an effort to confuse their audience[28]. A patron-centric model may not need to place patron behavior, metrics, and availability at the center of library activity and workflows. Conclusion In looking at the exchange between the product platform and the library, increasing costs illustrate only one associated loss for libraries. The opportunity for data extraction advantageous to the vendor, and the potential for a significant loss of public trust seem likely. In the worst case scenario, the library’s value is not found in responsive, digital services or in the potential of bibliographic and linked data, or in the preservation and circulation of free information, but rather in vendor created and extracted patron data, combined with unfettered access to a patron community. A better approach includes more transparency on the part of both the vendor and the institution, and patron choice leading to increased ownership over library experiences. Library software would work with library data to establish and illustrate known relationships between entities in the library’s ecosystem and to free, reliable resources outside of it, while enhancing emerging methodologies that break away from traditional, platform capitalist standards. Key features for new approaches would uphold patrons as members of library communities and not as resources to be shared with vendors as they work to meet their company goals and bottom line. If libraries provide can research and development in these new methodologies, they may positively influence the trajectory of libraries and the technological advancements to come. References[1] Bales, Stephen. 2015. The Dialectic of Academic Librarianship: a Critical Approach. Sacramento: Library Juice Press. [2] Nicholson, Karen P. “On the Space/Time of Information Literacy, Higher Education, and The Global Knowledge Economy “. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies. Accessed July 3, 2019.https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/86. [3] Lewis, Alison. 2014. Questioning Library Neutrality. Duluth: Library Juice Press. [4] Bales, Stephen. 2015. The Dialectic of Academic Librarianship: a Critical Approach. Sacramento: Library Juice Press. [5] Ibid. [6] Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/teacherscollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=422896.           Accessed July 30, 2019. [7] Lee, Jamie Ann and Marika Cifor. “Evidences, Implications, and Critical Interrogations of Neoliberalism in Information Studies”. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies. Accessed July 3, 2019. https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/122. [8] Bales, Stephen. 2015. The Dialectic of Academic Librarianship: a Critical Approach. Sacramento: Library Juice Press. [9] Ibid. [10] “Commodity.” n.d. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Accessed July 30, 2019. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commodity. [11] Srnicek, Nick. 2016. Platform Capitalism. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. [12] Ibid. [13] Admin. 2019. “Library Bill of Rights.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. February 11, 2019. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill.       . [14] Goldstein, Daniel.”Library Inc.”. The Chronicle Review. Accessed July 29, 2019. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Library-Inc/124915. [15] Hu, Winnie. “New York Public Libraries Warn ‘Staggering’ Crisis with Infrastructure”. The New York times. Accessed July 29, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/nyregion/new-york-libraries-citing-dire-need-for-renovation-seek-funds-from-city.html. [16] Srnicek, Nick. 2016. Platform Capitalism. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. [17] Zolotev, Tiur. “Landscapes of the Post-Anthropocene: Liam Young on an Architecture Without People”. Strelka Mag. Accessed July 25, 2019. https://strelkamag.com/en/article/landscapes-of-the-post-anthropocene-liam-young-on-architecture-without-people. [18] Cagle, Chris. “Kanopy: Not Just Like Netflix, and Not Free”. Film Quarterly. Accessed June 24, 2019. https://filmquarterly.org/2019/05/03/kanopy-not-just-like-netflix-and-not-free/. [19] Srnicek, Nick. 2016. Platform Capitalism. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. [20] Ibid. [21] Ibid. [22] Breeding, Marshall. “Library Systems Report 2018”. American Libraries Magazine. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/05/01/library-systems-report-2018/. [23] Ibid. [24] Johnson, Ben. “OCLC Wise Reimagines the ILS”. Information, Inc. Accessed July 23, 2019. http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/OCLC-Wise-Reimagines-the-ILS-130813.asp. [25] Breeding, Marshall. “OCLC to Launch a New Product for US Public Libraries”. Accessed July 23, 2019. https://librarytechnology.org/document/23500. [26] Noble, Safiya Umoja. 2018. Algorithms of Oppression How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press. [27] Burns, Dylan. “Wait A Minute Honey, I’m Going To Add It Up: Kanopies, DRM, And The Permanence Of The Collection”. ACRLog. Accessed July 8, 2019. https://acrlog.org/2019/07/08/wait-a-minute-honey-im-gonna-add-it-up-kanopies-drm-and-the-permanence-of-the-collection/. [28] Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/teacherscollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=422896.           Accessed July 30, 2019. Posted in: Learning at the Library|By: Kalliopi Mathios|2681 Reads © , Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College Columbia University 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027 @LibraryTClibrary@tc.columbia.edu ©, Gottesman Libraries Teachers College Columbia University 525 West 120 St, New York, NY 10027 @LibraryTC library@tc.columbia.edu Search 
educopia-org-2637	----	None 
files-adainitiative-org-7919	----	Updated impostor syndrome article, August 2015 - Google Docs (1) Impostor syndrome-proof yourself and your  computing community    Impostor  Syndrome-­Proof  Yourself  and  Your  Community  is  a  post  by  Mary  Gardiner  and   Valerie  Aurora,  co-­founders  of  the  Ada  Initiative.  It  appeared  in  the  USENIX  blog  at   https://www.usenix.org/blog/impostor-­syndrome-­proof-­yourself-­and-­your-­community  in   October  2013.    “In every job I’ve had in the last 25 years, I’ve been the first woman to hold my  position—head of computer science and dean of science at the University of British  Columbia, dean of engineering at Princeton, and now president of Harvey Mudd College.  As my career progressed, so did the intensity of my feelings of failure.” - Maria Klawe,  Harvey Mudd president   “I can't do this. I haven't done enough experiments. I haven't got enough data. I can't  write the paper well enough yet or give the talk.” - Cherry Murray, dean of Harvard  University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences   If Georgia or Noopur’s thoughts sound familiar, you are probably good at what you do, and also  one of the many victims of Impostor Syndrome [1].   Impostor Syndrome is the feeling that you're a fraud, that you're not skilled enough for career,  and that you will be found out and exposed as an impostor. More people than you  realize—including experts whom you know and respect—have Impostor Syndrome, but you  don't hear about it for a simple reason: If you're afraid of being exposed as a fraud, the last thing  you want to do is tell anyone about it.  What Causes Impostor Syndrome?  Where does Impostor Syndrome come from? In fields such as academia and technology, our  work is often presented in public and open to criticism from everyone. What makes it worse is  that usually we only see the finished products of other, more experienced people's work—the  beautiful code, the award-winning novel, the revolutionary research paper—without seeing the  years of study, practice, and work behind it. We compare ourselves with an illusory ideal of a  person who is "naturally" good at their work.  That's the official story of Impostor Syndrome. But it's not the whole story. How often have you  heard comments like these?  ● "Fake geek girl. I bet she's never even seen Star Wars."  ● "Are you here with your boyfriend?"  ● "Are there any women in computer science? Not counting use-interface designers,  obviously."  For example, Intel developer Connie Berardi [2] reports, “Of the original seven [women in my  first CS] class, I was the only one that graduated. Some were told by professors they were ‘not  good enough’, that they should ‘quit while they were ahead’. The older engineering buildings at  my school had once turned old closets into women’s restrooms despite a men’s room on every  floor.”  Often Impostor Syndrome is a completely rational response to being called an impostor over  and over. In fields in which women are not supposed to be good (and where sexism is rife),  women are more likely to face Impostor Syndrome. The idea that most people, when their skills,  authority, and legitimacy are regularly questioned, can answer with a "Not so, I’ll show you" is a  myth. Rather, when our community tells us over and over that we're imposters, we start to  believe it.  The result is that women, in addition to being undermined by others, internalize their criticism  and undermine ourselves. We choose easier tasks that we believe are more suited to our skills;  we apply for lower-level jobs than our confident peers; we don't speak at conferences; and we  don't step up as role models, mentors, and teachers because we feel we have nothing to give to  others. Even women who know about Impostor Syndrome frequently spend extra energy  fighting with it when sharing their work with others.   How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome  Impostor Syndrome is a major reason women in computer science don't take on leadership  roles, leave the field after a few years, or never enter the field in the first place. Bringing people  together to help each other overcome Impostor Syndrome works. Doubting ourselves  individually (for example, attributing luck to our career successes rather than taking credit for  our effort and expertise) becomes more difficult when we're in a room full of people who also  struggle with Impostor Syndrome feelings. Believing that we all "just got lucky" doesn't make  sense.  Here’s what you can do to fight your own Impostor Syndrome. (In the next section, we will  describe what communities can do.)  1. Talk about the issue with people you trust: When you hear from others that Impostor  Syndrome is a common problem, it becomes harder to believe your feelings of being a  fraud are real.   2. Ask your friends what they think of you: Usually, other people have a more realistic  (higher) opinion of your work. Your friends can remind of you major accomplishments  you have completely forgotten about. “Accept the fact that others recognize your skills  not to please you but because they are real,” says Flore, Mozilla representative and  WoMoz project [3] leader. “Don't blush. Just smile and say ‘Thank you!’”  3. Go to an in-person Impostor Syndrome session at a conference, from your workplace  training program, or your school: There's nothing like being in a room full of people you  respect and discovering that 90% of them have Impostor Syndrome.  4. Watch your words because they influence how you think: Noopur Raval [4], Program  Officer at the Center for Internet & Society, advises, “Prepare responses beforehand. Ask  yourself aloud who you are and what you do... If you know some of the typical questions  that make you feel like an impostor, make you feel angry, prepare responses to them in  your head.” Leslie Birch [5], maker and filmmaker, says, “Are you putting out any  disclaimers like, ‘I'm not an expert on this, but’... It's easy to get into a pattern of  pretending that you don't know something to seem polite or even apologetic, but in the  end, it wastes the reader's time and even takes away from the knowledge you actually  possess. Keep your uncertainties out of the writing and respect will follow.”  5. Teach others about your field: You will gain confidence in your own knowledge and skill,  and you will help others avoid some Impostor Syndrome shoals.  6. Ask questions: Asking questions can be intimidating if you think you should know the  answer, but getting answers eliminates the extended agony of uncertainty and fear of  failure. “Asking questions and talking about mistakes sends the message to other people  that it's OK for them to be imperfect too,” reports Britta Gustafson [6], community  manager for Cydia.  7. Build alliances: Reassure and build up your friends, who will reassure and build you up  in return. (And if they don't, find new friends.)  8. Own your accomplishments: Keep actively recording and reviewing what you have done,  what you have built, and what successes you've had. “You can look back at [your  accomplishments] later to help convince yourself that yes, you are making an impact just  as much as anyone else,” says Amber Yust [7], Site Reliability Engineer, Google.  9. Re-orient ourselves around your values and worth: When called upon to step up and  show your work, reflect on our core values and how your work reflects them.   How to Help Others Overcome Imposter Syndrome  The flip side of coaching women on how to overcome Impostor Syndrome is building  institutions that don't create Impostor Syndrome in the first place. Expecting to achieve gender  equality entirely by asking women to change to fit the world isn't fair, nor is it likely to succeed.  Our communities must be designed to prevent huge gaps between the actual skill required to  participate or lead, and the apparent skill required.  Impostor syndrome thrives in communities with arbitrary, unnecessary standards, where harsh  criticism is the norm, and where secrecy surrounds the actual process of getting work done.  Here are some of the changes you can make in your community to make it harder for impostor  syndrome to flourish:   1. Simply encourage people: “My friends and colleagues have offered me a lot of  encouragement. Having male friends in the tech world say ‘you should go to this’ or ‘you  should do this’ has been very encouraging,” says Georgia Guthrie [7], a  Philadelphia-based designer and maker.  2. Discourage hostility and bickering: When people in your institution regularly have  public, hostile, personal arguments, that's a natural breeding ground for Impostor  Syndrome, and it discourages people who already have Impostor Syndrome.  3. Eliminate hidden barriers to participation: Be explicit about welcoming new students  and colleagues, and thoroughly document how someone can participate in projects and  events in your research group and at your institution.  4. As a leader, show your own uncertainties and demonstrate your own learning process:  When people see leaders whom they respect struggling or admitting they didn't already  know everything when they started, having realistic opinions of their own work becomes  easier.  5. Reward and encourage people in your team and department for mentoring newcomers:  Officially enshrine mentoring as an important criterion in your career advancement  process.  6. Don't make it personal when someone's work isn't up to snuff: When enforcing necessary  quality standards, don't make the issue about the person. They aren't wrong or stupid or  a waste of space; they've simply done one piece of work that didn't meet your  expectations.  Impostor Syndrome hurts women and hurts the industries that keep them out. But knowledge is  power. Now you know the enemy, and you are on your way to victory.  References   1. The Ada Initiative Imposter Syndrome training: http://adainitiative.org/what-we-  do/impostor-syndrome-training/  2. Connie Berardi: https://twitter.com/hackermnementh  3. Women & Mozilla (WoMoz): http://www.womoz.org/  4. Noopur Raval: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/noopur-raval/15/4a8/7a  5. Leslie Birch: https://twitter.com/zengirl2  6. Britta Gustafson: http://jeweledplatypus.org/  7. Amber Yust: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amberyust  8. Georgia Guthrie: http://www.georgiaguthrie.com/   Additional  resources   Denise Paolucci: “Overcoming Impostor Sydrome” talk  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZg9rax-ky4  Julie Pagano: “It's Dangerous to Go Alone”  http://juliepagano.com/blog/2013/11/02/it-s-dangerous-to-go-alone-battling-the-invisible-mo nsters-in-tech/  Mood Gym: https://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome     This  article  is  licensed  under  a  Creative  Commons  Attribution-­ShareAlike  3.0  United  States   license.  See  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-­sa/3.0/us/  for  the  terms  of  this  licence.     Exercise 1: When you think of the times in your life where you’ve been the happiest, the proudest, or the most satisfied, which of the following values come to mind? Accomplishment● Accountability● Achievement● Action● Activism● Adventure● Affection● Ambition● Autonomy● Challenge● Close relationships● Commitment● Community● Compassion● Competence● Competition● Confidence● Conformity● Control● Coolness under fire● Cooperation● Courage● Creativity● Credibility● Decisiveness● Desires● Economic security● Effectiveness● Efficiency● Enthusiasm● Environmentalism● Excellence● Excitement● Fairness● Faith● Fame● Family● Foresight● Free time● Freedom● Friendships● Growth● Happiness● Health● Helping other people● Helping society● Honesty● Hospitality● Independence● Influence● Inner harmony● Insight● Inspiration● Integrity● Intellectual status● Introspection● Justice● Knowledge● Leadership● Location● Loyalty● Meaningful work● Mentorship● Merit● Money● Movement● Music● Nature● Openness● Order● Patriotism● Peace● Persistance● Personal development● Physical challenge● Pleasure● Power and authority● Privacy● Public service● Purity● Quality● Recognition● Reputation● Responsibility● Romance● Security● Self-knowledge● Self-reliance● Self-respect● Serenity● Sophistication● Spirituality● Stability● Status● Tenacity● Tranquility● Truth● Vibrancy● Volunteering● Wealth● Will-power● Wisdom [add any that I missed]● Exercise 2: Pick one and write a couple of sentences about why one of the values you chose is important to you. Exercise 3: In general, I try to live up to these values: Disagree 1 ----- 2 ----- 3 ----- 4 ----- 5 Agree Exercise 4: What was the last topic that someone asked for your advice on? Im p o s to r S y n d ro m e W o rk s h o p : T h o u g h t R e c o rd W h e re w e re y o u ? E m o tio n o r fe e lin g N e g a tiv e a u to m a tic th o u g h t E v id e n c e th a t s u p p o rts th a t th o u g h t E v id e n c e th a t d o e s n o t s u p p o rt th a t th o u g h t A lte rn a tiv e th o u g h t E m o tio n o r fe e lin g W h e re w e re y o u ? W h a t w e re y o u d o in g ? W h o w e re y o u w ith ? E m o tio n s c a n b e d e s c rib e d w ith o n e w o rd , e g . s a d , a n g ry, s c a re d . R a te 0 -1 0 0 % W h a t th o u g h ts w e re g o in g th ro u g h y o u r m in d ? W h a t m e m o rie s o r in s ig h ts w e re in y o u r m in d . W h a t fa c ts s u p p o rt th e tru th fu ln e s s o f th is th o u g h t o r im a g e ? W h a t fa c ts o r e x p e rie n c e s in d ic a te th a t th is th o u g h t m ig h t n o t b e tru e ? If m y b e s t frie n d h a d th is th o u g h t, w h a t w o u ld I te ll th e m ? C o u ld I b e ju m p in g to c o n c lu s io n s ? W rite a n e w th o u g h t th a t ta k e s in to a c c o u n t e v id e n c e fo r/a g a in s t th e o rig in a l th o u g h t. H o w d o y o u fe e l a b o u t th e s itu a tio n n o w ? R a te 0 -1 0 0 % . B a s e d o n a w o rk s h e e t b y P s y c h o lo g y T o o ls .c o m , u n d e r C C B Y N C 4 .0 
geekfeminism-wikia-com-7422	----	Community anti-harassment | Geek Feminism Wiki | Fandom Search This wiki This wiki All wikis  |  Sign In Don't have an account? Register Geek Feminism Wiki 1,209 Pages Add new page Geek Feminism highlights TopContent List of Women Characters in Video Games Toxic masculinity T-shirts Featured articles Grace Hopper Celebration Supporting geek women Statement of purpose Getting girls into IT Women-friendly forums Nonsexist language Finding women Promotion to women Outreach to women in open source New to feminism? FAQ Introduction to feminism How to help feminism Supporting geek women Statement of purpose Getting girls into IT Women-friendly forums Nonsexist language Finding women Promotion to women Outreach to women in open source Explore Recent Changes Random page Community Videos Images in: Harassment policy Community anti-harassment Edit History Talk (0) Share If you have a geek community, you should take steps to make it clear that harassment is unwelcome within it and to respond to reports of harassment. Contents 1 Adopting our policy 1.1 Other policies 2 Adoption 3 Resources 4 See also Adopting our policy There is a sample policy at Community anti-harassment/Policy. In order to adopt a policy, you need at minimum, the following: a policy a contact point where harassment reports can be received a group of responders who receive reports and have the power to act on them up to and including excluding harassers from your community Other policies Code of conduct evaluations lists many communities with policies, together with evaluating them on features such as enforcement mechanisms. Adoption Communities that have adopted an anti-harassment policy are listed at Community anti-harassment/Adoption. Resources Our community anti-harassment policy is new from June 2014. Please review the Conference anti-harassment pages for information about adopting and enforcing policies, much of the advice applies in both situations. See also Harassment Online harassment Conference anti-harassment Diversity statement Retrieved from "https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Community_anti-harassment?oldid=35329" Categories: Harassment policy Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. Fan Feed More Geek Feminism Wiki 0 List of Women Characters in Video Games Explore Wikis Universal Conquest Wiki Adopt Me! Wikia FandomShop Fandom IG GalaxyQuest Terms of Use Privacy Policy Do Not Sell My Info Support Help 
hacklibraryschool-com-1077	----	How to Combat Imposter Syndrome During Your MLIS Journey – HLS HLS How would you Hack Library School? Home About About Copyright Code of Conduct Ebook Guest Posts Map Hackers Editors Contributing Writers Alumni By alyssamkey on September 24, 2019 • ( 4 Comments ) How to Combat Imposter Syndrome During Your MLIS Journey As I’ve mentioned before in my previous posts, starting graduate school can be stressful. This is especially true if you’re starting a program you have no previous field experience in; which is the reality I have lived in since starting my MLIS program in January. So far, my lack of previous experience hasn’t been detrimental to my studies; but it honestly has been challenging at times and made my success a little harder to achieve since I’m operating with less practical knowledge than most of my peers are. Thus, since I’m often in class with others who are far more experienced than me, it sometimes makes me feel a little bit out of place among my peers. This has sometimes led me to experience momentary feelings of imposter syndrome since graduate school is often the next step for people to take after they already have accrued field experience and are seeking promotion to the next level of their career. So, for someone who doesn’t have said experience, it sometimes feels like I skipped a few steps when I hear about all of the steps my peers took to their degree. For anyone unsure of what imposter syndrome actually is, it focuses on having persistent self-doubt despite being successful in whatever one’s doing. However, these feelings don’t equal a low perception of self or low confidence levels. So, it isn’t a matter of whether someone’s competent enough to complete something, but whether or not they believe they deserve the success they earn and/or should be where they are. Gill Corkindale details a lot of good ways to combat these feelings, even though the causes she proposes are limited, by acknowledging them and the forces causing them, discussing them, and exercising self-care when needed (Corkindale, 2008). Something I have learned while in graduate school so far is that, regardless of how successful you may be in your program, if you don’t take time to check in and make sure you’re respecting your own boundaries and not overwhelming yourself; then you’re going to run into issues. But, you may be wondering if I’m doing well in my program otherwise, why do I sometimes feel like this? This is a valid question as sometimes I ask myself the same question while completing my assignments. To be honest, I know from experience that even the most confident people – which I like to consider myself 98% of the time – can harbor doubts about themselves and their abilities; especially when they feel exhausted and overworked. I felt like this a handful of times in my first semester because, with the 10 units I was taking then, I often had a lot to do in a short amount of time while trying to balance everything well. So, even if people don’t always outright say they’re experiencing feelings like these, regardless of their frequency; they may be and they don’t know how to talk about it or are unsure how they’ll be received by others. They may think that because they got into a program and are successfully completing their assignments and degree requirements that their doubts are unfounded. However, I know from experience this isn’t true because getting into graduate school is one thing, but staying in is a whole other story; depending on the standards you have to meet within your respective graduate program. So, for everyone who has someone in their lives attending graduate school, please handle them with care because we’re all going through a lot right now as we complete our degrees and plan for post-grad life. (I know this may sound like a joke, but it’s true.) Since graduate school can sometimes be emotionally, mentally, and/or physically-taxing, everyone currently in it needs a strong and healthy support system to rely on when needed – even when they don’t outright ask for it. So, whether you’re in graduate school, considering it, or know someone who’s getting ready to start their graduate school journey, please show up for those who show up for you. So, in addition to the recommendations I’ve suggested already to combat imposter syndrome, I can also suggest that: Sleep is key. I know from experience that getting 7-9 hours of sleep will keep you healthy and focused. However, I know that not everyone’s schedules allow this, so naps also help, too, when you can get them. Stay organized. Regardless if you write in a physical planner or maintain a schedule on your computer, use the organizational method that works best for you so you don’t lose track of your deadlines. Remember to eat and eat well. I know healthy eating may not always be the most efficient or easiest option, but it’ll help keep you well so you don’t have to risk getting sick when it’s the most inconvenient. Take time for yourself. As some of my previous points show, self-care is essential to your success in graduate school. So, regardless if you take five minutes to read a book every day or take an afternoon off to spend with family and/or friends every once in a while, you should try to take time for yourself regularly (if you can) so you can prevent burnout and stay on track to graduate. Respect your own boundaries. Since graduate school can be incredibly stressful, you need to know when you need a break. So, please take the time to establish and maintain healthy boundaries in your life so you don’t run the risk of burning out early on in your respective graduate program. Over the past nine months since I started my program, I’ve learned a lot from the experiences I’ve had while I’ve worked to find my niche in this field. So, I hope to impart much of what I’ve learned to help others who may be experiencing the same feelings. While I’m confident in myself and my abilities, I’ll admit that, some days, it’s a little harder to exude that confidence depending on what may be going on in and separate from my schoolwork. That aside, I know I’m supposed to be where I am and the success I’ve had in my program so far supports that. So, to anyone reading this who may be experiencing a little bit of imposter syndrome or knows someone who is, please know that you’re meant to be where you are. Be proud of everything you accomplish; and don’t let anything or anyone undermine your success, yourself included. You’ve already made it so far, so you deserve to enjoy your success. References: Corkindale, G. (2008, May 7). Overcoming imposter syndrome. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/05/overcoming-imposter-syndrome. Photo by Emma Matthews on Unsplash Hack This! Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Like this: Like Loading... Related Categories: advice, Education & Curriculum, Honesty, mental health, reflections, self-care, work-life balance Hack Your Studying with Retrieval Practice Support Systems and Library School 4 replies › Katie Savala says: September 25, 2019 at 12:39 am Thank you so much for writing this article! I started my MLIS degree in January too, and the Imposter Syndrome has been utterly nefarious even though I’m someone who has years of experience in libraries. I think one of the things that has helped me come to terms with it is the fact that EVERYONE experiences Imposter Syndrome to a certain degree. It’s nice to know you’re not alone. Having a support system comprised of your peers is underrated! Healthy venting to each other is an excellent way to bond: we’re all this together! Expressing these feelings to MLIS friends is a great way to create an echo-chamber of reciprocal validation. 😉 LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Kelly Heyesey says: December 15, 2019 at 2:37 pm I know this article was posted a few months ago, but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate it. I started my MLIS program in April and am now at the halfway point. This article hit on so many thoughts I have had as someone with much less practical experience than most of my classmates. Thank you for writing it! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Pingback: To my fellow LIS Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [Series]: Imposter Syndrome, Mental Health, and Surviving Another Day – HLS Pingback: Why A Growth Mindset Is Important: A Year in Review – HLS Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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hacklibraryschool-com-4033	----	My Complicated Feelings About Being an “Unconventional” Library School Student – HLS HLS How would you Hack Library School? Home About About Copyright Code of Conduct Ebook Guest Posts Map Hackers Editors Contributing Writers Alumni By Stefanie Molinaro on August 28, 2017 • ( 6 Comments ) My Complicated Feelings About Being an “Unconventional” Library School Student I’ve been writing for Hack Library School for about 6 months now, and in some ways, I’ve felt like a fraud the entire time. You see, I’m only taking one class per semester. Three measly credit hours. Sharing this with the world, for some reason feels like a confession, when in actuality, I am representative of many MLIS candidates who are taking a nontraditional route to get their degrees. Why, then, do I feel like such an imposter? Let’s take a tour of my brain. Library school is not a full-time gig for me. I know that there a quite a few of us who didn’t know right away that we wanted to pursue librarianship as a career. I graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and always thought that I wanted to be a teacher. I was enrolled in a Master of Education program. I attended classes full-time, I lived close to campus, I completed field experience at Chicago Public Schools, and volunteered anywhere and everywhere I could—I basically immersed myself in the program completely. It wasn’t until I was getting ready to student teach that I had the realization that this path just wasn’t for me. (That is maybe a conversation for another day.) All that to say, I invested a great deal of time and even more money into my first graduate school experience, and my journey to library school has been utterly different. Although it was devastating to make such a life-altering decision about my career and education, and to leave a field that had essentially been a huge part of my identity for so long—I don’t believe that my time was wasted. I still work with kids, maybe a slightly different age group now, but I carry the same core values about working with children with me no matter where I am. Even so, part of me still wishes that I could be fully immersed in my MLIS studies in a similar way. I long for those late nights in the library or at a local coffee shop working on dreaded group projects or researching paper topics with classmates. I miss lectures and face-to-face discussions, and making those real-life connections with the same people at the same time every week. On the other hand, I’m also very fortunate because I’m essentially living and breathing library work every single day, just without the title “librarian” for now. I worked in a library before I ever thought to apply to library school, and there was a confidence in my decision that makes my discomfort about any sort of “unconventionality” worth it, because I know that this is what I really want. I currently work two part-time jobs—I work reference desk shifts, I manage collections, I plan and present programs—I’m basically living my dream. I’m surrounded by the best team anyone could ever ask for, and they are always there to counsel me whenever I have even the smallest question or concern. I’ve never felt more supported or appreciated in a workplace. Even so, there are some days when it still feels like this in-between space is some sort of libraryland purgatory. Distance education can be isolating, especially when moving at a slow pace like I am. I’m enrolled in Wayne State University’s distance program, and a lot of us are already working part-time or full-time in libraries. Since there are a lot of nontraditional students enrolled in the program, we don’t have a set cohort for each incoming class. I have encountered many students like myself in my first few classes who have decided to take one class at a time, and since we’re all on a different timeline and have different specializations and focus areas, I often feel very disconnected from my classmates. I knew that I would be moving and traveling this summer, so I decided to take the summer off of school, which has even further disconnected me from classmates that I was once aligned with. On the bright side, being involved with HLS has been an invaluable experience for me, as it has allowed me to make connections with the larger library school community in a way that I had been lacking previously. I don’t have a lot of time or money. Classes are expensive (even when taking just one), and I’m reluctant to take out any more loans, since this is my second time in graduate school. Working at a faster pace also requires more financial freedom, which I currently don’t have (and won’t have) anytime soon. It was also important for me to ask myself “how much work can I realistically handle mentally, emotionally, and physically?” in any given semester. One class, along with working two jobs, volunteering for two organizations, holding a leadership position with HLS, and helping to care for my home, is more than enough to keep me busy all the time. Acceptance. Sometimes I get jealous when I think about the fact that some of our writers will be graduating next year, but then I remind myself that I’m moving at my own pace, and doing what’s best for my current situation. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how great life will be when I’m a “real” librarian (whatever that means)—but if you take anything away from all of my rambling, please know that no matter what position you hold, how many hours you work or how many classes you’re taking at a time, or whether or not you’re enrolled in a distance program—your experience is valid and you’re doing the best you can. I’ve come to accept the idea that there may be no such thing as a conventional library school experience, because we all bring something so unique to the table. I see you, fellow “unconventional” library school student. You’ve got this.   Featured image “Imposter” by Bobby McKay is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 2.0) Stefanie Molinaro is entering the second year of her MLIS studies through Wayne State University’s distance program, with a focus on library services to children. She currently works at two public libraries in the suburbs of Chicago, in the children’s department of both. Stefanie is interested in the intersections between librarianship and social justice work, and some of her career goals include creating consciousness-raising programming for children and teens, and providing library services to incarcerated youth. When Stefanie is not working or studying, she enjoys volunteering at Liberation Library and hanging out with her cat, Lily. Hack This! Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Like this: Like Loading... Related Categories: Distance Learning, Finances, Professional Life, reflections, Uncategorized Tagged as: distance education, imposter syndrome, Non-traditional learning Weekly Spotlight! Announcing the Hack Library School/ACRLog Collaboration 6 replies › Andy Johnson says: August 28, 2017 at 11:32 am Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences! They really resonated with me. I left a PhD program in English at the dissertation level to pursue my MSLS after realizing I didn’t want to teach. I was working full time (not in a library) and could take only one or two classes per semester, most of which were online. I felt isolated from most of my classmates and professors, even though I worked on the same campus as the MSLS program I was in. I would recommend trying to get involved with (or starting) a student ALA chapter at your school. That helped me feel more connected. Now that I finished my MSLS, but haven’t yet gotten a library job, though, I’m struggling to find ways to stay integrated into the library world. Hang in there and keep focusing on what you enjoy about the work and the field! It sounds like you’re getting excellent library experience, and that should serve you well in your job search. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Jennifer says: August 28, 2017 at 12:50 pm I am right there with you! Except add on that I am significantly older than almost all my classmates. Otherwise, very similar stories except I was biology plus teacher certification. After I did my student teaching, I knew I did not want to teach, at least not like that. So I went on and got a MS in Microbiology and worked in research for 5 years. Loved studying it and learned new techniques, but found research to be very unfulfilling due to the extremely high failure rate, plus it seemed to attract very toxic people into supervisory & managerial positions. Started a family and was a SAHM for several years. Then I started working part-time in a library as a children’s page, and loved it. After getting a promotion and finding an affordable program, started on my MLIS a year ago, and like you, am just taking one class at a time due to financial and time constrainsts, as well as problems with eye strain and migraines from all the computer time. I feel very disconnected from my classmates most of the time, and left behind as I see people who started when I did or just before finishing. Especially frustrating because there were FOUR children’s librarian positions open in my system, which is unheard of, and of course I couldn’t apply because I don’t have the degree year. I feel like I’m in limbo, or maybe purgatory. I just want to be done! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Lauren says: August 28, 2017 at 6:31 pm You do have this!! Your story and my own are very similar. I too was an English major in the midst of a teacher education program who discovered that she didn’t want to teach and found libraries as the light at the end of my tunnel. I also went through an online program, with plans to go through one more in the future for a Masters, which I will try to figure out who to balance with my full-time library job that I love. So yes remember you are not alone! You can do this. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply sarolen says: August 29, 2017 at 10:48 am Thanks for sharing your story! I have been a slow-paced MLIS student since 2014. And I have struggled very much with feeling isolated and out of place. I am also older–finally harnessing a career after working part-time, raising a family. I work in a law library–a true “accidental law librarian” assistant! I am very fortunate that my university funds my classes. Still, with a full time job, older kids going from high school to college and etc… I decided that I could either go crazy with the pressure or take it slow. The good news is that I’m set to graduate in the spring–so be encouraged and stay the course! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Stephanie says: September 18, 2017 at 2:14 pm Stefanie, don’t feel like an imposter! You have every right to be in library school, and many students there – perhaps more than in any other field I’ve seen – are “nontraditional.” So was I, to some extent. Like Andy, I left a PhD program in English after realizing I didn’t want to teach, or at least not in a traditional sense. I liked library instruction, but didn’t like marking papers, and I far preferred teaching one-off classes over teaching the same group of students all term. I was 28 when I went to library school, and had worked in libraries off and on since I was 16, but had never thought of being a librarian (okay, I was a little slow on the uptake). But I am now a library director, and have been for a long time. Every single one of the very best librarians with whom I have worked suffered from “imposter syndrome.” I’ve also worked with some great library school students who have gone the non-traditional route; at present, I work in a Midwestern state that has no library schools at all, and 1 of my staff is about 1 year from graduating from the online SJSU MLIS program, while another is just applying to another online program, with my strong encouragement. Believe me, you’re in terrific company. And yes, you belong. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Pingback: Friends, Waffles, Work [Farewell] – hls Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Google account. 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hacklibraryschool-com-9043	----	Imposter Syndrome as a Student – HLS HLS How would you Hack Library School? Home About About Copyright Code of Conduct Ebook Guest Posts Map Hackers Editors Contributing Writers Alumni By Brenna Murphy on March 28, 2016 • ( 8 Comments ) Imposter Syndrome as a Student Have you ever felt like your colleagues know more about your field than you do? Or like your successes can be attributed to luck rather than hard work and persistence? Maybe you’ve felt like you will be exposed as a fraud at any moment. If so, you may be experiencing imposter syndrome, a surprisingly common experience in our field. According to Wikipedia, imposter syndrome refers to “an inability to internalize…accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud.’ Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved.” Many other librarians have cited their struggles with imposter syndrome. Annie Pho wrote about it in her post for APALA on imposter activism and Erin Miller shared her experience within an academic context on ACRLog. For me, constantly comparing myself to my peers is at the root of this issue. One of the most frequent instances of imposter syndrome I experience occurs when I find myself talking to a peer about something library-related that I know little about. For example, I am no expert at coding. I picked up some basic HTML/CSS in my free time, but talk to me about Java? I know what it is and, well, that’s about it. I remind myself that this does not mean that I’m a fraud, only that I’ve chosen to study other things. Other librarians can throw together a MARC record like nobody’s business. I certainly cannot without a fair amount of studying.  I am not a cataloger and that’s okay.  I’ve also been hit particularly hard by imposter syndrome since I’ve started applying for academic jobs. I tend to look at my achievements critically and am hesitant to take responsibility for them. As part of my cover letter-writing process I made a list of all of my accomplishments since I started library school: group projects, promotions, internships, etc. Ignoring that little voice in my head that said but you didn’t get published in an academic journal and you didn’t present at a conference, I took a step back and thought of everything I did to achieve the things on my CV. I remind myself that I worked hard and deserve to be where I am. Sometimes I believe myself, and sometimes I don’t.  One thing that’s helped me cope is to remind myself that it’s impossible to know everything about everything. I can’t be an expert on every kind of new technology, present at every conference, and consistently go above and beyond at my job. Unless some kind of superhero librarian exists that can do these things, nobody can. Identifying that you are struggling with imposter syndrome can be an important step. Left unchecked, it can lead to serious burnout and anxiety. Honestly, this is something I struggle with on a regular basis and I can’t offer you any solid, 100% effective advice to get over it. Focusing on self care and not overthinking my failures has helped me. If you find yourself experiencing imposter syndrome, I can assure you that you are not alone.    Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? How do you cope?   Cover photo from Flickr Commons. Licensed under CC 2.0.  Hack This! Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Like this: Like Loading... Related Categories: Honesty Tagged as: doubt, imposter syndrome, library school, self-care Weekly Roundup! HB2, NC Libraries, and Why You Should Care 8 replies › Samantha Belmont Sawyer says: March 28, 2016 at 11:29 am Thanks for writing this, Brenna! I needed to read this post today. LikeLike Reply madalainev says: March 28, 2016 at 3:02 pm Based on my recurring nightmare about watching a plane crash, I’m also feeling some imposter syndrome this semester. Thank you for the reflection! LikeLike Reply Pingback: From Homeschool to Library School… and lessons learned along the way | hls Pingback: What are Our Dreams Made Of? | hls Pingback: Imposter Syndrome as a barrier to library use – hls Pingback: A Seasonal Recalibration – hls Pingback: HLS/ACRLog: First Generation College Students and the Job Search with an MLIS | ACRLog Pingback: LIS Mental Health Week 2018: a roundup of student support – hls Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. 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halfanhour-blogspot-com-9176	----	If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER Skip to main content Subscribe Subscribe to this blog Follow by Email Search Search This Blog Half an Hour A place to write, half an hour, every day, just for me. Share Get link Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Other Apps November 08, 2017 If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER David Wiley offers a provocative perspective titled If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access. Here's how he sets it up: Imagine that – somehow – you’ve never used the internet before. A good friend and long-time internet user finds this out and begins trying to describe to you how awesome the internet is. However, for some inexplicable reason, all of his arguments for why you should be on the internet focus on cost. He follows this with a series of images showing services such as gMail, Instagram and Wikipedia with a slogan emphasizing how it is cheaper than its alternative. "Wikipedia: cheaper than Encyclopedia Britannica," for example. He then argues, While it is absolutely true that each of these services is cheaper than its pre-internet counterpart, cost is far and away the least interesting thing about any of them. Would these arguments actually inspire someone to want to use the internet? If you’re already familiar with the internet, the whole line of argument seems to miss the point. It omits the heart and soul of what makes the internet amazing. Who thinks about the internet this way? I do. I was around in the pre-internet days. I remember life without an internet. I remember when online access was granted through services like Compuserv, which would cost me (had I been able to afford it) $6 per hour. Other services were even more expensive. Remember? When you look at what we pay for high speed Internet access now, it’s almost hard to imagine it ever being another way…but it was…oh boy, it was. In 1995 getting online was done in an almost completely different way, and access to online services were charged for, in most cases, BY THE MINUTE like a long distance phone call. Like pretty much every other internet user in the late 1980s and early 1990s I accessed it for free through university access on campus. I was also able to dial in via modem when I lived in the city. Outside the city I incurred long distance charges, which I passed on (when I could) to Athabasca University. I ended up incurring thousands of dollars in internet debt by 1995. Fortunately I got a job in Manitoba and was able to escape the trap. In Brandon I was determined that the scenario would not be repeated. With a group of people I worked on a project called Brandon Freenet, later called the Westman Community Network (because some jerk trademarked the term 'Freenet' and would't let anyone use it). It was part of a wider network of freenets across Canada and the United States. A lot of them don't exist any more; some of them still do, because there's still a need. It wasn't easy, especially once commercial internet came on to the scene. In Brandon, the only internet access point was Brandon University; the college and everyone else in the city went through BU. We raised money, purchased access, and made it available at low cost (and in some cases, for free). But we ran into issues because come computer science professors at the university launched a commercial service, called Docker, and it became more and more difficult to maintain our community service. Docker eventually sold out to (I believe) Bell and the professors did just fine. There was a time when free public access to the internet was in the balance. Many communities (and community organizations, like our own) wanted to provide it as an essential social service. Commercial internet providers did what they do best, and virtually eliminated the competition. Not though the free market; don't be silly! They lobbied and in some cases sued and made community internet access illegal. Like they did in Colorado. Like they did in Minnesota. Like they did in Tennessee. Commercial access providers don't actually like the free market. People and governments could provide internet access for much less than it costs today. Most of the backbone is already underwritten by the taxpayer, and a lot of local infrastructure is as well. But commercial providers do everything they can to ensure limited, and often monopoly, access to the last mile. So yeah, Dave - it's about the money. --- Why does this matter? Why does David Wiley even raise the point? It has to do with textbook publishing, and in particular, something called 'inclusive access' to commercially published textbooks in university courses. I covered this a couple of times last winter in OLDaily. Wiley is responding to an Inside Higher Ed article published yesterday called 'Inclusive Access Takes Off. The core idea of this scam purchasing plan is that instead of buying textbooks with credit cards or cash, students can be automatically charged for course materials by the institution when they enroll.... Publishers previously lost a lot of revenue from textbooks because many students bought secondhand, rented, pirated or just skipped buying textbooks altogether. Inclusive-access programs have changed that. The article touts savings of "up to" 70 percent. There's no reason to believe these savings will persist once the publishers have locked up monopoly access to sales of course materials. And of course they are well into the process of depicting community-based access (such as sharing or reselling texts) as "illegal". Wiley responds as follows: While everyone wants educational materials to be less expensive, lower costs are the least interesting thing about digital, networked learning...  By focusing on cost, the article takes a page directly from the publishers’ playbook. Keeping the conversation laser-focused on cost is the core of their defensive strategy with regard to OER. Because when you think the problem to be solved is the high cost of textbooks, the way you solve that problem is by lowering the cost of textbooks. This is an interesting perspective. The core issue here, argues Wiley, is one of permissions, not cost. The argument based on cost is just a distraction. It allows publishers to respond to the challenge of OER by lowering their prices, while all the while maintaining their lock on content, preventing anyone from reusing (or sharing, or whatever). And because of this, he argues, we lose the advantages of OER (just like, he says, we lose the advantages of the internet if we're only focused on internet access costs). --- Here's how he expresses the 'advantages of OER' argument: When, o when will we turn our attention in earnest to OER-enabled pedagogy – to all the teaching and learning practices (and associated benefits) that are possible only in the context of OER adoption? When will we stop focusing on cost to the exclusion of other benefits? ...  Every time we focus a conversation about OER on cost, we simultaneously strengthen the arguments in favor of inclusive access. I like to keep the language clean in my posts, but it's difficult. Oh so difficult. There are two problems with this line of argumentation. I'll deal with the easy one first: we are focused on the advantages of OER-enabled pedagogy. What do you think the whole MOOC thing George Siemens and I and others was about? Beginning in 2003 and continuing consistently thereafter I have depicted learning resources as words in a conversation, and applied the logic of language to the logic of reuse. In 2006 I described and recommended the community-based model to support sustainable OER-based pedagogy. In the intervening years we've seen no support from David Wiley with respect to this alternative model. His focus has been on traditional institutions of learning and the traditional classroom model. When he has worked toward the production of OERs, it was to produce textbooks. I've spent years working toward a pedagogy of sharing and networks and communities enabled (partially) by open educational resources; Wiley has appeared disinterested. He says the discussion of MOOCs "has sucked the air out of conversation around innovation in education." Now to be fair, his criticism is that "the horrific corruption perpetrated by the Udacity, Coursera, and other copycat MOOCs is to pretend that the last forty years never happened." But the problem he sees with these MOOCs isn't the pedagogical model per se, it's that they have the wrong licensing. "I believe we must ground our open thinking in the idea of open licenses. Specifically, we should advocate for open in the language of the 5Rs," he writes. And this has been his position consistently for a number of years. And this brings us to the second problem with his line of reasoning. It's this: the reason people talk about the cost of open educational resources is because some people - David Wiley included - think it's an essential part of 'open' that the resources be commercialized and that vendors charge money from them. Of course he wants us to stop talking about cost - that would deflect the criticism of his own business model. Lumen Learning is in the same business as  Pearson, Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education: selling textbooks (directly or indirectly) to students. That, to me, makes them, and him, part of the problem. And it makes him even more complicit in the problem when he accuses people of 'not talking about open pedagogy' when they take a perspective that is not based in the precious 5 Rs. --- We've had this discussion before, at length, and some would say, ad nauseum. The debate around open pedagogy is just the latest incarnation. At core, Wiley sees 'commercial' as good, while I don't. More accurately, I think, Wiley sees 'commercial' as the only good, while I think that public and community-based non-commercial alternatives are equally viable. This is certainly how the debate about licensing has played out. My position is that, first, I choose to use a non-commercial license, and I tell people that they should feel free to use any of the Creative Commons licenses on their open educational resources. Wiley (and a cluster of other OER advocates) insist that creators must use a CC-by license, allowing commercial use, if they want their work to be considered open. The difference arises essentially because I consider learning and pedagogy to be non-commercial enterprises. This is especially the case when, as I advocate, OERs are created by students as a part of their studies for sharing with and use by other students (like words in a conversation). And I see no good reason why we should require the production of educators and students to be fair game for resellers who want to pluck it for free out of the commons and charge money for it to those not lucky enough to be a part of our community. So when I see somebody saying "you shouldn't argue about price" and "you must allow commercial reuse of OERs" I see somebody who is not only not talking about pedagogy, I see someone who is trying to destroy open pedagogy, by destroying communities and replacing them with companies. I see someone who can't get past the idea of education as something that is provided by a university or publisher or whatever, and not possibly created by people working together on their own. You want me to stop talking about cost, David? Stop charging money for something that should be free. Return education to the community network. Help work with us together without putting a price tag on it. Share Get link Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Other Apps Email Post Comments Giulia ForsytheFriday, November 10, 2017 Thanks for this post. I've been trying to parse out the pros and cons of "inclusive access". For example, VitalSource is one of the platforms offering "inclusive access". They claim Athabasca is all in. Does anyone know if this true? (Sometimes vendors exaggerate)... I've always considered Athabasca to be a leader in open Ed in Canada. How does 100% adoption of inclusive access fit with their open practices? ReplyDelete Replies Reply Add comment Load more... Post a comment Your comments will be moderated. Sorry, but it's not a nice world out there. Popular posts September 13, 2006 How to Write Articles and Essays Quickly and Expertly Share Get link Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Other Apps 63 comments February 03, 2007 What Connectivism Is Share Get link Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Other Apps 15 comments Powered by Blogger Stephen Downes Visit profile Search Archive November 20204 October 20201 September 20205 August 20202 July 20202 June 20202 May 20202 April 20203 March 20201 February 20206 December 20191 November 20192 October 201915 September 20192 August 20191 July 20191 June 20193 April 20194 March 20194 February 20191 January 20196 December 20184 November 20184 October 20188 September 20185 July 20181 May 20182 April 20182 March 20183 February 20182 January 20181 December 20171 November 20175 October 201714 September 20172 August 20173 June 20173 April 20171 March 20171 February 20172 December 20166 November 20161 October 20162 September 20165 August 20162 July 20164 June 20161 May 20162 April 20161 March 20163 February 20162 January 20164 November 20154 October 20152 August 20151 July 20151 June 20152 May 20152 April 20154 March 20155 February 20157 January 20154 December 20147 November 20141 October 20143 September 20146 August 20143 July 20143 June 20146 May 201410 April 20146 March 20142 February 20146 January 20141 December 20132 November 20135 October 20136 September 20137 July 20133 June 20135 May 20136 April 201318 March 20138 February 20132 January 20137 December 20123 November 20127 October 20127 September 20127 August 20122 July 20122 June 20123 May 20121 April 20125 March 20126 February 20126 January 20127 December 20117 November 201111 October 20118 September 20116 August 20111 July 20118 June 20117 May 201110 April 20112 March 20114 February 201111 January 201111 December 20109 November 20109 October 201012 September 20104 August 20106 July 201010 June 20109 May 20109 April 20109 March 201012 February 20109 January 201010 December 20093 October 20098 September 20097 August 20094 July 200915 June 20095 May 20097 April 20096 March 200917 February 20097 January 20096 December 20085 November 20087 October 20087 September 20086 August 200816 July 200811 June 20086 May 20086 April 20085 March 20084 February 20087 January 200814 December 20078 November 20078 October 200711 September 200710 August 200714 July 20078 June 200712 May 20077 April 200714 March 200719 February 200716 January 200711 December 200615 November 200628 October 200615 September 200617 August 200621 July 200622 June 200627 May 20066 April 20063 January 20063 December 20054 November 20054 October 200514 September 20052 August 20058 July 20058 June 20054 May 20056 April 200512 March 20051 Show more Show less Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily Loading... 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hdl-handle-net-5415	----	IDEALS @ Illinois: The work of Patricia Knapp (1914-1972): Relevance for the electronic era Toggle navigation   IDEALS Login Search IDEALSThis Collection query Advanced Search The work of Patricia Knapp (1914-1972): Relevance for the electronic era Welcome to the IDEALS Repository JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it. Browse IDEALS TitlesAuthorsContributorsSubjectsDateCommunities This Collection TitlesAuthorsContributorsSubjectsDateSeries/Report My Account LoginRegister Information Getting StartedAboutContact Us Access Key Private / Closed Access Limited Access: U. of I. Users Only IDEALS Home → School of Information Sciences → Publications - School of Information Sciences → Katharine Sharp Review → No. 3: Summer, 1996 → View Item The work of Patricia Knapp (1914-1972): Relevance for the electronic era Worrell, Diane Use this link to cite this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78247 Files in this item Files Description Format application/pdf worrell_work.pdf (24kB) (no description provided) PDF text/html worrell_work.htm (36kB) (no description provided) HTML Description Title: The work of Patricia Knapp (1914-1972): Relevance for the electronic era Author(s): Worrell, Diane Subject(s): Academic libraries Relations with faculty and curriculum Abstract: The writings of Patricia Knapp (1914-1972), academic librarian, library educator, and key figure in the Library College movement, focused largely on the fusion of academic librarianship with academic instruction. This paper examines selected writings of Knapp in terms of their relevance to library instruction in the electronic age Issue Date: 1996 Publisher: Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Citation Info: Worrell, Diane. "The Work of Patricia Knapp (1914-1972): Relevance for the Electronic Era." Katharine Sharp Review, no. 3 (1996). Series/Report: Katharine Sharp Review ; no. 003, Summer, 1996 Genre: Article Type: Text Language: English URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78247 ISSN: 1083-5261 Rights Information: Copyright 1996 is held by Diane Worrell Date Available in IDEALS: 2015-07-20  This item appears in the following Collection(s) No. 3: Summer, 1996 Item Statistics Statistics Report Contact Us | Send Feedback | University Library | Technology Services | Office of the Provost | Privacy Notice Copyright © 2005-2013 University of Illinois W3C XHTML 1.0 | W3C CSS | DSpace Most icons borrowed from: FamFamFam   
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hdl-handle-net-8051	----	Academic Research Portals: Integrating Librarians and Academic Programs   Mason Archival Repository Service Academic Research Portals: Integrating Librarians and Academic Programs Login MARS Home → University Libraries → Papers and Publications, University Libraries → View Item JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it. Academic Research Portals: Integrating Librarians and Academic Programs Grotophorst, Wally URI: https://hdl.handle.net/1920/5972 Date: 2010-09-23 Abstract: Presentation reports on the Research Portals project at University Libraries. Winner of a Campus Innovator award from Campus Techology magazine in August 2009, the origins of the program are discussed. Also covers the technology used. This presentation was given to the Library Advisory Committee of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia on September 24, 2010. Show full item record Files in this item Name: ResearchPortals20 ... Size: 20.12Mb Format: PDF View/Open This item appears in the following Collection(s) Papers and Publications, University Libraries Papers and publications by University Libraries faculty members Search MARS Search MARS This Collection Browse All of MARS Communities & Collections By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects This Collection By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects My Account Login Register Statistics View Usage Statistics MARS runs on DSpace copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace Contact Us | Send Feedback   
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howlround-com-906	----	The Promise of the Commons | HowlRound Theatre Commons Skip to main content Menu Home About Participate All Topics Featured Topics Anti-Racist Theatre Commons-based Approaches COVID-19 Series Journal Video Podcasts Latinx Theatre Commons Convenings Playwright Residency Contact Us Donate Search Header About Us Contribute Content Log In Recommended A Very Very Very Serious Clown from Lebanon Sabine Choucair, Amrita Dhaliwal, Nathaniel Justiniano Most Discussed National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation Friday 20 November 2020 Most Watched Trans [Plays] of Remembrance Short Play Festival (Live-captioned) Monday 16 November to Wednesday 18 November Upcoming Livestreaming a Conversation: Dancehall Reggae and the Nettleford Effect Sunday 29 November 2020 Essay by Javiera Benavente Liza Bielby David Bollier Jamie Gahlon Jax Gil Matthew Glassman Richard Newman Gina Reichert Jennie Rose Halperin JD Stokely Carlos Uriona The Promise of the Commons 10 October 2019 Essay by Javiera Benavente Liza Bielby David Bollier Jamie Gahlon Jax Gil Matthew Glassman Richard Newman Gina Reichert Jennie Rose Halperin JD Stokely Carlos Uriona As defined by On the Commons: “The commons is a new way to express a very old idea—that some forms of wealth belong to all of us, and that these community resources must be actively protected and managed for the good of all.” Put simply, the commons is a community- stewarded resource that can be environmental, digital, or even shared knowledge. On 7 December 2018, HowlRound Theatre Commons hosted a group of artists, activists, and cultural organizers at Emerson College to discuss the promise of the commons and its relevance in the arts and culture sector. This group included members from the Hinterlands and PowerHouse Productions in Detroit, Michigan; the Ethics and the Common Good Project and the Schumacher Center for a New Economics in Amherst, Massachusetts; Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts; independent artists and organizers; and the HowlRound Theatre Commons team in Boston, Massachusetts. While our December convening was the first official gathering of the Arts, Culture, and Commoning working group, many of us had begun organizing together since 2017. We presented our work and found each other at conferences (like the Common Field Convening in Los Angeles in 2017, the US Department of Art and Cuture's CULTURE/SHIFT 2018 in Albuquerque, and the Creative Commons Global Summit 2018 in Los Angeles, we gathered to watch performances and lectures, and, most importantly, we began to collectively dream of the power of commoning to create new worlds. Slowly our group formed and the work began to take root. What unites us is a strong belief that the commons, when coupled with the power of art and culture, can dramatically impact the challenges of our time. In honor of World Commons Week 2019, we’d like to share our collective vision and process for this work. And if you also work at the intersection of art, culture, and commoning, we’d love to hear from you. Arts, Culture, and Commoning Convening. 7 December 2018. Photo by Blair Nodelman. Who We Are We are a group of United States–based artists and cultural workers interested in using commons-based approaches to transform the landscape of arts and culture toward equity, abundance, and interdependence as part of a social movement engaged in and in conversation with this urgent moment. Cooperation, collaboration, mutuality, and co-creation bring us together. We imagine an arts field that brings to life the values and practices of the commons, orienting us toward societal transformation and values-based artistic practice. The commons is a living system that invites people to address their shared needs with minimal reliance on markets. The values and principles that guide the rules of community resource-sharing are based on fairness, inclusion, and responsible stewardship over the long-term. "A commons is something that belongs to us all, a communally held resource from which no one can be excluded, and for which we are all responsible. ...art, literature, and ideas are a commons." - New Commons Project The Role of Art in Shifting Culture It is our belief that art can and must play a significant role in shaping culture. The current moment is urgent and emergent—through accessing the shared power of ritual, stories, images, and sound, we can help ourselves and others learn, grow, and gain profound insights. These creative rituals instill and renew in us a sense of meaning and purpose, connecting us to one another and re-rooting us in our shared humanity. Art and artists play an important role in helping people process and grieve inevitable collapses of our current systems and institutions in a culture of disempowerment, disconnection, isolation, disembodiment, distraction, and anxiety. Art is a powerful antidote as a force for social cohesion, embodiment, sustainability, and mutuality. Art catalyzes imagination, creativity, and cooperation in any culture, informing the character of social, economic, and political realities. In recognition of the destructive nature of capitalism, we seek to make art that questions the prevailing capitalist framework and looks to the commons for alternative forms. “Large-scale problems do not require large-scale solutions; they require small-scale solutions within a large-scale framework.” -  David Fleming Arts, Culture, and Commoning Convening. 7 December 2018. Photo by Blair Nodelman. Vision, Mission, Principles, and Process We propose an alternate vision for the arts and culture field: to develop new ways of sharing resources, collaborating across boundaries, and engaging with larger movements for the liberated exchange of resources needed to live dignified and joyful lives in right relationship with one another and the planet. Our mission is to activate artists, cultural workers, and organizations toward living the principles of the commons and transform social, economic, and political realities—including the creation of new infrastructures and institutions—to facilitate commoning practices. We are not alone in this work. Other organizations are creating, connecting, and leading the charge for the commons, and it is our intention to work together as a community and network of changemakers. As our work grows, we will continue to document the initiatives that move us forward and map the many projects, organizations, people, and events that advance our mission. To consolidate this process and set new goals, we will convene an Arts, Culture and Commoning Summit in the 2020–21 season. We will develop strategies with artistic communities, share knowledge generously, and harvest collective wisdom in reimagining the life of artistic work in our culture. Bookmark this page Log in to add a bookmark Email this Page Share this Page on Facebook Share this Page on Twitter Print Print this Page Topics Commons-based Approaches Diversity, Inclusion, Visibility Massachusetts Michigan Interested in following this conversation in real time? Receive email alerting you to new threads and the continuation of current threads. subscribe Comments 0 Add Comment The article is just the start of the conversation—we want to know what you think about this subject, too! HowlRound is a space for knowledge-sharing, and we welcome spirited, thoughtful, and on-topic dialogue. 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inalj-com-127	----	Dealing with Imposter Syndrome and Feeling Like You Belong | INALJ Search for: INALJ The nexus of information professionals and information potential / Library and LIS jobs Main menu Skip to content INALJ Jobs About Naomi House, resumé INALJ Fundraiser 2020 Librarians Abroad Interviews 2020 Non-Library Jobs Interviews Sub menu INALJ Jobs Post a Job Articles Mission Awards & Recognitions Stats Sponsor INALJ Contact Articles Dealing with Imposter Syndrome and Feeling Like You Belong May 8, 2014 by Clare Sobotka, Head Editor, INALJ Idaho Dealing with Imposter Syndrome and Feeling Like You Belong I’d like to introduce something that I have struggled with in starting out in the field of librarianship. For my first library-related job after graduation with my MLS, I struggled with the feeling that once I had been working for a short time the people that hired me would feel disappointed and realize that they had picked the wrong person. In my mind, I didn’t know what I was doing, I had no experience, and didn’t they know there were so many better people out there? As it turns out, these feelings are so common that they are known as imposter syndrome. I came across the term sometime last year, and once I understood what imposter syndrome was about, I felt more confident that some of my feelings of insecurity stemmed from this particular mental phenomenon rather than a real mismatch with my job. I wish someone had told me about imposter syndrome at the beginning of college, so I think there is merit in becoming familiar with the concept sooner rather than later. Perhaps you will recognize it in yourself! So what is imposter syndrome? Generally speaking, it is the feeling that you aren’t cut out for the position you are in, that you are a fraud and don’t know what you are doing, and that you will be found out. Even though you are competent, you feel as if others will discover that you accidentally arrived in this role and really shouldn’t be performing the job. It can manifest itself in other ways: chalking up your success to luck or discounting your own success (you didn’t really put in that much effort). This feeling can be strong even for those already deemed “successful,” including published scientists and CEOs. It affects both men and women, students, and those just starting a career as well as established and respected workers. Some tips for dealing with imposter syndrome: 1. “Fake it till you make it.” It has been run into the ground, but keeping the old adage in mind can help. As a beginning professional or as someone starting a new job you may feel uncertain of yourself, but sometimes you just have to get started or you won’t accomplish anything. Or people will talk to you like you know what you are all about. Pretend they are right. 2. Give it time. Getting more experiences under your belt help alleviate some of these feelings as a beginning professional. You can even be extra pro-active and decide to shore up your self-confidence with some new skills. However, for some people the feeling never entirely goes away or may reappear at times, such as when you begin a new job or an ambitious project. 3. Ask questions and ask for help. Most librarians are open and friendly about answering questions and providing guidance. No one expects you to know everything right away in a new job, or even when you have been in an established position. They also recognize that everyone makes mistakes. 4. Realize that you are not alone. In general, most people have insecurities, and so many people experience imposter syndrome at some point in their lives that it is quite normal. Read through some of the articles below and their comments for variations on how people experience imposter syndrome. 5. Acknowledge that there is always someone better than you at certain things, and remind yourself of it periodically. There will always be a person you know of with more experience, or who does more activities, or who stretches the boundaries more. People who are more efficient and more professional than you. But that’s okay. No one is perfect and there is no reason you should be either. Also, remember that people you work with didn’t become brilliant overnight; they’ve had years to develop some of the skills they have. If you feel that you struggle with imposter syndrome and it might be holding you back, it might help to have someone to talk to. Ask for help from a mentor or licensed professional such as a therapist or counselor. Here are articles that elaborate more on the subject, but plenty more can be found on the internet: “Imposter Syndrome: When You Might Be A Fraud” by Alison Green “Do You Suffer From Imposter Syndrome?” by Olivia Fox Cabane “Do You Suffer From The Imposter Syndrome?” by Morty Lefkoe “The Imposter Syndrome” by Caltech Counseling Center “Imposter Syndrome: When You Feel Like You’re Faking It” (PDF) by Rose O. Sherman Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Print Pocket More Reddit Tumblr Tags:advice article blog clare sobotka imposter syndrome inalj idaho what is imposter syndrome Post navigation ← The Ins and Outs of Unconferences Sponsorship is the New Black →   3 comments for “Dealing with Imposter Syndrome and Feeling Like You Belong” Comments are closed. Keywords for Job Searching A list of terms for searching for jobs related to library skills/labor. 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infomational-com-1932	----	on information privilege. – info-mational Skip to content Search Search for: info-mational a sometimes blog about mostly libraries Menu about contact and cv presentations publications Open Search on information privilege. The concept of information privilege situates information literacy in a sociocultural context of justice and access. Information as the media and messages that underlie individual and collective awareness and knowledge building; privilege as the advantages, opportunities, rights, and affordances granted by status and positionality via class, race, gender, culture, sexuality, occupation, institutional affiliation, and political perspective. In an extended period of relative disengagement with writing I have started and stopped and restarted this post so many times that it’s become a bit ridiculous, but based on the interest generated by discussions of information privilege in my teaching and speaking contexts it’s clearly time to finish. An approach that’s guided my own work for some time, I explored this framing of information literacy in depth in a closing keynote address (see video and slides) at the 2013 Digital Library Federation Forum in Austin – easily one of the most satisfying talks I’ve given to date. Grounding my argument was the idea that information (and all) privilege must be recognized and challenged by those working in libraries and allied fields as problematic, and used as a guiding principle in the design of resources and methods that combat the division between those who can and cannot access what we create and curate. information privilege in practice A powerful example of the importance of circumventing information underprivilege in my own career came in the form of a friend of friends who made an avocation of traveling around the country leading workshops on fermentation, with a profoundly evidence-based orientation to the work. He lived in an isolated rural location without recourse to the research base he needed to inform an ongoing writing project, and so reached out to librarians and others with the necessary credentials to help him secure obscure articles from back issues of scientific journals. This content would have translated to untold thousands of dollars if he had followed the traditional routes available to him, and if those contacted for off-the-grid support had not taken the time to do him a series of modest solids he would not have been able to produce this amazing, best-selling fermentation bible. For the institutionally unaffiliated and indefatigably curious this is a commonplace scenario, and librarians and other information professionals are best equipped to shift the dynamic towards a freer flow of knowledge unattached to markers of access privilege. Who among us has not had a similar experience and responded in kind? Our responses take institutional as well as individual forms – consider Radical Reference, Creative Commons, the Open Access movement, and countless acts of community support and defiance that attempt to liberate constraints to informed inquiry in spite of the potential consequences. Any type of information worker can examine this phenomenon and develop strategies to counter it. Based on my educational orientation to librarianship I most often approach information privilege in teaching and learning scenarios, and in practice it is the most effective framework I have identified to engage learners and collaborators with a wide range of skills and perspectives that constitute (critical) information literacy. Presenting information literacy through a lens of privilege problematizes and connects individuals with what can easily become a worn, procedural, and overly didactic series of concepts (worse: tools). More importantly, it exposes the fallibility of assumptions about information and its ecology, identifies hidden injustices, encourages more open forms of participation in a knowledge polity, critiques the information-for-profit imperative, and demands the examination of personal and institutional privilege within scholarly (and not so scholarly) communication. information privilege as pedagogy A growing focus on critical and feminist pedagogies[1] in libraryland combined with the prevalence of threshold concepts in ACRL’s information literacy framework revision[2] creates the potential to connect our conceptual base to powerful dialogues across other fields of inquiry. Challenging unquestioned and entrenched social and structural systems through information privilege thus becomes a library application of feminist and critical pedagogy, and an on-the-ground means of encouraging IL threshold experiences among our learners, educators, and colleagues. Considering inquiry, evaluation, attribution, communication, and authority and other facets of information literacy through a critical lens has the potential to build important connections to larger frames of understanding. It is important to share additional background on underlying ideas that can inform an educational orientation to information privilege. Feminist pedagogy attempts to expose, critique, and flatten power-based learning, gender, and social hierarchies, while the closely related construct of critical pedagogy seeks to disestablish ideological systems that oppress and repress. Critical and feminist positions play out directly in learning interactions by challenging behaviorist and cognitivist assumptions of authority in teaching, extending their critiques of social and power dynamics to learning spaces. This results in a far more revolutionary classroom ‘flip’ than its oft-discussed technological counterpart: learners become facilitators in the sense that they are challenged to enrich educational spaces in pursuit of critical insight into the systems that surround them. In the simplest terms, we are critical educators when we compel ourselves and others to think about power and privilege, and we are feminist educators when we dig beneath the status quo of our content and identify justice-focused approaches to engaging learners in a process of safe/radical self- and system-examination. These are beautiful ideas, but like any theory they can feel detached from immediate practice. Rather than adopting a completely new set of beliefs and approaches, implementing information privilege as an element of library discourse can be as simple as examining how you understand and approach information literacy, and identifying ways to explore underlying assumptions in dialogue with learners and/or colleagues in order to encourage this process of questioning more broadly. A few examples from my own experience follow. scaling the paywall This semester I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with a fabulous Pomona mathematics professor, Gizem Karaali, on a new first-year seminar course called Education and its Discontents. My role in this course ranged from contributing to the development of the syllabus to co-facilitating discussions as well as workshops related to specific research-based writing assignments. I am not often able to embed with a group of students to this depth, and combined with the subject matter this context offered an opportunity to examine information privilege as a process of inquiry informed by social justice and as an applied critical pedagogy. Several early weeks of course readings were devoted to critical/feminist/progressive theorists such as bell hooks, Paulo Freire, and John Dewey, which provided a foundation of questioning privilege and the role of education in liberation, anti-racism, and fostering functional democracies. Listening to students grapple with education from perspectives in conflict with their personal experience as learners has been fascinating, especially so in a seminar environment that encouraged all contributions as valid to discourse by a professor likewise engaged in a process of self-education about the subject matter (embodying critical and feminist pedagogy, in other words). hooks and Freire provided a perfect segue to our first IL-related workshop, which I opened by challenging the fallacy that information is free by diagramming the library’s multi-million dollar materials budget against the “open web,” then facilitated a discussion about the implications of a system in which significant areas of knowledge are available to a privileged few (e.g., them). This may seem like a counterintuitive approach, but among my students it was a literally jaw-dropping illustration of a paywall that none of them knew existed. Choice responses (mirrored in other classrooms where I’ve used this approach) included: “Why in the world does it cost so much?” “It doesn’t make sense!” “You mean all libraries have to pay like this?” “Why can’t we use this stuff after we graduate?” And so forth – this is a perfect illustration of a threshold concept at work. Problematizing assumptions about information access isn’t really possible without examining the profit drivers that exist beneath the mechanism of scholarship, which opens topics ranging from open access to privacy to intellectual freedom to the digital divide – all easily identifiable incarnations of information privilege in lived experience. From this point in the workshop, discovering and evaluating scholarship in support of an assignment took a very different tone, undergirded by a sense of responsibility afforded to students by their own institutional privilege. Call it information gravitas. wikipedia as participatory action I have long held the opinion that far too much student work disappears into a sort of curricular black box; learners in higher education are typically asked to create isolated products meant not to inform but to mimic a scholarly conversation going on somewhere just above their heads. One facet of challenging information privilege is involving students in a process of leveraging institutional resources to create products that contribute to a broader public discourse (as opposed to ending up in recycling bins and/or behind closed institutional doors). In its dual role as public knowledgebase and lightning rod for skeptical scholars, Wikipedia provides a touchstone for conversations about accuracy and authority and a means to engage students with these questions in their own work. In Spring of 2014 I had the pleasure of watching the most recent crop of student-created Wikipedia articles come to fruition in a long-running course collaboration with my Claremont Colleges Library colleague Sara Lowe and Prof. Amanda Hollis-Brusky of Pomona College. The articles, all expanded “stubs” from the Wikipedia Politics portal, were painstakingly crafted through multiple rounds of feedback in the most intensive and effective information literacy assignment I have ever had a hand in designing. The LA Times did a wonderful student-focused write-up of this and similar projects this summer, and I’ve discussed the Wikipedia collaboration several times before as well. I encourage you to take a look at the assignment structure via our Wikipedia Education Program course page. These articles have been viewed hundreds to thousands of times since their completion: 1 – FairVote 2 – Clean Diamond Trade Act 3 – Federalist No. 70 4 – Consent decree 5 – Bob Jones University v. Simon 6 – First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti The reality of a reading public predominantly without institutional entrées makes Wikipedia-based assignments excellent fodder for engaging information privilege, not to mention strong motivators for the production of quality work. The power of this process is the mind-bending leaps students must master to do it well, including “neutral” and non-argumentative writing, rigorous and impartial substantiation, coding, OA sourcing where and whenever possible, and group content creation. To get a sense of the rigor that we expect of these first and second-year students, review the reference list on any of the articles, where you’ll see a breadth and depth of sourcing unusual even for advanced undergraduate research. The Wiki Education Foundation is supporting these course collaborations to improve Wikipedia through student brainpower and institutional knowledge access, a smart move in a concerted effort to sharpen and deepen Wikipedia’s collective knowledgebase. Wikipedia editing is only one way to encourage students and faculty to produce participatory work that leverages paywalled information resources for the public good – encouraging capstone and other student project uploads to OA repositories is another (see 1 and 2 for more on this). working through information privilege Questioning underlying assumptions takes effort, but effort is far more compelling than internalizing and reproducing obligatory tasks. Due to prevailing cultural and media narratives, information is far too easily seen as universally accessible until its nuances are critically examined. By encouraging learners to wrap their minds around information imbalances from personal and relative perspectives, I have observed a greater sense of responsibility toward the effective application of IL concepts, as well as increased insight into the importance of open access. At their best, libraries are an institutional form of social justice that equalize information availability and provide safe public space for learning and doing. At their worst, they perpetuate inequities and apportion resources among the intellectually sanctioned. In an increasingly activist profession, working with a recognition of information privilege can motivate those of us who labor to preserve access to information to take steps such as challenging draconian licensing agreements, moving accessible and usable design to the forefront of development processes, and supporting students, scholars, and all others identify strategies to circumvent their barriers (known and unknown) that keep certain ideas trapped behind paywalls or impenetrable design. It’s my belief that this ethic can and should support libraries in our fight to remain relevant at one of many pivotal moments in our trajectory. Perhaps the best way to confront information privilege is to work from an understanding that it undergirds the efforts of libraries and wider knowledge production. If you seek to address structural information inequities, it is essential to develop a professional value system that perceives and opposes injustices not only within our institutions, but beyond them. In this sense information privilege is not just about asking our students to examine themselves and their position behind the paywall, it is about informing the way we collaborate, design, manage, lead, and advocate. For most of us, this will mean examining our own privilege and how we have been teaching and working in information contexts thus far. We can begin by asking ourselves simple questions – how do I approach access and authority in my practice? Do I broach subjects like inequity or justice? What can I do to develop a more open sense of access? As always, onward and upward. [1] See Accardi, Drabinski, & Kumbier (2010); Elmborg (2006); and Accardi (2013). [2] See http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/?page_id=133. — Many thanks to Lia Friedman for her limitless editorial acumen. Like this: Like Loading... Related Published by char booth char is a displaced texan & avid oceanite living in southern california. View all posts by char booth 2014-12-01 critical information literacy academic libraries, critical pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, information literacy, information privilege Post navigation grappling with glass: (mis)adventures in wearable technology.   allyship, community, and tools for change: social justice summit keynote (part 1 of 3). 10 thoughts on “on information privilege.” Add yours alist says: 2014-12-05 at 11:21 am Reblogged this on Alice R. Daer. Reply Pingback: Privilege in the Framework | Peer to Peer Review Lisa Foley says: 2015-03-17 at 11:46 am I appreciate this post on information privilege, in particular, as it relates to incarcerated students our colleges and universities work with. If anyone has ideas for helping inmates improve their information privileges, especially for those who are incarcerated college students, please contact me. Lisa Foley Founder of the Incarcerated Student Program at Lake Tahoe Community College Library Director foley@ltcc.edu Reply Pingback: Equity and the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy | Two-Year Talk justindlc says: 2015-04-30 at 6:48 am Thank you very much for writing about this and linking to your keynote address. Very inspiring stuff. Reply Pingback: Berrypicking and Containers for Information | Open Book Librarian Pingback: November Discussion Post – Jonathan Senchyne Pingback: STARGazing: Meet Heidi Nance – RUSA Update Pingback: Open for whom? Challenging information privilege in social work – Open Social Work Pingback: “Information Has Value”: The Political Economy of Information Capitalism | Todays News and Updates Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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jaenarae-com-5556	----	Jaena Rae – Parading my nerdy bits. Skip to content Jaena Rae Parading my nerdy bits. Toggle Sidebar June 16, 2020 Black Lives Matter Continue reading → May 17, 2020 2020 is a wash. Continue reading → May 6, 2020May 6, 2020 Quarantine Care Continue reading → Posts navigation ← Older posts Menu Work Journalism Libraryland Personal Project 52 About Résumé Contact Tweets @GinaMurrell1 They look just like my kitties! 1 day ago RT @SFPublicLibrary: "I love Rock 'n' Roll!" Great! Put another dime in the #BiblioBoutique webform and Librarian Kristin will create a sta… 1 day ago Today I honor those who were here before us. I recognize that I celebrate on Ohlone Ramaytush land. Whose land are… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 day ago Sometimes I still listen to @kylo_rich's "This is 30" playlist because it reminds me of when I was a lot more idealistic. 2 days ago Follow @jaenaraeGoodreads Instagram Create a website or blog at WordPress.com Post to Cancel 
jl4d-org-1272	----	View of Changing our (Dis)Course: A Distinctive Social Justice Aligned Definition of Open Education | Journal of Learning for Development Return to Article Details Changing our (Dis)Course: A Distinctive Social Justice Aligned Definition of Open Education 
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jps-library-utoronto-ca-7347	----	Decolonization is not a metaphor | Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer Current Archives Announcements About About the Journal Submissions Editorial Team Contact Search Search Register Login Home / Archives / Vol 1 No 1 (2012) / Articles Decolonization is not a metaphor Eve Tuck State University of New York at New Paltz K. Wayne Yang University of California, San Diego Keywords: decolonization, settler colonialism, settler moves to innocence, incommensurability, Indigenous land, decolonizing education Abstract Our goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. The easy adoption of decolonizing discourse by educational advocacy and scholarship, evidenced by the increasing number of calls to “decolonize our schools,” or use “decolonizing methods,” or, “decolonize student thinking”, turns decolonization into a metaphor. As important as their goals may be, social justice, critical methodologies, or approaches that decenter settler perspectives have objectives that may be incommensurable with decolonization. Because settler colonialism is built upon an entangled triad structure of settler-native-slave, the decolonial desires of white, non-white, immigrant, postcolonial, and oppressed people, can similarly be entangled in resettlement, reoccupation, and reinhabitation that actually further settler colonialism. The metaphorization of decolonization makes possible a set of evasions, or “settler moves to innocence”, that problematically attempt to reconcile settler guilt and complicity, and rescue settler futurity. In this article, we analyze multiple settler moves towards innocence in order to forward “an ethic of incommensurability” that recognizes what is distinct and what is sovereign for project(s) of decolonization in relation to human and civil rights based social justice projects. We also point to unsettling themes within transnational/Third World decolonizations, abolition, and critical space-place pedagogies, which challenge the coalescence of social justice endeavors, making room for more meaningful potential alliances. PDF Published 2012-09-08 Issue Vol 1 No 1 (2012) Section Articles Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). Call for Submissions Submit Your Work   Tweets by dies_journal   
letsqueerthingsup-com-1972	----	7 Subtle Signs Your Trauma Response is to ‘Fawn’ – Let's Queer Things Up! Facebook Twitter Instagram Sam FB Email Let's Queer Things Up! Mental health & recovery with sam dylan finch Menu About Sam mental health transgender LGBTQ self-care identity Contact Us Mental Health, self-care 7 Subtle Signs Your Trauma Response is to ‘Fawn’ July 6, 2019July 6, 2019by Sam Dylan Finch Last month, I wrote about the fourth type of trauma response — not fight, flight, or even freeze, but fawn. The term was first coined by therapist and survivor Pete Walker, who wrote about it in his groundbreaking book “Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving.” And let me tell you, as a concept, it thoroughly changed the game for me. In a nutshell, “fawning” is the use of people-pleasing to diffuse conflict, feel more secure in relationships, and earn the approval of others. It’s a maladaptive way of creating safety in our connections with others by essentially mirroring the imagined expectations and desires of other people. Often times, it stems from traumatic experiences early on in life, as I described in last month’s article. It resonated with so many you, and since then, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how to recognize this type of response in ourselves, particularly in our day-to-day interactions. I can only speak from personal experience, but there are a number of commonalities among “fawn” types that I think are worth noting. I’m going to share seven struggles that a lot of us seem to experience as people-pleasers. If it sounds familiar, you, my friend, probably know a thing or two about fawning. 1. You struggle to feel ‘seen’ by others. If you’re a fawn type, you’re likely very focused on showing up in in a way that makes those around you feel comfortable, and in more toxic relationships, to avoid conflict. But the downside to this is that you’re not necessarily being your most authentic self. The more you fawn and appease others, the more likely you are to feel unknown to others, even in your close relationships. If no one sees your authentic self, it can lead to feelings of being misunderstood, and even resenting the fact that no one really “sees” you. The painful irony is that often times, you’re the one obscuring their ability to see you in the first place. 2. You don’t know how to say ‘no’ to people. Fawn types are almost always stretched thin. This is because we’re so eager to make others happy, we blurt out “of course!” and “yes!” before it even occurs to us to say “I can’t right now” or “no thanks.” Your catchphrase might even be something like “it’s no trouble at all, really!” Meanwhile, you’re silently dreading the mountain of favors you’ve signed up for — a list that only seems to get longer as the day wears on. You’ve got a love/hate relationship with being helpful, and no matter how many times you try to break up with the word “yes,” saying “no” just doesn’t come naturally to you. 3. You’re either spewing emotions out of nowhere or unloading them onto distant strangers. This might seem paradoxical, but it’s not, if you really think about it. You want to make those closest to you happy, which means you’re reluctant to open up when you’re struggling — so you only do so when you’re on the brink of totally breaking down, because you’ve held it all in for far too long. On the other hand, distance makes it easier to have feelings, too. Which is why people we’ve just met can suddenly become as intimate as a best friend in a single conversation (and why I became a blogger, let’s be real). A kind stranger in a bar? Sure, I’ll tell you all about my trauma. Oh, here’s a Twitter thread about the worst thing that ever happened to me. Here’s a frightening Facebook SOS— I mean, status. We need an outlet for our emotions, but having emotions can be sooo off-putting, right? So we unload them onto people we aren’t yet invested in, that we won’t see again, or where a safe distance (like on social media) is in place. That way, if someone bails on us for being messy or “too much” — otherwise known as being human — it stings less, and the stakes don’t feel as high. 4. You feel guilty when you’re angry at other people. You might make a lot of excuses for the lousy behavior of other people, defaulting to self-blame. You might get angry, only to feel like an Actual Monster for having feelings at all five minutes later. You might even feel like you’re not “allowed” to be upset with other people. I did this just recently when I was almost hit by a car, and immediately went to a place of wondering if I’d simply misunderstood what happened. It’s pretty hard to “misunderstand” someone hitting the gas pedal when you’re crossing in front of their car, but I was convinced that somehow, some way, it had to be my fault. If you struggle to get mad at people, opting instead to blame yourself or justify someone’s cruddy behavior, you’re actually fawning — because you’re pushing your feelings down, and rewriting the story, all in an effort to appease the other person involved. 5. You feel responsible for other people’s reactions. Whenever I recommend a restaurant or a book to someone, there’s a moment or two of intense panic. “What if they hate it?” I wonder. “What if it’s not as good as I remember?” Sometimes I just let other people make decisions on where we go and what we do together, because if something goes awry, it won’t be because I “failed” to make a good choice. I once felt guilty because a friend of mine spent thirty minutes looking for parking near the cafe I chose to meet them at. As if I somehow control whether or not a parking space is available. It’s a little nuts if you think about it, right? Because you can’t arrange someone else’s tastebuds, magically know their book preferences, or anticipate whether or not that art exhibit you want to see is actually worth going to. Yet I take a ridiculous amount of responsibility for whether or not people are having a good time — so much so that I forget that I’m supposed to be enjoying myself, too. This is just another sneaky manifestation of the “fawn” response in action (and a dash of codependency added in there, for good measure). We’re trying to anticipate someone else’s happiness, because deep down, we feel responsible for it — and are trying everything in our power to ensure that the people we care about aren’t disappointed. 6. You find yourself compromising your values. This can be difficult to notice at first. You might think of yourself as being agreeable, good at compromise, easy to get along with. But if you pay attention to the conversations you’re having, you might notice you’re a little too agreeable — to the point of validating viewpoints that you don’t really, fully agree with. Sometimes it’s benign things, like saying you don’t have a preference for where you get dinner when you actually do. Other times it’s a deeper issue, like validating a perspective or behavior that you don’t agree with. “Sure, the sexism in that movie really only bothered me a little bit, but you’re so right, the cinematography was top-notch.” “Oh yeah, she probably isn’t being a good friend to you, I can see why you sent that angry text.” If you find yourself sitting on the fence as not to upset anyone, you’re likely fawning to some degree — and it might be time to self-reflect on whether or not you feel okay continuing to do so. 7. You sometimes dissociate in social situations. Fawning often requires that we shut down emotionally. The less we have distinct feelings of our own, the easier it is to adapt to and accommodate the emotions of other people. Sometimes this can lead to dissociating, where we disconnect emotionally. This can show up as daydreaming, spacing out, withdrawing, or even “going blank” when we’re overwhelmed in social situations. This is also why fawn types can relate so much to other trauma responses, like flight or freeze. If we feel that “fawning” is failing us in an argument, that it won’t work with a particular person, or that we just don’t know how to please someone, we might check out emotionally, or rely on other “escapist” mechanisms so that we no longer have to engage. We’re more prone to anything that involves dissociation because we’re already distancing ourselves from our own emotions for the sake of others. Sound familiar? I think I need to put “Fawning Isn’t Fun” on a t-shirt or something, because it’s true: It sucks. It can be painful to constantly silence yourself and push your emotions away, all while working overtime to anticipate the emotions of other people. A number of people have asked of fawning, “Isn’t this manipulative?” But I think that misses the point. It’s disempowering, it stems from pain, and guilt is simply not an effective way of motivating people to unpack their trauma and show up differently for the people they care about. But hopefully, if you start by noticing these patterns in your life, and have the opportunity to work with an awesome therapist, you can begin to reorient yourself toward a more authentic, fulfilling way of connecting with others. Looking for more? If you’re looking for more about fawning and how to challenge it, in addition to reading Pete’s book and the articles I’ve published around this, I also put together a zine for my patrons on Patreon that offers some actionable advice! The zine includes writing prompts and guidance on how to notice this mechanism as it relates to your own life. And it’s really pretty, so if you’re a design nerd like me, you’ll probably appreciate it. A lot of you have asked if you could chip in to support my work. Supporting me on Patreon is the best way to ensure that I can keep creating free mental health resources, so hop on over if you’re interested! Either way, please know that I’m right there with you in this messy, complicated journey. It does get easier, though — I can promise you that. And for what it’s worth, I’m proud of every one of you for taking steps to show up differently. It’s tough work, but you deserve to feel whole and seen in every relationship you have. You work so hard to offer that compassion to others — why not offer that to yourself? Sam Dylan Finch is the blogger behind Let’s Queer Things Up!, where he writes about mental health, body positivity, and LGBTQ+ identity. He’s also the Editor of mental health and chronic conditions at Healthline. As an advocate, he’s passionate about building community for people in recovery. You can find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or learn more at samdylanfinch.com. Photo by Clarisse Meyer on Unsplash. Share this: Tweet Share on Tumblr Pocket Email Like this: Like Loading... Related complex PTSD complex trauma fawn fawning trauma Post navigation Patients of size are being harmed in ED recovery. This printable resource aims to help. I’m Giving My Eating Disorder Away 25 thoughts on “7 Subtle Signs Your Trauma Response is to ‘Fawn’” mirrorgirl says: July 6, 2019 at 1:39 pm I hadn’t heard about the forth response, so this was useful new information ! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply mirrorgirl says: July 6, 2019 at 1:40 pm Could I reblog this post ? LikeLike Reply Sam Dylan Finch says: July 6, 2019 at 2:50 pm Sure thing! 🙂 LikeLike Reply bobcabkings says: July 6, 2019 at 1:52 pm Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented: Sam Dylan French expands on the discussion of “Fawning” as a trauma response. LikeLike Reply crazybutttricia says: July 6, 2019 at 2:23 pm It seems like just when I think I’ve figured things out something else comes into my line of vision and shows me that there is indeed another layer. It’s so incredible to find out that behaviors I have practiced (without any knowledge I was doing so) for most of my life have an actual name now, and that I’m not crazy when I feel unseen or unheard. It’s been a common theme in many of my relationships, with my family and definitely with my ex. This is a revelation for me, thank you for sharing it and writing about it. I knew that I had more work to do on myself, but this adds an entirely new layer. The more you know. ❤ LikeLiked by 2 people Reply Pingback: 7 SUBTLE SIGNS YOUR TRAUMA RESPONSE IS TO ‘FAWN’ « Mirrorgirl Yewtree says: July 7, 2019 at 6:35 am This is such a great article. I’m sort of halfway out of this. I seek to avoid conflict, and push back a bit when attacked, but then spend hours afterwards worrying whether I was right. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Pingback: Flexible Vegan kkroberts@surewest.net says: July 7, 2019 at 5:56 pm I have never heard of this but it sure fits me to a tee, and if you don’t mind, I am forwarding this to my amazing therapist because I absolutely think this is something I need to work on before I either drift away or pop right out of existence. Thanks so much for all you do and confront and bravely share. Wait, was that a fawn if I meant it? Shit. Now I’m confused. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Elocin says: July 19, 2019 at 8:30 am This is basically a description of enneagram type 9 and I resonate with this so much. Thank you for the passage 🙂 it speaks to me and makes me reflect on my fawning habit. LikeLike Reply amandamacwriting says: September 5, 2019 at 10:07 pm This resonates with me so much when I reflect on growing up. Remembering how I used to be also helps me give myself credit for how far I’ve come today though. Thank you for this piece! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply S says: November 7, 2019 at 5:55 am Thank you for writing this! I think it’s very important for many people to hear. If you want to, I think you could write a really good book about the fawning response! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Pingback: How To Feel Your Feelings And Why You Should Try Gayla Bartelme says: November 25, 2019 at 2:45 pm Dear Sam, First I want to say OMG! I didn’t know there was a term for this. This is so me!! I didn’t starve, but turned to food to feel complete. Thank you so much for this. I just ordered your book. Gayla Bartelme LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Ali says: January 1, 2020 at 6:53 pm I really enjoyed this. Thanks 🙂 LikeLiked by 1 person Reply halie says: January 2, 2020 at 9:30 pm Sam, I am sitting here literally speechless, wondering why in the hell I’m just now reading this glorious post!! every word, every sentence…. is me. and you explained all of this so well, and for the first time, I think ever, it make sense and someone else deals with this same thing. forever thankful for you, Sam.. and well, facebook for “recommending” this read!! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Brittany Foster (@britraefost) says: January 17, 2020 at 7:11 am Wow it took me over an hour to read this because it is SO HARD to look directly into a mirror of ourselves. I have a lot to think about. LikeLike Reply Pingback: 7 Subtle Signs Your Trauma Response is to ‘Fawn’ – Phoenix Ascended Pingback: 5 Ways I'm Unlearning My 'Fawn' Response – Let's Queer Things Up! A_drea_juarez says: February 8, 2020 at 8:01 am First off, loved the piece. We queer folk do have our defensive mechanisms and that term “fawning” is as it says – sucks. Either way, I found your article because some dude was trying to add me and when I looked a little at their profile realized that it wasn’t who they said they were. Googling the picture – brought me to you. So not sure if your photo was taken personally by you (or is a friend) but this person is using it as their profile picture. I wished I could have sent you the screen shot – but their name is Richard Adam. I am also a photographer besides being a writer and I hate that people just tend to steal things and pretend to be someone they are not. Anywhooo-have a great weekend and will be reading your pieces. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Sam Dylan Finch says: February 10, 2020 at 4:28 pm Thanks for letting me know! This happens to me a lot, and it’s so weird, because I’m not sure what motivates them to use my photos specifically when there are so many people out there to choose from, haha. I’ll see if I can find them and report! LikeLike Reply Alex Squire says: February 10, 2020 at 11:05 pm You just described my whole adult life! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Steve says: March 17, 2020 at 9:24 pm thank you so much for writing this educational and enlightening article which I relate to on a personal level as a straight male. i wasn’t aware of fawning. I’ve always related to the freeze response more than the others, but after reading your article i realize that particularly in social and relationship settings my trauma response has often been to fawn. i do feel I’m growing out of this thankfully and into my sense of self and healthy confidence. . although this can waiver naturally with the up’s and downs of life, thankfully with an upward trend overall 👆. personally, I’ve recieved great results from the 12 steps of ACOA (adult children of Alcoholic / Disfuntional homes), talk therapy with a trusted counsellor, aswell as EMDR therapy. also plant medicines and meditation have helped me in my healing-growth journey from childhood abuse, to drug addiction, to recovery, to a pretty awesome life. but i have a long way to go of course, cuz life is a journey. onward and upward 👆 🙏 Thank you! LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Pingback: a short reflection on female anger | angrycidre Jen says: April 6, 2020 at 11:37 am I think I started off as a fawn, having grown up in an abusive environment with a mother who gaslit the heck out of me and a father who beat and verbally abused me. Having gone through an abusive marriage, I left him and came out stonger, however I still struggle with my CPTSD. It is a lifelong battle however I am getting stonger every day. Namaste. LikeLiked by 1 person Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Search for: Sam Dylan Finch Sam Dylan Finch. I’m a writer and wellness coach that’s passionate about queer joy — with none of the self-helpy bullsh*t. I wrote that thing about people-pleasing that you showed your therapist. I’m much weirder in real life.  ✨ He/they. More? ☕ Give thanks. Buy me coffee! Venmo: SD-Finch. 📚 Check out my recommended reads at Bookshop. Queer up your inbox! Queer identity, mental health, self-care, cats — all "straight" to your email inbox. No spam! Just really, really gay blog posts. Interested? All the cool kids are doing it: Join 39,206 other followers Email Address: Let's be friends! Instagram LQTU Community LQTU Community Top Posts & Pages People-pleasing can be a result of trauma. It’s called 'fawning’ — here’s how to recognize it. 10 Ways to ‘Reach Out’ When You’re Struggling With Your Mental Health Binding While Broke: I Tried All These Cheap(ish) Chest Binders so You Don’t Have To! 7 Subtle Signs Your Trauma Response is to 'Fawn' Crazy Talk: Why Do I Keep Making Myself Sad On Purpose? Tweet, tweet! My TweetsBlog Stats 9,521,974 hits Follow Blog via Email Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address: Follow Search for: Facebook Twitter Instagram Sam FB Email Powered by WordPress.com. Post to Cancel Send to Email Address Your Name Your Email Address Cancel Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. %d bloggers like this: 
libguides-library-arizona-edu-8050	----	Copying a layout from an existing guide - Libguides Editing Guidelines - LibGuides at University of Arizona Skip to main content Jump to navigation Search form Search My account Ask Us Toggle navigation MAIN MENU Open Navigation Find materials Books & ebooks Articles & journals Research databases Digital collections & exhibits Other types of materials Search tips Borrow & request Checkouts & renewals Borrow technology Request materials Overdue & lost materials Study & create Rooms & spaces CATalyst Studios Print & scan Equipment & technology Research & publish Research by course or subject Write & cite Learn with tutorials Support for researchers About us Our organization Hours Libraries & locations Responding to COVID-19 Events & workshops News & stories Job opportunities Giving to the Libraries Staff directory Contact us Responding to COVID-19: Chat and email with us from 9am-9pm, 7 days a week! 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manifold-umn-edu-6241	----	“A Third University Is Possible” on Manifold @uminnpress Skip to main contentReturn to home Home Projects Search User settingsAvatar ProjectsOpen mobile navigation menu A Third University Is Possible by la paperson A Third University is Possible unravels the intimate relationship between the more than 200 US land grant institutions, American settler colonialism, and contemporary university expansion. Author la paperson cracks open uncanny connections between Indian boarding schools, Black education, and missionary schools in Kenya; and between the Department of Homeland Security and the University of California. Central to la paperson’s discussion is the “scyborg,” a decolonizing agent of technological subversion. Drawing parallels to Third Cinema and Black filmmaking assemblages, A Third University is Possible ultimately presents a framework for hotwiring university “machines” to the practical work of decolonization. Read OnlineBuy the Paperback Read OnlineBuy the Paperback #thirduniversity Hero image by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash. Recent Activity See all Activity @nalog_Digital A Third University Is Possible is the most woke, most self-serving, incoherent nonsense that I have ever read that… https://t.co/5ERJCQy8Z7 September 13, 2020 @pme919 Glad to be reminded by Heidi Kim of la paperson's "A Third University is Possible," available to read online for fr… https://t.co/e0yZEcWNgJ June 22, 2020 @EricaKohl Well, wifi down this morning means it’s time to revisit #lapaperson #thirduniversity book for sold out… https://t.co/MN9MNp0edw May 04, 2020 @akkagawa This helps: "... the present of school is permeable to the time now (colonization), the time before that (precoloni… https://t.co/sjX4a2uQyr October 23, 2019 @akkagawa Re-upping some ideas keeping me afloat right now between coding in R/writing, skimming commentary on arrests, and a… https://t.co/lgcXPzVCxs October 23, 2019 @myview__myvoice Since my @whatisolio last week, my friend has become a #fandroid and dissecting @JanelleMonae's discography via tex… https://t.co/cLgdLlAJhE September 30, 2019 Table of Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Introduction Settler Colonialism Is a Set of Technologies Land. And the University Is Settler Colonial A Third University Exists within the First You, a Scyborg Notes Acknowledgments Metadata edition1 isbn978-1-4529-5846-0 issn2373-5074 publisherUniversity of Minnesota Press publisher placeMinneapolis, MN restrictionsPlease see the Creative Commons website for details about the restrictions associated with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. rightsA Third University Is Possible by la paperson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. rights holderla paperson rights territoryWorld series number19 series titleForerunners: Ideas First version1.0 doihttps://doi.org/10.5749/9781452958460 Log In Projects Home Book Proposals Email Twitter Facebook Log In Projects Home Book Proposals Email Twitter Facebook Site SearchSearch Copyright by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Powered by Manifold 
meredith-wolfwater-com-3165	----	Library DIY: Unmediated point-of-need support | Information Wants To Be Free Home About Speaking Writing Contact Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Skype RSS Library DIY: Unmediated point-of-need support by Meredith Farkas by Meredith Farkas on 7/2/2013 with 18 comments instruction, librarianship, libraries, management, MPOW, our digital future, reference, tech trends, Work I recently realized that while I write about a lot of things, I do not often write about the work I’m doing at Portland State and through the Oregon Library Association. I think it comes partly from a desire not to toot my own horn, but it also reflects my nervousness about writing about work (and the politics inherent in that). But it’s silly, because there are so many projects we’ve undertaken that I’m immensely proud of. So I’ve decided to start writing about some of those, the first being Library DIY. I was one of those people who never asked a reference librarian for help. Ever. And that has really informed my thinking about the reference desk. At Norwich, I worked with my colleagues on various marketing projects to make the reference desk and reference services more visible and approachable. It wasn’t until a couple of year ago that I actually thought about it and realized that I wasn’t avoiding the reference desk because of anxiety. It wasn’t that they seemed unapproachable. It wasn’t that I was overly shy. It was because I stubbornly wanted to figure it out myself. Even now, I will scour a website or listserv archives for help information before asking. And in reading articles about the DIY generation, I realize that I’m not the only one. I see DIY as a respect for the home-grown and the figured-out yourself versus the expert-created or the expert-answered. In an age where the masses (think Yahoo! Answers and the Wikipedia) have largely become the go-to place for information and the expert (think reference librarian) has seen a decline in demand, thinking about how to provide research support without requiring someone to ask a librarian or attend a workshop is critical. I think libraries need to look at how to make the wisdom of the library available to patrons in an unmediated format. I fully recognize that not all of our patrons fit the DIY stereotype, but I do believe that creating tools that replicate the aspects of the reference interaction on a website will provide all of our students with the tools they need to be successful. Our answer to this is Library DIY, a system of small, discrete learning-objects designed to give students the quick answers they need to enable them to be successful in their research. I think librarians, when we first started creating learning objects, designed them much in the way that we teach classes. Because they were focused on the way that we teach, they were not really designed to give students quick answers but to teach to specific learning outcomes. Even now when the focus is largely on short tutorials, many are still more ideally designed to be embedded in a LibGuide, shown in a class, or embedded in online courseware. It’s much more common to see tutorials on “the information cycle,” “the art of topic development” and “information types” than tutorials that answer questions like “what types of sources do I need for my paper?”, “how do I know if this article is peer-reviewed?”, and “how do I know if my topic is focused enough?”. I’ve had the idea for Library DIY in my head for nearly two years (since reading Bohyun Kim’s controversial ACRLog post about DIY patrons), but it wasn’t until we had an instructional designer (for a very brief period last year) that I was able to turn what was in my head into a physical proof of concept. After presenting the mockup to our library faculty and the instructional designers at the Center for Online Learning, the instructional design team got the feedback and support we needed to start making DIY a reality. We contracted with a freelance Drupal designer (who is also a librarian) to skin Drupal and also create the functionality we needed through the use of already existing Drupal plugins. My colleague Amy Hofer and I developed the information architecture, thinking carefully about the paths students might take to get to different pieces of instructional content and how different paths might lead to the same content. It was the craziest flow chart I’ve ever seen, but it made sense to us and I’m really proud of the work we put into that. The content in Library DIY is designed to mirror a reference desk transaction more so than an instruction session. Much like in a reference interview (where we elicit more specific information about the student’s need), students can drill down to just the piece of information they need rather than having to skim through a long tutorial to find what they want. The information architecture is task-focused and focused on specific points in the research process. As you can see here, at the home page, students have multiple paths they can take to get to the help content they need (like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book): Once they click on one of the front page options, they can select the instructional content specific to their information need: The instructional content ranges in length from a couple of sentences to about one-page and answers range in complexity from “where can I find newspaper articles?” to “how do I know if a work is significant in my field?”. It’s designed to quickly answer the student’s question without going into the depth we librarians are famous for. If we have additional more detailed web pages or learning objects that speak to their information need, we link to them. On the left-hand side of each instructional DIY page, we include links to related DIY content. We’re currently finishing up the content development (creating almost 70 pieces of instructional content takes a while!) and are then going to do some usability testing with students before launching in the Fall. One of the big projects for the summer is also to figure out how to make this visible and accessible from the library website, the LMS, and any other places where we can market its existence. You can create great instructional content, but it’s a total waste of time if no one can find it! My colleague, Amy Hofer (the distance learning librarian), and I presented on DIY and some of our other instructional projects at the Oregon Library Association/Washington Library Association joint conference in April and I also mentioned it in my recent ALA TechSource webinar on the DIY Patron and point-of-need instruction. Already, another University (whose members attended my TechSource webinar) is replicating the project using our information architecture as a starting point. It’s very gratifying to get that kind of validation. Often, during a project like this you start thinking “maybe there’s a good reason why no one has done it before. Maybe it’s a horrible idea!” Seeing other people’s enthusiasm around the idea helps get me out of that unproductive negative thinking loop. Amy and I weren’t the only people who worked on this project. I’d like to give a big thanks to my partners-in-crime on the instructional design team (Amy, Lisa Molinelli, Kim Willson-St. Clair and Andrea Bullock) who all helped create content and copyedit our title text; our former instructional designer C. K. Worrell; Nathan Mealey, Chris Geib and Mike Flakus in Library Technologies for supporting the project on the back-end; our colleagues in the Center for Online Learning for their monetary support and feedback; and finally, our brilliant Drupal designer, Tom Boone. It truly takes a village to build something like this and I appreciate the willingness everyone had to support this project that we so believed in. ← Leaning into the messy world of work-life balance Our new model for Freshman instruction and how it went → ABOUT THE AUTHOR Meredith Farkas Meredith Farkas is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon and an adjunct faculty member at San Jose State University's iSchool. She is the author of the book “Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication and Community Online” (Information Today, 2007) and writes the monthly column “Technology in Practice” for American Libraries. Meredith was honored in 2014 with the ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award, in 2008 and 2011 with the WISE Excellence in Online Education Award and in 2009 with the LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. She has been writing the blog Information Wants to be Free since 2004. 18 Comments Heather Pena says: 7/2/2013 at 1:47 pm You are such an innovative thinker and I am inspired by your work! The library profession is fortunate to have you. This is fantastic and thanks for sharing! Library DIY: Unmediated point-of-need support |... says: 7/2/2013 at 3:36 pm […]   […] Meredith says: 7/2/2013 at 4:38 pm Awww thanks Heather! It’s an awesome profession to be in; I don’t think I’d be half as creative if I weren’t inspired by so many awesome people. BTW, I can’t wait to see what your project is all about in the Fall! Around the Web: Harvard Libraries’ mission, Declaration for the right to libraries and more – Confessions of a Science Librarian says: 7/5/2013 at 7:03 am […] Library DIY: Unmediated point-of-need support […] Kaijsa says: 7/5/2013 at 3:29 pm I really like the DIY pages, and have been planning to figure out something similar for my frequently asked questions and to use in place of some parts of library instruction. The trick I’ve found is balancing the time it takes to make them vs other guides and instruction. Did you divvy up the DIYs between your librarians, or do you have an instructional designer to help get them up? I hope you didn’t have to do these all yourself, along with everything else! In any case, they look great. Kaijsa says: 7/5/2013 at 3:30 pm Duh, you said you had an instructional designer in your post. Reading comprehension isn’t going well today. Meredith Farkas says: 7/9/2013 at 6:58 pm Hi Kaijsa. We only had an instructional designer for about 3 months (funding issues), so the content was developed by a team of five of us. Many hands definitely make light work. Laura Krier says: 7/9/2013 at 7:27 pm This project sounds amazing! Can’t wait to see it live. It’s also great to hear that my former colleagues Lisa and Nathan were involved. Joan Lippincott says: 7/10/2013 at 9:04 am I think you are right on target with this, especially the framework that you are trying to create a reference interview experience, not a class experience. I use that point to describe why I have a lot of criticism about the typical library guides. Some years ago, the UPenn business library took this approach, see for ex. http://faq.library.upenn.edu/recordList?action=&library=lippincott&institution=Penn&expand=Business+Databases#BusinessDatabases Meredith Farkas says: 7/10/2013 at 11:42 pm Thanks Laura. Lisa has been such a breath of fresh air at PSU and Nathan has been a mensch for putting up with my crazy schemes. Thanks for sharing the link to UPenn, Joan, and for validating my crazy ideas It’s especially nice to hear coming from you. Daniel Ransom says: 7/12/2013 at 5:52 pm This burrowing down towards small snippets of targeted instruction is the way to go. No one wants a 15 minute orientation video when they have a 30 second question! And there are a *lot* of “DIY” minded patrons, and we need to serve their needs just as much as the needs of those who want to talk to us directly for help. This is a great tool for them. I wonder how smaller libraries with fewer staff and limited web-design resources might implement a similar concept. Amber says: 7/12/2013 at 6:33 pm This is brilliant! I can’t wait to see the finished product and dream about copying it! 😉 Nicole Pagowsky says: 7/23/2013 at 5:16 pm I love this on so many levels. I think this is the essence of what we were hoping the Guide on the Side would provide for students with tutorials, to have their learning be more self-directed and self-paced. This is the direction we really need to be going and I hope you post a lot more about this project! Jody says: 7/24/2013 at 12:51 pm I am inspired by your refreshing and thoughtful approach! Thanks for sharing. We are currently re-examining how our online instructional content is being presented and accessed. The truth is that students either can’t find what they need when they need it, or don’t want to give up their time for the instructional tutorial when they find it. DIY looks like the way to go. I would be interested in seeing the information architecture if you would be willing to share. Thanks! Good for what? Considering context in building learning objects. | Information Wants To Be Free says: 8/19/2013 at 8:00 am […] enough into account when creating information literacy learning objects. Like I wrote about in my post about Library DIY, I think many libraries first developed tutorials based on the way we teach in the classroom, when […] Library DIY has been released! | Information Wants To Be Free says: 9/19/2013 at 2:27 pm […] is just a quick note to say that Library DIY (which I wrote about in a previous post) has been released! I am so very proud of this […] Library DIY: Unmediated point-of-need support |... says: 11/4/2013 at 4:02 pm […] I recently realized that while I write about a lot of things, I do not often write about the work I’m doing at Portland State and through the Oregon Library Association.  […] #LISMentalHealth: That time my brain and job tried to kill me | Information Wants To Be Free says: 2/22/2020 at 12:48 pm […] and other learning objects for our colleagues. That same team had just started work on my baby, Library DIY. We’d just hired a new AUL for Public Services (my boss) who was really into instruction and it […] Meredith Farkas, Author, Information Wants to be Free Subscribe via RSS Subscribe to this blog From the Archives From the Archives Select Month November 2020 August 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 August 2019 January 2019 June 2018 March 2018 February 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 June 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 November 2009 October 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 Categories about me ALA american libraries assessment blogging Book career classic blunders comment08 community college libraries community colleges ebooks election farce free the information! gender General hi Higher Ed Inspiring Stuff instruction intellectual freedom job search knowledge management librarianship libraries library school librarydayinthelife management mid-career MPOW online education open access open source our digital future random reference research RSS and Syndication screencasting search social bookmarking social software speaking tech trends tenure track Vermont Wikis Work Work-life balance writing Recent Comments Dana on Making Customizable Interactive Tutorials with Google Forms Meredith Farkas on Making Customizable Interactive Tutorials with Google Forms Ruth Bird on Making Customizable Interactive Tutorials with Google Forms Pottery Barn Kids - Customer Service | Pottery Barn Kids on Customer service problems with Pottery Barn Kids – Part Deux Meredith Farkas on The crushing expectations on working women and where’s my fucking village? 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mronline-org-9466	----	MR Online | Questioning Capitalist Realism: An Interview with Mark Fisher Top Menu Monthly Review Monthly Review Press MR (Castilian) Climate & Capitalism Money on the Left Navigation MR Online A Project of Monthly Review Magazine Home Main Menu Home About Contact/Submission Contact or Submit an Article Submission Guidelines Frequently Asked Questions Browse Recent Articles Archive by Subject Ecology Education Imperialism Inequality Labor Literature Marxism Movements Philosophy Political Economy by Region Africa Americas Asia Australasia Europe Global Middle East by Category Art Commentary Interview Letter News Newswire Monthly Review Essays Return to Content Questioning Capitalist Realism: An Interview with Mark Fisher Posted Dec 27, 2009 by Matthew Fuller Capitalism , Ecology United States Commentary , Review   Mark Fisher is the author of Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? out recently from Zer0 Books.  As a blogger he writes K-Punk.  Capitalist Realism is one of the most acute diagnoses of contemporary politics as it is played out in one small island off the coast of Europe.  After skewering the marketisation of everything, the privatisation of stress, and the triumphalism of moronic bureaucracy as the guiding principles of governance, the book goes on to speculate about new forms of politics and culture.  In doing so, it takes the reader through a lively argument about education, film, socialism and the compulsory stupidity of quality control mechanisms. This interview, following some of the themes from Capitalist Realism, was carried out via email in the second week of December 2009. Matthew Fuller: One figure that you come up with that I think is particularly useful is the idea of a business ontology, something that crops up early and towards the end of the book.  One can imagine that this is something that combines both the classical understanding of an ontology and the more technical description of the ordering of relations in a computing ontology, one is flattened into the other. Mark Fisher: Well, I wasn’t thinking of anything too sophisticated with the idea of Business Ontology, and I’d certainly like to hear more about how the concept could be related to a computing ontology.  Business Ontology as I understood it was simply the idea that everything is folded inside a business reality system, that the only goals and purposes which count are those that are translatable into business terms.  The problem is that Business Ontology has no place for anything like ‘the public’.  It’s time to reinvent the concept of the public and also for workers in public services to start to drive out business interests and business methods.  Up until the credit crisis, we bought the idea that business people somehow have a better handle on reality than the rest of us can muster.  But, after the credit crisis, that’s no longer tenable.  And as I say in the book, if businesses can’t be run as businesses, why should public services? Capitalist Realism is in your account extremely evident in education, which is a zone which is at once suffering immense restructuring from the introduction of pseudo-markets and the intense pressures of constant audit and competition; it is also a space which offers one of the last forms of refuge from the blunter stupidities of a traumatised and simplistically reduced range of opportunities and forms of life within contemporary capitalism, and as such is expected to absorb an immense amount of problems in society.  Education no longer represses desires in a mode of high intolerance, but produces and incubates stupidities and ‘holds’ unsolvable problems? Yes, there’s a way in which capitalist realism can only really be felt in areas — such as public service — which had previously been relatively free of business imperatives.  Elsewhere, in many ways, capitalist realism is taken for granted!  But the phrase ‘pseudo-marketisation’ is crucial — what we have in public services is an absurd simulation of market mechanisms rather the market as such, a kind of worst of all worlds scenario in which a simulated market goes alongside continuing surveillance and monitoring from state bodies.  (At the same time, it’s important not to demonise markets, or to let capitalism claim that it is equivalent to marketisation.  I take seriously Manuel DeLanda‘s idea that capitalism is in fact an anti-market, and I think there’s a great deal of political potential in this kind of thinking.)  If the market is supposed to deliver the best results all on its own, why do we still need inspection regimes, league tables etc?  Neoliberal ideology likes us to believe that bureaucracy has decreased under it, but the reality is that it has simply changed form, and the average teacher or lecturer is doing much more bureaucracy than ever before — and this is not ‘necessary’ bureaucracy, or bureaucracy that ‘improves performance’; on the contrary, as we all know, it is a purely empty activity, a dead ritual that is at best useless, at worst actually counter-productive.  What I mean by ‘capitalist realism’ is partly the imposition of these mechanisms — whose real significance might be to ensure ideological compliance at this ritualized level — and also the acceptance of those mechanisms by workers (and managers), who go along with them because ‘that’s just how things are now.’ Education is still often thought of as an ivory tower, even by teachers and lecturers.  There were people at the FE college where I used to work whose partners worked in business who would make this claim — that we were somehow fortunate not to be in the dog-eat-dog world of business where people are sacked if their performance is not up to scratch.  It was a laughable claim then; it’s even more manifestly absurd now after the bank bailouts, which have showed that it isn’t public services that are an ivory tower, but big business, where catastrophically bad performance, far from being punished, continues to be rewarded, and if people are sacked, they receive a handsome severance package. But, far from being an ivory tower, education has been at the core of all of the social mutations of the last thirty years.  With parents stressed and overworked, with the family disintegrating (even as it assumes a kind of hyper-normativity), education is increasingly required to take on socialisation and pastoral care tasks, and to contain and manage a kind of inchoate discontent that certainly isn’t being expressed in political terms.  Post-16 education has been massively expanded, without a commensurate increase in resources, so lecturers now have to deal with more and more students who don’t really want to be doing academic study, but who are effectively forced into staying on at school.  Teachers and lecturers find themselves in an impossible position, having to continually switch between the disciplinary role of authority figure and the consumer role of ‘providing a service’. In such conditions, what at one level is ‘understood’ as the imperatives of the market, characterised as free competition and choice between rational actors is translated into the terms of overloaded institutions, mediated by a state that provides a whole host of real more or less invisible hands, turns the conditions of understanding, shifted and disguised and irresolvable, into things which have to be solved by individuals, in turn driving them mad.  What relations does knowledge have to illness under the conditions of capitalist realism? The privatization of stress is central to capitalist realism.  If they are ‘stressed’, workers in overloaded institutions are encouraged, not to complain about their workload, but to engage in the kind of performance auditing activities which contributed to their distress in the first place.  The question is no longer, ‘how did work cause you to be unwell?’ but ‘what about you made you unable to do your job properly?’  An individual-therapeutic model of stress deflects any structural account of how the stress arose.  This is reinforced by the psychiatric tendency to understand mental illness in terms of chemical imbalances in the brain, which, again, makes stress a purely private matter. In terms of education, you will often have depressed lecturers on the one hand, facing depressed students on the other.  In large part, this depression is a symptom of the failure of politics — discontent and disaffection have no outlet, so they are internalized, reinforcing the very conditions which gave rise to it in the first place.  A particularly vicious kind of circle. Given this, how can we see the current moral panic about those young people ‘not in education, employment of training’? Such individuals would seem to be outside the circuits of ‘control society’, yet it’s clear that structural unemployment has long been essential for late capitalism.  At the same time, it’s also clear that many forms of ‘education, employment and training’ are just disguised forms of unemployment, means of indebting the young, and/or keeping them off the official unemployment figures. An interesting sub-narrative in the book is in its tracing of the mutations and migrations of social, cultural, political and economic authority.  At times it appears as something to be resisted, at other times to be inhabited or invented? Well, what I think we have to do is think through the opposition between authority and authoritarianism.  Much of the post-68 left has treated authority and authoritarianism as synonymous, but what we’ve got now, in many ways, is the dominance of a rampant bureaucratic authoritarianism alongside the disintegration of standard forms of authority.  We shouldn’t be nostalgic for old forms of authority, any more than we should be nostalgic for old patterns of work.  But it is clear that culture and politics can’t proceed without some kind of authority structure.  I think Zizek’s arguments about the big Other being a necessary social fiction are very convincing.  Moreover, neoliberalism’s assault on the big Other — ‘there is no such thing as society’ etc — have not eliminated the big Other so much as changed and disguised it.  The big Other is now the one for whom bureaucracy and PR are completed.  It’s time to think about a big Other, an authority and institutional structure, that can engender egalitarian goals instead of undermining them. I suspect I see Zizek arguing for something like a protection racket here, and rather prefer Nietzsche’s observation that the death of God would be the one that caused humans maximum fear, caused by the possibility of self-recognition.  To invent, God, Stalin or some other Other as a means of engendering a commonality is surely akin to the endless British cries for a renewal for the rather mouldy ‘Blitz Spirit’?  Does the egalitarian always imply an almighty outside, or does it make itself at scales that may conjure up such things, but not depend on them? Well, I’m not so interested in the political conclusions that Zizek draws from the argument about the big Other — partly because it is never particularly clear what they are, or how seriously we are supposed to take them.  But what I would insist is correct is the idea that you can’t simply get rid of the big Other — the big Other is necessary in the sense that it is presupposed by and in any social group whatsoever.  The Nietzsche reference is apposite here, but I think that the Lacanian critique of Nietzsche’s death of God thesis is absolutely fundamental: God persists precisely by being dead.  In the same way, the fact that the big Other does not exist (at the level of empirical actuality) doesn’t stop it functioning as an effective virtuality: on the contrary, it is the empirical non-existence of the big Other which allows it to function.  To directly assert the non-existence of the big Other puts one in the position of les non-dupes errent — the ‘fools’ who deny the existence of the symbolic fiction which structures reality.  As I point out in the book, Gerald Ratner was someone who underestimated the power of the big Other — Ratner thought he could just say that his shops sold crappy jewellery and it would have no effect, because ‘everyone knew’ that this was the case.  But the big Other didn’t know, and the catastrophic results for Ratner’s business are well known.  The capitalist big Other is the virtual entity that believes corporate advertising and PR when no empirical individual can. But I think that the notion of ‘symbolic fiction’ in excess of empirical reality, an Other that is not an actual individual, is something that the left should embrace, in part because it provides some alternative to the Thatcherite claim that ‘there’s no such thing as society’.  It could be argued that the failure of the left has consisted in its inability to depersonalise or ‘impersonalise’ the big Other — Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, their very names indicate a continuing tendency to directly embody the big Other in an empirical individual.  But the big Other doesn’t have to be a big Daddy.  The left big Other would be whatever it was that public services are supposed to serve: not individuated ‘consumers’, but — to use an apparently archaic phrase — the ‘public interest’.  It’s what Rousseau meant by the ‘general will’ — not an aggregation of individual wills, but something that only exists at a certain level of abstraction.  In order to function as an effective abstraction, though, it has to have certain institutional surrogates.  It has to be remembered that we never encounter the big Other in itself, only its representatives.  We need some sort of surrogates for the general will — agencies that will stand in for the collective interests.  Perhaps repurposed trade unions could do that. So, to state what ought to be obvious but isn’t (because of all sorts of beliefs in spontaneism etc) we need to take organisation and institutions seriously.  In this respect, I would argue, certain strand of post-68 thought have been totally disastrous in their effects.  The post-68, poststructuralist scepticism about institutions and organisation operates as if Stalinism is still a clear and present danger, but this has just played into the hands of the right, who do take institutions and organisations seriously, even as they ‘officially’ excoriate them in the name of individual freedom and choice.  The right dominates institutions with its agenda because it doesn’t face any organised opposition that can impose a counter-narrative.  Jodi Dean’s book, Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies, is very good on the left’s retreat from organisation and its reluctance to impose any sort of determinate program.  As Jodi argues, the right instrumentalise democratic openness in order to impose their program; but the left too often embraces openness as a value in itself.  I think that it’s crucial that we refuse the idea that any kind of determinate political program is ‘oppressive’ and Stalinistic.  It’s also imperative that we give up the idea that parties in the street are ‘political’.  68 might have felt good for the people involved forty years ago, but it was a political failure, and the left has to give up on the romance of failure and start to strategise again. Going back to an earlier set of points, the auditisation of public services such as education and health in the UK is something that has been set up under a Labour government, rhetorically composed of weird sediments of socialism and Christianity mixed in with other substances.  The mode of governance shifts more and more to a rule of the statistically enforced average as a means of achieving what is proclaimed as equality, or even egalitarianism, but which is in effect a leveling by means of a compulsory mediocrity, which then of course blamed on those who ‘abuse’ the system or who parasite it.  You call for a means of holding systemic failure accountable.  Audit culture is intended to be such.  It assumes failure and cheating on the behalf of all members of the population, tries to catch us out.  What kind of systematic holding to account is possible? I don’t think audit culture, or at least the audit culture I’m talking about, is intended to hold systemic failure accountable.  On the contrary, it is itself a systemic failure which cannot be held accountable.  The point is not only that it assumes failure and cheating, it actually engenders them.  The audits I’m talking about — performance reviews etc — foreclose any question of the systemic by focusing on the individual. As we all know, this kind of bureaucracy is not only useless, it’s actually a colossal waste of time: massive amounts of ‘data’ collected which has no conceivable positive impact on any of the practices it is supposed to surveil, in part because it will never be read by anyone.  What we need is this whole system to be held to account by agencies that act in collective interests.  In this respect, I think unions could be crucial.  But only if they recalibrate their goals and tactics, and recognise that this is the terrain that they should be fighting over. At a more global scale I think we need to imagine and invent regulatory agencies that can rein in capital.  It seems impossible to imagine such agencies operating at the moment — but, since the bank crisis, it’s clear that it’s impossible for capitalism to carry on in the form that it has taken for the last thirty years.  Everything is impossible now, including the so-called status quo. You suggest that strikes, in public services, are a self-defeating tactic.  Certainly one can imagine ways of working through the marking system, occupations, refusal to work with audit, the opening up of the academy or patient support of medical services, the refusal to collect payments from citizens repositioned as ‘customers’ as alternate ways of working.  One of those at the moment is the movement of refusal of staff in universities to collect attendance information for the Border Agency under the vile Points Based Immigration System.  What do you see as other ‘productive’ forms of protest or political action that are effective or that might be tried out in present conditions and what might be the key means of evaluating them? Strikes can work, but the one-day strike in particular strikes me as counter-productive.  They alienate the public and impoverish the strikers, but cause the management very limited inconvenience (which in any case is often more than mitigated by the saving on wages).  What we need are sustainable antagonisms in the workplace itself.  We shouldn’t be petitioning managerialists, we should be demonstrating their irrelevance.  At a time when workers, especially workers in public services, will come under increasing pressure, it’s time to come out and say the obvious: that it isn’t workers who are the unproductive parasites, but managerialists.  It’s time to reverse the propaganda that’s been in place in the 70s.  Then, the right used to argue, five public service workers would do the work of one.  Now, five consultants do the work of none.  We all know very well that many organisations could strip out layers of overpaid managers with no effect on the delivery of services at all.  The ruling wisdom has it that to increase ‘efficiency’ you cut the number of workers; in fact, most organisations would be far more efficient if you cut the number of managers.  The populist furore about bankers and MPs’ expenses suggests a change in mood, even in the mass media, which could be harnessed.  A propaganda battle has to be aggressively fought.  The party ought to be over for the managerialist parasites, but no-one gives up wealth and power voluntarily, they will have to be forced to relinquish it.  At one level, it’s a simple matter of behavioural psychology: middle managers and politicians impose the restoration agenda because they only have one lobby (the organised super-rich) leaning on them.  It’s the path of least resistance.  But if there is upward pressure from the bottom that will change the political ‘reality’. To answer your question more specifically.  It’s time to be more bold — teachers and lecturers should force a fight about the control of education.  Why not have a total non-participation in inspection or auditing regimes?  But such a campaign would of course require proper co-ordination, and that has to involve unions. The university occupations are another positive trend, I think.  Rather than the blustering and impotent ‘protests against capitalism’, these occupations have certain defined and determinate goals — reduce student fees — but those goals have much wider implications which could explode in all kinds of unpredictable ways. Another form of activity you propose is in accentuating cultural seriousness.  You mention a number of examples, for instance the work of the TV documentary maker Adam Curtis.  Curtis however falls into the too easy trap of identifying blogs with interpassivity.  Your blog, K-Punk, is another place in which you are pushing forward ideas about such seriousness in music and elsewhere.  Bold, systematic thinking clearly exists in blogs like your own.  What other tendencies can you see promoting a substantial rivalry to capitalist realism? If my blog is important, it’s not because it is some heroic lone voice, but because it is part of a network — a network that connects areas of cyberspace with sectors of the old media and educational instituions.  Zer0 books, which put out Capitalist Realism and which I’m also involved with in an editorial role, is emerging as a key part of this ecology, putting out books by others in the network such as Owen Hatherley, Nina Power and Dominic Fox.  What’s important about this network is that it constitutes a para-space, a space that doesn’t belong to the media, music criticism or the academy, but operates in the spaces between them.  In some sense, this is a reconstitution of the kind of para-space that used to exist in Britain in art schools, the music press and in public service broadcasting.  The cultural sensibility that I and others such as Simon Reynolds have called ‘hauntology’ is also part of the rivalry to capitalist realism, in part because it invokes the spectres of those old para-spaces.  The Ghost Box record label, for instance, offers what I’ve called a re-dreaming of postwar British public space, offered not just as a nostalgic throwback, but as a call to rediscover all kinds of lost futures.  Burial, without any doubt the musical artist of the decade in my view, produced two records which simultaneously registered the dejection that capitalist realism has produced, whilst also recalling the collective ecstasies that capitalist realism has eroded.  The novels of David Peace, brilliantly adapted by Channel 4 this year, also operate as an alternative to capitalist realism — even as, in many ways, they are about the historical development of capitalist realism.  Or rather, because of that. But with the collapse of neoliberalism — and make no mistake about it, neoliberalism has collapsed, even though it continues to dominate political culture because of undead inertia — I expect to see capitalist realism under increasing pressure.  A thirty year old reality system has just collapsed, and we’re in a kind of reality interregnum.  It took a few years after the 1929 crash for new political forces to emerge, and just because nothing much has happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen.  The terrain is strewn of ideological rubble, and it’s there to be fought over. This interview was first published by Mute Magazine on 20 December 2000 under CopyLeft. | | Print   Share About Matthew Fuller View all posts by Matthew Fuller → Connect Subscribe to the Monthly Review e-newsletter (max of 1-3 per month). Related Posts: We suffer from an incurable disease called hope “Superheroes” and “Nice” guys: Coverage of Biden’s hawkish cabinet picks is predictably lacking Freedom Rider: Censorship in the Biden era Greenhouse gases set new record, despite COVID-19 lockdown Why imperialism is obsolete in Latin America A Story of FIRE and ICE In Solidarity with the Real Anti-Racist Movement in Cuba Comments are closed. New! Subscribe for Daily Updates Email* Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Monthly Review Essays Beyond Plague Urbanism by Andy MerrifieldOver the centuries, humans have survived tragedy through the incredible stoicism of not moving, of standing one’s ground, of resisting, of engaging in tremendous creativity. Perhaps we can use the time alone to think collectively, to reflect together on how we might reconstruct the public realm of our cities. “Your Economics Professor is almost Certainly a Charlatan” by Michael D. 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See all Monthly Review Essays Related Articles Commentary, Review We suffer from an incurable disease called hope November 28, 2020 Why imperialism is obsolete in Latin America November 25, 2020 ‘The Principal Contradiction’ by Torkil Lauesen November 24, 2020 Monthly Review November 2020 (Volume 72, Number 6) November 1, 2020 The Editors Engels’s Dialectics of Nature in the Anthropocene November 1, 2020 John Bellamy Foster Engels’s Emergentist Dialectics November 1, 2020 Kaan Kangal The COVID-19 Pandemic Exposes Fatal Health Inequities November 1, 2020 Meredeth Turshen The Commodification of Online Cooperation November 1, 2020 Joshua Sperber Facing the Anthropocene: An Update November 1, 2020 Ian Angus Trending Popular (last 30 days) MR Press News Gerald Horne & Margaret Prescod on Ethiopia, via Sojourner Truth Radio November 24, 2020 Biden’s COVID Plan Is Better Than Trump’s, But Still Far From Sufficient: Rob Wallace via Truthout… November 24, 2020 Eric Chester & Mitch Jeserich on the Suppression of Speech in WWI, with Implications for a Biden Presidency November 23, 2020 “Walking through the door of a global clash”: ResoluteReader on “Dead Epidemiologists” November 23, 2020 Black & Indigenous Antifascism: Gerald Horne & Nikki Taylor on The Real News November 18, 2020 Climate & Capitalism Facing the Anthropocene: An Update November 24, 2020 Greenhouse gases set new record, despite Covid-19 lockdown November 23, 2020 Ecosocialist Bookshelf, November 2020 November 21, 2020 Tyson managers laid bets on how many workers would get Covid-19 November 19, 2020 The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology November 13, 2020 Cheap Motels and a Hotplate What we sow is what we eat September 21, 2017 A Land Grant in Maine: The Gift That’s Been Giving Since 1767 September 6, 2016 Let’s Get Serious About Inequality and Socialism May 7, 2016 Bernie Sanders’ “Political Revolution” February 29, 2016 Geraldine July 7, 2015 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 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nowviskie-org-6587	----	change us, too – Bethany Nowviskie Skip to content Bethany Nowviskie Menu Bio Minor Arcana JMU Libraries CV Search for: Search change us, too Posted on 30 June 201922 May 2020 by Bethany Nowviskie [The following is a brief talk I gave at the opening plenary of RBMS 2019, a meeting of the Rare Books and Manuscripts section of the ACRL/ALA. This year’s theme was “Response and Responsibility: Special Collections and Climate Change,” and my co-panelists were Frances Beinecke of the National Resources Defense Council and Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Many thanks to 2019 conference chairs Ben Goldman and Kate Hutchens, session chair Melissa Hubbard, and outgoing RBMS chair Shannon Supple. The talk draws together some of my past writings, all of which are linked to and freely available. Images in my slide deck, as here, were by Catherine Nelson.] Six years ago, I began writing about cultural heritage and cultural memory in the context of our ongoing climate disaster. Starting to write and talk publicly was a frank attempt to assuage my terror and my grief—my personal grief at past and coming losses in the natural world, and the sense of terror growing inside me, both at the long-term future of the digital and physical collections in my charge, and at the unplanned-for environmental hardships and accelerating social unrest my two young children, then six and nine years old, would one day face. I latched, as people trained as scholars sometimes do, onto a set of rich and varied theoretical frameworks. These were developed by others grappling with the exact same existential dread: some quite recent, some going back to the 1960s, the 1920s, even the 1870s—demonstrating, for me, not just the continuity of scientific agreement on the facts of climate change and the need for collective action (as my co-panelists have demonstrated), but scholarly and artistic agreement on the generative value of responses from what would become the environmental humanities and from practices I might call green speculative design. The concepts and theories I lighted on, however, served another function. They allowed me simultaneously to elevate and to sublimate many of my hardest-hitting feelings. In other words, I put my fears into a linguistic machine labeled “the Anthropocene”—engineered to extract angst and allow me to crank out historicized, lyrical melancholy on the other end. Since then I’ve also become concerned that, alongside and through the explicit, theoretical frameworks I found in the literature, I leaned unconsciously—as cis-gender white women and other members of dominant groups almost inevitably do—on implicit frameworks of white supremacy, on my gender privilege, and on the settler ideologies that got us here in the first place, all of which uphold and support the kind of emotional and fundamentally self-centered response I was first disposed to make. I see more clearly now that none of this is about my own relatively vastly privileged children and well-tended collections—except insofar as both of them exist within broader networks and collectives of care, as one achingly beloved and all-too-transitory part. Please don’t misunderstand me: it remains absolutely vital that we honor our attachments, and acknowledge the complexity and deep reality of our emotional responses to living through the sixth great mass extinction of life on this planet—vital to compassionate teaching and leadership, to responsible stewardship, and to defining value systems that help us become more humane in the face of problems of inhuman scale. Grappling with our emotions as librarians and archivists (and as curators, conservators, collectors, community organizers, scholars, and scientists) will be a major part of the work of this conference. It is also vital to doing work that appreciates its own inner standing point, and uses its positionality to promote understanding and effect change. But I’ve felt my own orientation changing. For me, all of this is, every day, less and less about my feelings on special collections and climate change—except to the degree that those feelings drive me toward actions that have systemic impact and are consonant with a set of values we may share. So this is a brief talk that will try to walk you (for what it’s worth) along the intellectual path I’ve taken over the past six years—in the space of about sixteen minutes. DH in the Anthropocene I started thinking out loud in this area by speaking to my most immediate, interdisciplinary community of practice: people laboring across fields in the digital humanities—that is, to scholarly editors, software developers and systems engineers, archaeologists, linguists and paleographers, text-miners, data scientists, and librarians, curators, archivists, and others engaged in DH. I asked them to “take to heart the notion that, alongside our more joyful motivating scholarly and intellectual concerns—or, rather, resting beneath them all, as a kind of substrate—there lies one core, shared problem.” The problem, I wrote in 2014, is that of extinction: “of multiple extinctions; heart-breaking extinctions; boring, quotidian, barely-noticed extinctions—both the absences that echo through centuries, and the disposable erosions of our lossy everyday.” And the questions that unfolded from that shared understanding were as follows—applicable, I think, to our concerns at RBMS this week and still worth asking: “What is a professional practice that grapples constantly with little extinctions and can look clear-eyed on a Big One? Is it socially conscious and activist in tone? Does it reflect the managerial and problem-solving character of our 21st-century institutions? Is it about preservation, conservation, and recovery—or about understanding ephemerality and embracing change? Does our work help us to appreciate, memorialize, and mourn the things we’ve lost? Does it alter, for us and for our audiences, our global frameworks and our sense of scale? Is it about teaching ourselves to live differently?” Or—as a soldier of a desert war had recently written in the New York Times—is our central task the task of learning how to die?—not (as Roy Scranton put it) “how to die as individuals, but as a civilization in the Anthropocene?” From these questions, I moved through some of the concepts and theories they led to: chiefly ideas from biology and poetry about making space for mourning and about dwelling with extinction, and a survey of vain, irresistible experiments in communication across truly deep time, from modern nuclear semiotics to 19th and early 20th-century architecture designed to ruin picturesquely. And from there, I began thinking more about the organization and presentation of historical collections. Speculative Collections I focused in a series of talks and workshops on how the physical and digital interfaces we design for rare and unique materials delimit our own engagements with futurity; how they re-enact, in some cases, the violence against people, creatures, and landscapes of their acquisition; and how they interdict the liberty and autonomy of present-day and near-future users—particularly those from already-marginalized communities, who face the worst impacts of the climate crisis. I wanted to know if we were designing libraries that “activate imaginations—both their users’ imaginations and those of the expert practitioners who craft and maintain them.” Are we building libraries free from what indigenous information scholars Marisa Duarte and Miranda Belarde-Lewis demonstrate are colonially-imposed classification structures, or from what Rasheedah Phillips, a community activist and Black Quantum Futurist artist, shows are fatalistic and frankly deadly Western conceptions of linear time? Are we open (with scholar Deborah Thomas) to the alternate temporalities of “the Caribbean otherwise”—and with speculative fiction writer Sofia Samatar to an Afropolitanism that asserts “black people belong in all spaces?” Are we open to what Michelle Caswell and Anne Gilliland call “impossible archival imaginaries?” To the usable pasts articulated in Kodwo Eshun’s remarkable works of music and media criticism? Are we open, with designer Tom Schofield and collaborators, to a sense of “archival liveness” in the co-creation of library finding aids with those making active use of unprocessed collections? Are we open to Mitchell Whitelaw’s remarkable ecological and so-called “generous interfaces” for library collections? And are we in any way designing libraries and archives that grapple with what I came, through Dipesh Chakrabarty and others, to see as the fundamental paradox of the Anthropocene—that it is a moment asking us to hold both unpredictability and planetary-scale inevitability simultaneously in mind? The answer is, on the whole, that we are not. So the question then became, for me: how can we work to admit alternate futures and ways of knowing not-our-own—to cede power, so that communities can use collections—theirs, not ours, in the first place—to build the independently constructed philosophical infrastructure that musician Shabaka Hutchings, through Eshun and John Akomfrah, identifies as the fundamental marker of a people’s agency and liberty. And can we do this in the awareness, as Chakrabarty teaches, that liberty itself (however sorely uneven in its distribution) has been a framework with unanticipated environmental costs? Could changing balances of power in the archival fuel for imagination change that calculus, too? I further wanted to know, with Eshun, how cultural heritage might be activated in the world to come—not just for simply playback like a vinyl record, nor for emulation, in a digital preservation-and-access sense, but for transformative and even salvific use: archives scratched into instruments, libraries becoming motherships, herbaria becoming ecologies again. I was struggling toward special collections as speculative ones, collections that (as C.P. Snow wrote of the community of scientists) hold the future in their bones. And I was looking for libraries and archives that might prove fundamentally necessary to our survival in a changing world—even as we fight (newly informed by comprehensive location data prepared by Tansey, Goldman, and Ray and released just this week) to ensure the survival of our charges in floodplains and fire-fields. And that is how I washed up, lost and late, on the shores of Afrofuturism. Reconstitute the World More recently, I have come to two other realizations that feel, for me, fundamental to the future of special collections in the digital age. The first is that we in cultural heritage institutions can now understand our collective holdings, across institutional and national lines, as one vast archive of extinction: a story of diminishment, from variety to monocultures. I’m not just speaking of materials that we’ve interpreted and catalogued as relating to natural history. Together, over the past several centuries and in every box and shelf, the world’s libraries, museums, and archives have amassed a record of cause and consequence and life at the cusp of a new geological era: of the loss of species, habitats, traces of innocent and culpable people, and intricately co-evolved autochthonous understandings of the world. What if we could more adequately network and mine those collections? (What if we could root that work in a more respectful and less extractive metaphor than mining?) My second realization is that we no longer steward our collections for human readers alone. In the same way that human beings are shaped by what we read, hear, and see, the machine readers that follow us into—and perhaps beyond—the Anthropocene have begun to be molded by independent reading, increasingly in so-called “unsupervised” encounters with our digital libraries. Advances in artificial intelligence have been swift, are unregulated, often more discomfiting than delightful (though delight is there, too), and are predicated—it must be said—on massively unsustainable draws on fossil fuel. (A recent study shows that the carbon costs of training a single AI model are equivalent to the energy expenditures of the usable lifespan of five automobiles, including the costs of those cars’ manufacture. It is something we in cultural heritage must reckon with.) But the machines are here, and they seem limited only by their available training data—in other words, by the collections we choose to digitize and give our algorithmic progeny to read. This should prompt us to ask some questions of our process of digitization and our decision-making around digital access. Questions like those I asked Rare Book School and DHSI audiences last summer: “what kinds of indigenous and community-developed knowledge do we neglect to represent in our (digitized) libraries? What tacit and embodied (rather than purely informational) understandings? What animal and other nonhuman perspectives? What do we in fact choose, through those failures, to extinguish from history—and what does that mean at this precise cultural, technological, and ecological moment? On the other hand, what sorts of records and recordable things should responsible librarians and scholars shield from digitization—should we be working as hard as possible to protect from machine learning for the good of vulnerable communities and creatures—knowing, as we do, that technologies of collection and analysis are by nature tools of surveillance and structures of extractive power?” And, from what I’ve called “an elegiac archive, a library of endings,” with what poetic power—what power of making, and of making anew in an altered and diminished world—do we want to imbue them? As the poet Adrienne Rich suggests, the most ordinary (and still extraordinary) power we mortal beings possess is the power to make art from fragments of the past. In a 1977 poem called “Natural Resources,” she writes: My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. We’ve begun to extend our ordinary powers through machine learning, in highly uncharted ways. In the context of our current digital cultural heritage transformations and environmental emergencies, I wonder whether this kind of poeisis might be called on, one day, to reconstitute the world. Maintenance and Care All this brings me to a new collaboration, hearkening back to some earlier work, and to an invitation being issued in the form of a white paper this very day. It’s work happening under the banner of “The Maintainers,” an interdisciplinary scholarly and practitioner community challenging the dominant innovation rhetoric of our time and focusing instead on restorative and respectful cultures of maintenance and repair—what Steve Jackson articulated as “broken world thinking,” something perhaps necessary to us all in the days to come. A small sub-group of us, mostly from the library and archives world, began meeting last year to talk about the intersection of information maintenance with feminist ethics of care. Two of the four core values we established for our ongoing work speak especially to the themes of this conference and to the ideas I’ve raised today. They are: “Embodiment: We seek to embody our values in information practices and structures. We further acknowledge that all information is embodied information, and that our information practices have an impact on real, vulnerable human bodies and natural and created environments;” and “Inter-generationality: Information maintenance, like other forms of maintenance, calls for long-term thinking beyond our lived cultural context. We value inter-generational knowledge sharing as it is practiced in communities and institutions.” Today’s white paper, “Information Maintenance as a Practice of Care,” delineates the concept of “care” along similar lines. We think of care as something that is active and enacted, collective and networked, organized, scalable, interdisciplinary, and sustained across time, even or maybe especially in times of great uncertainty: “Acts of care (we write) preserve the knowledge of one generation so that it can be engaged with, interrogated, and built upon by the next. Likewise acts of care help us to extend and prepare that knowledge for present application and for future uses and users yet unclear.” The paper is really just an invitation to others who may want to join the metaphorical potluck dinner we’re throwing, to share their gifts and ideas, maybe find some sustenance in ours, and collectively help figure out what we should cook up next. So if this resonates with you, please join. Conclusions The very idea of the Anthropocene as a new stratigraphic era throws much into relief: our deep interconnectedness (as individuals, cultures, and species) with all things; the fragility and necessity of memory; the impulse to capture, fix, define, and know—and our basic lack of agreement across human cultures on the best way to do that. It also highlights the uncanny nature of the knowledge we now have: that we hold great, world-changing, destructive and creative power as a species, and must simultaneously recognize our utter insignificance in the face of truly deep time: an eyelash on the sliver of a nail in the extended geological sweep of planetary history. (A colored band in the rock. Some pigments, one day, to grind.) I hope this conference will be remembered. I hope it will be remembered as a catalyzing moment for the special collections community. The twinned concepts of this opening plenary—responsibility and response—frame our coming together, for a precious few days of professional stock-taking around the most urgent problem of our time. And better than seeing it a soluble “problem,” perhaps, is to take on board the idea of ecosystem collapse as a wicked one, and as a state of being: the sustained predicament in which we will dwell together, personally and professionally, for the rest of our lives. We’ll make good use of these few days if we can leave with some clarity of purpose, resolved to change our ways of working and the lenses through which we view our institutions, consortia, associations, and personal and professional responsibilities as cultural heritage workers. I’ve tried to suggest some possible lenses to look through this morning. The program ahead of us offers so many more. I will be attending sessions with action-oriented questions in mind. They are the ones I now want to work past my emotions to address. First: can we articulate shared values for the RBMS community in the climate crisis? If so, what will they drive us to do? How can we work in ways that are positive, reparative, and with impact that is systems-wide? And how best can we center still-living ecosystems and struggling, future-oriented people in a field that has mostly focused on their material, documentary traces? We don’t know how all this will turn out. Maybe our task is to lay away the tools survivors will need to curse us or to forgive us, and to celebrate, rebuild, and mourn. Maybe we can use our great human capacity for imagination and the tools past librarians and archivists have protected for us to unfold alternate, brighter timelines to the one that seems to confront us now. But I’ve asked all my questions today in the stark acknowledgment that we’ve already changed the world in which we work and love and try to make our way. That has to change us, too. 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kk-org-5056	----	The Technium: Better Than Free *Lifestream *The Technium *Cool Tools *True Films *Extrapolations *Screen Pub *Quantified Self *New Rules *Street Use *Asia Grace *Silver Cord *WINK FEEDS Most Popular Postings 1,000 True Fans I'll Pay You to Read My Book The Shirky Principle The Post-Productive Economy Better Than Free     ARCHIVES Forest-Fire Marketing Incremental Vs. 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Creative Commons Better Than Free [Translations: Belarusian, Chinese, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish] The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times. IT companies make a lot of money selling equipment that facilitates this ceaseless copying. Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free. Our digital communication network has been engineered so that copies flow with as little friction as possible. Indeed, copies flow so freely we could think of the internet as a super-distribution system, where once a copy is introduced it will continue to flow through the network forever, much like electricity in a superconductive wire. We see evidence of this in real life. Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with internet, it will be copied, and those copies never leave. Even a dog knows you can’t erase something once it’s flowed on the internet. This super-distribution system has become the foundation of our economy and wealth. The instant reduplication of data, ideas, and media underpins all the major economic sectors in our economy, particularly those involved with exports — that is, those industries where the US has a competitive advantage. Our wealth sits upon a very large device that copies promiscuously and constantly. Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of free copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies? I have an answer. The simplest way I can put it is thus: When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable. When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. Well, what can’t be copied? There are a number of qualities that can’t be copied. Consider “trust.” Trust cannot be copied. You can’t purchase it. Trust must be earned, over time. It cannot be downloaded. Or faked. Or counterfeited (at least for long). If everything else is equal, you’ll always prefer to deal with someone you can trust. So trust is an intangible that has increasing value in a copy saturated world. There are a number of other qualities similar to trust that are difficult to copy, and thus become valuable in this network economy.  I think the best way to examine them is not from the eye of the producer, manufacturer, or creator, but from the eye of the user. We can start with a simple user question:  why would we ever pay for anything that we could get for free? When anyone buys a version of something they could get for free, what are they purchasing? From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free. In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values.  I call them “generatives.” A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold. Eight Generatives Better Than Free Immediacy – Sooner or later you can find a free copy of whatever you want, but getting a copy delivered to your inbox the moment it is released — or even better, produced — by its creators is a generative asset. Many people go to movie theaters to see films on the opening night, where they will pay a hefty price to see a film that later will be available for free, or almost free, via rental or download. Hardcover books command a premium for their immediacy, disguised as a harder cover. First in line often commands an extra price for the same good. As a sellable quality, immediacy has many levels, including access to beta versions. Fans are brought into the generative process itself. Beta versions are often de-valued because they are incomplete, but they also possess generative qualities that can be sold. Immediacy is a relative term, which is why it is generative. It has to fit with the product and the audience. A blog has a different sense of time than a movie, or a car. But immediacy can be found in any media. Personalization — A generic version of a concert recording may be free, but if you want a copy that has been tweaked to sound perfect in your particular living room — as if it were preformed in your room — you may be willing to pay a lot.  The free copy of a book can be custom edited by the publishers to reflect your own previous reading background. A free movie you buy may be cut to reflect the rating you desire (no violence, dirty language okay). Aspirin is free, but aspirin tailored to your DNA is very expensive. As many have noted, personalization requires an ongoing conversation between the creator and consumer, artist and fan, producer and user. It is deeply generative because it is iterative and time consuming. You can’t copy the personalization that a relationship represents. Marketers call that “stickiness” because it means both sides of the relationship are stuck (invested) in this generative asset, and will be reluctant to switch and start over. Interpretation — As the old joke goes: software, free. The manual, $10,000. But it’s no joke. A couple of high profile companies, like Red Hat, Apache, and others make their living doing exactly that. They provide paid support for free software. The copy of code, being mere bits, is free — and becomes valuable to you only through the support and guidance. I suspect a lot of genetic information will go this route. Right now getting your copy of your DNA is very expensive, but soon it won’t be. In fact, soon pharmaceutical companies will PAY you to get your genes sequence. So the copy of your sequence will be free, but the interpretation of what it means, what you can do about it, and how to use it — the manual for your genes so to speak — will be expensive. Authenticity — You might be able to grab a key software application for free, but even if you don’t need a manual, you might like to be sure it is bug free, reliable, and warranted. You’ll pay for authenticity. There are nearly an infinite number of variations of the Grateful Dead jams around; buying an authentic version from the band itself will ensure you get the one you wanted. Or that it was indeed actually performed by the Dead. Artists have dealt with this problem for a long time. Graphic reproductions such as photographs and lithographs often come with the artist’s stamp of authenticity — a signature — to raise the price of the copy. Digital watermarks and other signature technology will not work as copy-protection schemes (copies are super-conducting liquids, remember?) but they can serve up the generative quality of authenticity for those who care. Accessibility – Ownership often sucks. You have to keep your things tidy, up-to-date, and in the case of digital material, backed up. And in this mobile world, you have to carry it along with you. Many people, me included, will be happy to have others tend our “possessions” by subscribing to them. We’ll pay Acme Digital Warehouse to serve us any musical tune in the world, when and where we want it, as well as any movie, photo (ours or other photographers). Ditto for books and blogs.  Acme backs everything up, pays the creators, and delivers us our desires. We can sip it from our phones, PDAs, laptops, big screens from where-ever. The fact that most of this material will be available free, if we want to tend it, back it up, keep adding to it, and organize it, will be less and less appealing as time goes on. Embodiment — At its core the digital copy is without a body. You can take a free copy of a work and throw it on a screen. But perhaps you’d like to see it in hi-res on a huge screen? Maybe in 3D? PDFs are fine, but sometimes it is delicious to have the same words printed on bright white cottony paper, bound in leather. Feels so good. What about dwelling in your favorite (free) game with 35 others in the same room? There is no end to greater embodiment. Sure, the hi-res of today — which may draw ticket holders to a big theater — may migrate to your home theater tomorrow, but there will always be new insanely great display technology that consumers won’t have. Laser projection, holographic display, the holodeck itself! And nothing gets embodied as much as music in a live performance, with real bodies. The music is free; the bodily performance expensive. This formula is quickly becoming a common one for not only musicians, but even authors. The book is free; the bodily talk is expensive. Patronage — It is my belief that audiences WANT to pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to connect. But they will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable amount, and they feel certain the money will directly benefit the creators. Radiohead’s recent high-profile experiment in letting fans pay them whatever they wished for a free copy is an excellent illustration of the power of patronage. The elusive, intangible connection that flows between appreciative fans and the artist is worth something. In Radiohead’s case it was about $5 per download. There are many other examples of the audience paying simply because it feels good. Findability — Where as the previous generative qualities reside within creative digital works, findability is an asset that occurs at a higher level in the aggregate of many works. A zero price does not help direct attention to a work, and in fact may sometimes hinder it. But no matter what its price, a work has no value unless it is seen; unfound masterpieces are worthless. When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention — and most of it free — being found is valuable. The giant aggregators such as Amazon and Netflix make their living in part by helping the audience find works they love. They bring out the good news of the “long tail” phenomenon, which we all know, connects niche audiences with niche productions. But sadly, the long tail is only good news for the giant aggregators, and larger mid-level aggregators such as publishers, studios, and labels. The “long tail” is only lukewarm news to creators themselves. But since findability can really only happen at the systems level, creators need aggregators. This is why publishers, studios, and labels (PSL)will never disappear. They are not needed for distribution of the copies (the internet machine does that). Rather the PSL are needed for the distribution of the users’ attention back to the works. From an ocean of possibilities the PSL find, nurture and refine the work of creators that they believe fans will connect with. Other intermediates such as critics and reviewers also channel attention. Fans rely on this multi-level apparatus of findability to discover the works of worth out of the zillions produced. There is money to be made (indirectly for the creatives) by finding talent. For many years the paper publication TV Guide made more money than all of the 3 major TV networks it “guided” combined. The magazine guided and pointed viewers to the good stuff on the tube that week. Stuff, it is worth noting, that was free to the viewers.  There is little doubt that besides the mega-aggregators, in the world of the free many PDLs will make money selling findability — in addition to the other generative qualities. These eight qualities require a new skill set. Success in the free-copy world is not derived from the skills of distribution since the Great Copy Machine in the Sky takes care of that. Nor are legal skills surrounding Intellectual Property and Copyright very useful anymore. Nor are the skills of hoarding and scarcity. Rather, these new eight generatives demand an understanding of how abundance breeds a sharing mindset, how generosity is a business model, how vital it has become to cultivate and nurture qualities that can’t be replicated with a click of the mouse. In short, the money in this networked economy does not follow the path of the copies. Rather it follows the path of attention, and attention has its own circuits. Careful readers will note one conspicuous absence so far. I have said nothing about advertising. Ads are widely regarded as the solution, almost the ONLY solution, to the paradox of the free. Most of the suggested solutions I’ve seen for overcoming the free involve some measure of advertising. I think ads are only one of the paths that attention takes, and in the long-run, they will only be part of the new ways money is made selling the free. But that’s another story. Beneath the frothy layer of advertising, these eight generatives will supply the value to ubiquitous free copies, and make them worth advertising for. These generatives apply to all digital copies, but also to any kind of copy where the marginal cost of that copy approaches zero. (See my essay on Technology Wants to Be Free.) Even material industries are finding that the costs of duplication near zero, so they too will behave like digital copies. Maps just crossed that threshold. Genetics is about to. Gadgets and small appliances (like cell phones) are sliding that way. Pharmaceuticals are already there, but they don’t want anyone to know. It costs nothing to make a pill. We pay for Authenticity and Immediacy in drugs. Someday we’ll pay for Personalization. Maintaining generatives is a lot harder than duplicating copies in a factory. There is still a lot to learn. A lot to figure out. Write to me if you do. January 31, 2008 | comments | | Tweet < Forest-Fire Marketing | Playing Digital Games Together > Comments Robert Woodhead I’ve been groping towards similar ideas for many years. The one that is firmest in my mind is the patronage generative, I’ve been making a nice living for about 10 years using a website whose income model is based on tipping — in fact, letting the user decide the price increases my income. The common thread of all the generatives, to greater and lesser degree, is that they depend on a personal connection between creator and consumer. They build on reciprocal trust. This leads to some interesting effects. I answer all my user’s email questions without bothering to check if they’ve tipped me. What I find, however, is that almost everyone who emails ends up tipping (vs. 10% of account creators, though the % for people who use the site seriously is very near 100%). Some of the people who email make a point of telling me they’ve tipped, but my feeling (I haven’t got hard numbers) is that those that tip afterwards tend to tip more, because they’ve seen a demonstration of trust by me, and feel obligated to reciprocate. What is most telling are the tips I get with comments like “I’m on unemployment, but you deserve this $10″. What does that say about people’s desire to reciprocate? Interestingly, the best tactic for me at this point (both ethically and financially) is to refuse the tip, give them a free year on the site, and ask them to do what’s fair at the end of the year. There are free-riders, of course, but they rarely actually cost me any time — and time is the thing that is most precious to me. I put up a page that explains the idea that you may find interesting; http://tipping.selfpromotion.com/ I really should have gotten a patent on the business model, just for the giggle-factor. Oh well… Kevin Kelly R. Woodhead: User-decided prices, from tipping, to shareware, to set-your-own price are not quite the same as free, but certainly a viable strategy. Have you ever seen any formal studies on this subject? Alcira Your comment about interpretation is interesting but I think that is the wrong business model if you want to have happy customers. Providing free software that requires $$$$ of support in order to use it means that your software is not user-friendly and a pain to use. Look at Linux… such a pain to do anything in it. Yes, it is free but the learning curve is huge. Who wants to spend the time unless you are into that sort of thing? Christian DE NEEF Very valuable article indeed! Most consulting firms could get some inspiration from this. Today, the recipes are free (or nearly, as they are published in the zillions of business boos that are flooding our society) but as we know the recipe alone doesn’t make for a good dish. It also takes a good cook. Similarly, in consulting, telling the client what to do is easy (and free, accessible, copyable) but being successful in managing the project to implementation is quite a challenge! All the best, and keep on (free) quality blogging! OldgitTom Freeness is a byproduct of capitalism’s fecundity. Tech developments compounding over a century to make cheaper – reductio ad absurdum – but how to accomodate within society’s 19c political/legal structures? Radical revolution is knocking on the door, boundless opportunity disguised as eco threat. No, not disguised, really; Mercury the god of communications delivers eviction orders & death threats as well as birthday presents. Comms technologies gave birth to new empires, but were the angel of death to those who sought to control or suppress them, rather than adjust to them. Read all about it at http://groups.google.com/group/aristomafia?hl=en(free). Old git Tom hyokon Kevin, I wrote a post about the ‘free’ issue. After reading your writing and a few other posts, I had to write about my concerns and alternative ideas. http://hyokon.blogspot.com/2008/02/in-addition-to-free-part-1-free-is-not.html Hyokon movie downloads This is a fantastic discussion. What is the point of copyright on the internet if everything is a copy of something. Tough one this one. Good topic for discussion. Keith Don’t everyone quit your day job. If service is your product, you’d better get paid for it. Advertising is only a valuble commodity right now because it’s relatively scarce. At what point do consumers get so overwhelmed with adds that they no longer have any value? Someone has to actually produce something somewhere down the road, and they’d better not be trying to do it for free. This isn’t “Star Trek”. Why is everyone so eager to abandon tested principles of economics? Nothing is free. Absolutely nothing. A nation’s wealth is measured by what it produces, not by what it consumes. A company’s wealth is determined by what it sells, not by what it gives away. I’m afraid a lot of people are going to be left chasing their long tails. It’s right up there with the dot.com collapse. There has to be some substance somewhere. seslichat thanks admin, your article is very good WalterRSmith 1. Seems like CONTEXT is a recurring theme…fitting data/information to a specific context is a difficult/valuable task. 2. Resources (physical & non-physical) are only one gating factor in translating knowledge into decisions, actions, and capabilities. Even if (some) resources are free, work is required to contextualize them for a specific need/decision/action. Kevin Kelly Walter, yes, context is the key concept. john toschiba Impressive idea. One of the new rules of marketing is to distribute for no money webmasterlar için good. wendy Beautiful prose, but where is the way you can make money you promised? sinema For a while I’ve been playing with this idea that “copyingâ€� is actually a fundamental human drive. I see it everywhere I look – everything from fashion to linguistics to basic human development – children are obsessive copiers. They often seem to like copying even more than shouting and breaking things. The internet is (similar to the kids), one giant attention-seeking machine, and a big part of it seems to be to do with either propagating memes, or mutating and propagating them – and I’ve also noticed that people tend to think that when they say “check this outâ€�, they’re actually doing the meme a favour. And they’re right. I mean really our whole film izle culture is based on it. If you look around the room you’ll be hard-pushed to find anything that isn’t in some way a copy. Copy, mutate, test… copy, mutate, test… copy, mutate, test… it’s what we do. I think we should be incubating this process, not bottlenecking it. Robert Nagle Here’s another kind of response. wow gold When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.” wow gold It costs nothing to make the second pill, but the first one is very expensive indeed. Manufacturing, even in places like China, requires a great deal more capital investment than it takes to unleash an mp3 on the Net. In the latter case, the Net requires some capital in the form of hardware, but most of it is commoditized and the cost of connecting it is distributed among the backbone providers, ISPs and end users. Almost none of that is true for pharmaceutical manufacturing (or cell phone manufacturing either). www.mario-oyunlari.net Thanks Kevin Superbly insightful and masterfully written. you sure you didn’t COPY it? Marla Mullen Check this out: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/02/20/myspace_working_on_music_service_reports/ MySpace to launch an advertising-supported free music service Alan Dove Very interesting ideas, and almost entirely on the mark, I think. Your final jab at pharmaceuticals, however, is definitely off base. If you ever visit a modern pharmaceutical plant and talk to the chemists running it, you’ll immediately realize that for most medicines, manufacturing is extremely complicated, expensive, and sometimes even dangerous work. It’s also highly regulated, and it should be; a tiny error can turn a batch of therapeutic drugs into a pile of lethal toxins. That’s a level of risk the printing or garment-making industries seldom face. It’s true that pharmaceutical companies also apply huge – sometimes obscenely huge – markups to their products, even beyond what the production costs justify. But that just means they could be sold for less in an intelligently regulated system. That’s quite different wow gold from saying that the production costs are approaching zero. They are not. www.sendeoyunoyna.com Hi Kevin, thank you very much for this! I have found it inspiring, simple and useful! Regards driver indir Kevin, you are absolutely right when you are talking about current marketing trend. Priceless ideas. Must read! Liz Rice Great write-up – I hope it reaches the consciousness of the great-and-good of British creatives (writers / filmakers / actors etc) who thus far have been supporting the crazy ISP tax idea. xiaopy I really enjoyed reading your blog entry about font stuff. I work on websites for louis vuitton damier canvas berkeleythe university I attend, and always enjoy reading about typography. Steve @Brian re: advertising Think of advertising as the current iteration of “Findability” and “Personalization”, only driven by the producer, not the consumer. The 2 primary functions of advertising are 1) inform you of what’s available (Findability), and 2) tell you how the product relates to your needs and/or interests (Personalization). The issue you and many other have with advertising is it’s intrusiveness. But that’s changing as advertising becomes more and more personalized, (driven in large part by digital media that can track individual’s behaviors and activity over time) and delivers personalized messages that relate specifically to your interests and needs. As that model becomes more refined, advertising will become less intrusive and annoying and more useful and “enlightening” in terms of just delivering content your are interested in. Think of movie “trailers” (ads). Trailers for movies you really like don’t feel like intrusive advertising – primarily because it’s something entertaining to you so you enjoy watching it. Trailers for movies that don’t interest you are simply another ad. The more advertising becomes personalized, the more entertaining and useful it will become. That model is still evolving. Alexis Thank you for a hard work putting up together this value added schemes. If I may contribute a bit, I like very much the simple idea that you cannot steal an idea you can only share it. You tell me your idea, then we both have it. While I take your book or cereals, you don’t have it any longer. Copying follows the same principle. I copy something from someone. This someone still has it, ergo I am not stealing. On another point, I was wondering about off shoring at one point when a potential client told me he could get the same service (a web site) for cheaper if he chose some company in India. Service that cannot be off shored imply proximity. Proximity has value as it brings trust and bonds. It also brings a knowledge of the other’s environnement. Maybe you could add proximity to your list of value gerating concept that cannot be copied. Major Bong i read in a book a couple years back…i think it was Thiaboha Prophesy, the French dude that claims he was taken to another planet….he describes their economy in this way….where everything is free and shared and value is proportionate to the demand of the good. so in other words everything is free and shared and when it “goes out of style” and nobody wants it anymore or everyone has it, it’s value is decreased and phased out. A good is only valuable if it has gainful deployment within the community, and the manufacturer of the good gets ….for lack of a better word “perks” for his creation…ie. better standing in the community or a recognition of good deeds by your peers…..in a free society like this this would be a very substantial reward. this was the gist of it….the rest of the book was way out there…I can’t believe this guy has followers. I chatted with one once, and from that I fathomed why, their minds are like a child. FairGO Thank you Mr. Kelly for your wise and helpful comments. They will enable us to help even more voters influence the politicians they elect and pay, so that their governments deliver them better serviceds and policies. FairGO deadbunny The only thing I have to disagree with is the statement that “the product is free but the manual costs $10000″. I see this is an allegory to tech support however Iv yet to see anything rival the information and support that could be gotten from online communists and forums of devoted users. I got my version of photoshop for “free” and never asked adobe for help. If I ever have a problem, all I have to do is type a query into Google and someone is bound to have already asked the same question and an answer is not far behind it. However the rest of the artical is spot on and is basically the only solution (if you want to call the inevitable a solution) to this worlds copyright debacle. Death to the RIAA Burn the MPAA Down with the DMCA (\_/) |O o| `”‘ Brian Massey Just wanted to thank you for your “Better Than Free” manifesto on ChangeThis. It has inspired me to open a discussion on how it applies to tech entrepreneurs over on the Bootstrap Austin blog at http://budurl.com/wfh2. emlak This site is very nice. Thank to this site of Emlak Alper About the tipping thing, I don’t think there are any real studies. Nick Szabo and Clay Shirky seem to have written some stuff. This is what I can turn up right now http://brianwill.net/blog/2007/05/20/tipping-as-a-replacement-for-micropayments/ http://szabo.best.vwh.net/micropayments.html Anyway we’re very curious as we’re trying out tipping in our company (in http://tipit.to) as a way of letting the consumer assess the value of a product when most content is either free or de facto free. Prokofy Neva Ah, the criminal hacker mind at work. I find this post to be counterproductive to building a viable and civilized Metaverse, and I find it to be representative of a tiny, sectarian coders’ mentality that doesn’t represent even the mainstream thinking of all computer programmers, let alone Internet users. Let’s get over all our ga-ga infantile belief that this concept represents some future of work and a solution to the problems of online economies, please, so as not to live in delusion. It needs to been for what it is: an extremist school of thought, a variant of Lessigism or Stallmanism, but not “the truth”. Only one possible but only one sectarian take on the potentials and pitfalls of the Internet. Not a road we *have* to take. No, not everything on the Internet *has to be* copied; people’s intellectual property in digital form should be protected, and in a place like Second Life, in fact it is is protected to a point with a permissions system and a TOS. And that’s ok. We need more robust forms of that. It’s perfectly fine. Napster doesn’t exist anymore; you have to pay per tune. And that’s good. We need to pay per tune because my God, making tunes and producing them is *work*. Copying and distribution of ideas and information and commentary — that’s all good. That need not be impeded. But there are laws defining this, such as “fair use”. It’s not copying that is the foundation of wealth, no, that would be like saying “the foundation of wealth is my wallet because it holds my money.” Infantile! No, content is the foundation of wealth, creation of it, management of it, and all services related to it. Content is not copy: content is the antithesis of the Copybot mentality we see here. Content is created because of the ability to get paid, not because of fake generative capacities that haven’t stood any test of time or peer-reviewed scientific study, but are merely a faddish idea. And how curious that what can in fact be copied is then suddenly, arbitrarily, declared as “original”. Trust can too be copied. Perform enough reliable services, sell enough books that people are happy with on amazon, or dolls on ebay, and you get reputation points that essentially copy, because each new person who comes up then sees your avatar or your name, with its points, and they draw a conclusion: that person is 78 percent or 98 percent reliable. The reputational footprint is endlessly copiable. In Second Life, where copies are free, they aren’t therefore automatically perfectly distributed. That’s a myth. Not all things free are perfectly distributable on the Internet, either. For all kinds of reasons people are willing to pay for an item if it is “just in time,” without the friction of the search — which is the thing you completely forgot about in your copy-happy little universe — and without the friction of the save, which you also forgot about, and without the friction of attention, which you forgot about. Attention costs. We all have only so much of it. We pay it out; attracting it (advertising) and maintaining it (management); these are legitimate and necessary economic activities for which people, with their needs, *must be paid*. Why did I pay for Windows XP? My God, it cost nearly $100 or something when I bought it. Because I got sick of hacker dudes who set up my computer or fixed it copying their many-copied version of their usually virus-laden computers. I got tired of it crashing. I got tired of not being able to call the company for free service or trouble-shooting, because I didn’t have my own jewel box number. So I bought a licensed copy. My computer stopped crashing. I could get service now. And that’s why you pay for software, duh. Your generatives are good up to a point — immediacy — that’s what I mean by “just in time”, the early-bird copy of something coveted, like a game or movie. But regrettably, in the real field practice of a world that already exists with some of the “generative rules” (sounds like Chomskyan transformation grammar, and is as politically correct) that you admire, in fact the way people try to retain value leaking out of IP is by brow-beating. Harassing those who copy. Suspecting those with similar designs of theft. Hating on yard sales. In fact, that repressive behaviour makes people only willing to pay for a free copy even more; those do-gooders who want to enhance their reputation by giving out copies fly into a fury if anyone charges even a dollar — but that’s reasonable, given that you have to use up server space to display the item: yes, server space is a finite resource. It must be paid for. Personalization — ah, the script kiddies just steal the copies and tweak them. They don’t *need* anyone to tweak something when they are already kitted out with every editing program they’ve hacked off warez or wherever. Your notion of interpretation is fanciful. Editors are going to stop editing books and custom-edit a story line just for me and take out the dirty words? Are you daft? That’s ridiculous. They are busy making the next set of books with content, with ORIGINAL content, that they will sell in various ways, because that’s the sensible thing, paying for and keeping valuable *original content*, not pretending that a Hallmark-card treatment of drawing curlicues in the margins is a service that will make a living for writers or publishers. Besides, coding kiddies will script something that does this automatically if somebody needs that done, i.e. a silly “Hello!” and a “are you done reading chapter one yet?” from some bot. So again, no need to pay. But…I can’t have a relationship with an author unless we write to each other something unique; something not copyable; original *content*. The authors I ever heard from answered me because I said something *original*, not a copy. The mode of high-octane paid support for free software is a geekworld notion that can’t apply to an entire economy, even one that people increasingly live online. Because lots of people need garden-variety normal support that isn’t the level of what Red Hat does. They need to learn the routine, the sequences; they need to know what numbers to plug into the various stupid and counterintuitive menus that geeks have warped into most technology. So they need to pay, because geeks’ time does cost something. In fact, the entire open-source fiction is based on this idea of people volunteering and sharing — but they do it always from a *paid-for* platform, a hidden substrate of support they are never willing to admit, or factor into their glamorous shareware/freeware/opensource imaginations. They do it because Mom pays, or the state pays a student loan, or the big IT company pays, or the university pays with a foundation grant and it pays not only a salary, it pays sometimes in lost productivity. Wives pay; children pay; in lack of attention. Somebody *always has to pay* when the hacker/coder/copyleftist mentality runs wild, spending time on his coding and his generatives. Always. SOMEBODY pays. It’s just not them, so they imagine you can build a world like this. With your notion of “interpretation,” you’re saying what I’m saying with the notion of *content* and *originality* and *service*. But not quite, because you are still imagining it is new-age. No need to get fancy — it’s just service. And service needs to get paid per account, and that means per copy. I don’t mind paying $19.95 or $52.95 with a company here or in Czech Republic for an anti-virus software that they update daily for me. I could hack and slash and get their free copy, but will it update? I’ll need a key for that — and isn’t that a good thing? Because I’m paying for their time. I’m keeping their families alive. They need to earn a living. I need a daily update. It’s all good, daily service, but not based on a free copy; based on a trial copy, and then a payment. Your world is devoid of trial copies, and imagines you can just send everything around for free, hack it, tweak it, and everyone will just volunteer to work it, and put out a tip jar. Again, authenticity isn’t about the key; it’s about the update, the service, the *content* as well, as they keep discovering new bugs to fix. Embodiment is at best a fleeting, temporal concept, and not a big market possibility for all things digital. You must not have seen Second Life. You could whip up a book there to hold something that will look and feel real, and even have the sound of pages fluttering, and the look of pages fluttering. Why go to the expense and trouble of actually making wood pulp from trees? It can all be done digitally, really. But…somebody has to *work*. Somebody has to *create something original*. And that means we have to pay. And you have to stop hacking, and be kept from hacking if not by permissions, moral suasion, obfuscation, penalties, then stronger measures. Patronage. Oh, dear. Kids are so naive! They imagine they can busk on the sidewalk forever, and live off tips. What is their plan for purchasing a car to drive to work, a home, kids’ clothing, food? I mean, seriously. We can’t have a world where all the creators, all the writers, artists, designers who have to interpet things all have to live off tip jars, waiting like poor starving artists for their patrons, having to paint rich fat ladies instead of cathedral ceilings because they can’t find patrons for what they want to do. And what of all those interpretive physicians? They have to wait for somebody on ebay or the futuristic Massive Distribution Center of your dreams to give them a good rating, and send them micropayments that they may cash out for a fee to PayPal. Findability isn’t the same thing as search. Search is my freedom to look, to browse, to select. It’s the willingness to pay — in attention, and in money. Findability is your freedom to advertise, market, front, push, try to get me to give something, perhaps only the ability to flick a rating or pass a copy. And studios are already having a hard time trying to make the service of presentation and advertising to help the searcher simply not enough to live on. That’s why CDs have grown more and more expensive. That’s why artists’ contracts are now called 360 degree contracts where not the mere CD is the objective, but a cluster of media appearances and events, like concerts, or a presence in Second Life, are all part of the package. But by itself, with everybody copying, with everybody *stealing*, it won’t be possible to get studios to keep fronting the advance investment in staff, tours, infrastructure, advertising that supports bands. When everbody copies and everybody has a niche following and everybody has only a tip jar they have to keep running NPR-like telethons and mass mailings to get people to pay into, you don’t have a robust, thriving economy, you have college kids on drugs who haven’t figured out how to really support themselves yet. Let me tell you something. The Great Copy Machine in the Sky has a lowly counterpart called the Lowly Trucker on the Road. He’s hauling ass, paying all kinds of expenses for tires and gasoline and DOT permits to try to make a deadline to deliver what you ordered off the Internet — sometimes it’s your dinner, sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s a couch from Ikea. The roads are clogged with these analog folks, working hard, driving all night, listening to C&W, drinking coffee at truck stops. They don’t copy; they’re originals. Driving all day, the truck driver whom you hate because he doesn’t vote for your candidate or goes to church or slings a gun, he’s not on the Internet. Tired at night, he might be in his cabover, or in a motel, or slumped on the couch, watching TV, where he may be the last one looking at commercials — everyone else is watching their free movies from Bittorrent. And…Most people don’t have the geek’s hatred of ads, because ads are what tell them about products, and they aren’t stupid. They have the Internet to do comparison shopping, to talk to each other about products, and they don’t break into a rage over seeing a billboard, or a commercial, they can handle it, in fact, they find some of them quite entertaining. You’re pretending that advertising is extinct. We can look around and see that it has only moved: to bus shelters, taxi cabs, elevators, cell phones, Internet portal pages, Facebook, your game, your world. So, your generatives are only very partial; or even just downright wrong as concepts. That’s because they just represent one school of thought, one nearly-religious conviction of geekworld, that code is law, that everything is copyable, that everything should be free for the entitlement-happy. Seriously. The deep flaw in your argumentation is in your very last sentence if you would but remove the blinders. So I’m writing, all right, because until you do get it, you’ll be a menace, copying and copybotting and making kids think they can steal, and undermine adults’ ability to make a living. If generatives need so much *work* to survive, if the tip jar must always be passed around and pushed in your face; if you must endlessly tie up the entire Internet providers’ line with your giant Bittorrent download, if you must constantly post on blogs and berate people for not accepting that they should just give away everything, so you must accomplish by ideology and coercion what you can’t achieve by common-sense, what do you have? You have, ultimately, only a vast hippie commune, or worse, you have a totalitarian system. Yes, that’s what is required for such a scheme to survive — and trust me, it’s been done, there have been central distributive systems with endless goods redistributed in planned system, and they only led to crime, and the deaths of millions. They don’t work. People need originals. They need private property, not distribution of everybody else’s. They need to get paid. Of course, there’s something quite wrong with this picture, that they understand the minute the electricity goes out, the coal is unavailable to burn, the miners died in a mining collapse, the water dries up, the nuclear power station shuts down due to human error (perhaps a hacker’s computer program didn’t work). Then the Internet dies, with all its 8 generatives. The Great Copy Machine in the Sky turns out to be the Great Pet Rock in the Sky, and people go back to digging in their gardens. Prokofy Video Klip ***/// Excellent stuff. The key to unlocking new business models Jim Rait Thoughtful article that generated many “provocations” in the Edward de Bono sense. When we pay for an iPod and load it with tunes from ITMS aren’t we buying into the knowledge created by Apple’s people? They have over the years learned a design aesthetic that defines an authentic product (all others are copies of little value); they have learned how to dealmake with the movie and music moguls, and individual bands; they have learned how to put the pieces of a system together that delivers value for the customer; they have recognised consumer/customer/user needs at various levels and recognise our aspirations…. which makes other people in the industr(y)(ies) struggle to reproduce. We pay a lot (but the price is reducing) to get the box but ongoing membership of the ‘crowd’ is not too prohibitive and there is payback in terms of our own ‘authentic’ playlists which are discussed in pubs, clubs, radio programmes and used for real-time adaptation of live programmes and performances… now which bits are free and how do we (developers) cover our investment in them? rchz Very nice article. Insightful. I’d like to add that i think “Quality” is an intangible which cannot be copied. While it is possible to copy works which are high in quality, copying a low quality work does not make it high quality. Quality is usually associated with price, but not always. It easy to find high-priced items that are low quality. Thus, culture strive for this ideal of quality. I was surprised not to find it on the list. I believe it is still true that, for those who appreciate it, people will pay for the intangible of quality. Even as both are mass produced, a silver knife will fetch a higher price than a plastic one, and a well-crafted one an even higher price, not simply because it is a brand name, but because its made better. Kevin Kelly @rchz Quality can sometimes be copied. Sometimes counterfeits can be exact, in which case quality has been copied. Often a counterfeit is not perfect and quality is lost. Exactly quality-equal counterfeits are much more common and likely in the digital world. In theory I can make an equal quality copy of a piece of software that is no less than the original. In the material world — right now – it is much harder to make a perfect copy. seejay james I found this blog to be very interesting and relevant. Kevin lists 8 categories of “attributes of things, ideas, or people” which cause them to be worth something — in the sense that while certain elements of said categories can be had for free (usually due to electronic distribution and access), there exists something about these elements which many people will be willing to pay for. As an example, one of the categories is “Accessibility”, and the example he gives is of a fictitious Acme Music Company, similar to an iTunes server. As consumers of music, we may be interested in keeping some of our favorite tunes around, but it’s even nicer if we can have access to any music we want, whenever we want, without necessarily having to store it locally. We also want to easily be able to see what other music is available, and to sample it. This is only possible through the combination of a large, central storehouse and the software to access it, and by extension, the ability of the storehouse to afford to provide the service. To do so, they need to make money — so if users are willing to pay for the ease of access and the breadth of selection, such arrangements can survive even in a world where much of the actual CONTENT is available for free elsewhere. The parallels with many other kinds of information are clear, and for those of us in education, quite relevant: gone are the days of massive bookshelves and card catalogs, since no matter how many physical materials one might have (or have ready access to) there is no possible way to compare with electronic access (which provides access to ALL information available, provided it can be found and is available for free or for a reasonable cost). Do we really want to store all this information locally? Add to this massive list (of the obvious resources like journals and books) a second massive list of the new forms of media and communication (like blogs or podcasts), and the possibilities are truly endless. No longer will information gather dust on a shelf simply because it was not deemed “publishable”; it can be put out there virtually free. Additionally, no longer will some available information never be read by anyone because it’s tucked away on the top shelf; its searchable text and “meta tags” are stored for ready access by the right keywords. The nature of copy-and-paste literacy may be frightening to some and a godsend to others, but it is here to stay and brings with it a completely new take on what it means to be educated or to be smart. As educators and learners, we must keep hammering away at these ideas and be willing to change our traditional thinking, or we will rapidly lose ground to progress. Copying is a double-edged sword in that while one gets ready access to information or answers, the process of discovery has been essentially sidestepped, and to fully understand what one has, more time needs to be spent with it. Whether one takes this time will depend on a number of factors, and indeed, many times it simply is not worth it for one reason or another. I have seen this time and time again when learning specific technicalities with computers (programming in particular), both with myself and with my peers. This is a rather special case, but the overall idea still holds: understanding new information requires a “place to put it”—a context—or it won’t have the meaning that it could. And with the vast amounts of new information available anytime, this issue will be important for the foreseeable future. Max Hyperbole Of course, for most established commercial interests (producers, investors, as well as the entrepreneurs that innovate with them in mind), “better than free” will probably be regarded as “better” ONLY if “free” is truly accepted as the sole alternative. Unfortunately, it’s still too soon to call that contest: http://baselinescenario.com/2009/06/22/what-next-for-the-global-crisis/#comment-18534 Addiction is a kind of “necessity,” and we may yet find that the addiction to scarcity-based business models can foster all sorts of clever but ultimately tragic maladaptations… M Agile Cyborg The future of technology is in the hands of simpleton thieves. The ISP police ARE coming down the pike. Nothing but enforcement at the source will minimize common digital theft. No thoughtful conjecture, rant, rail or ponderous post will create a solution stemming the theft-tide. In the end, the thieves will HAVE to be controlled which WILL kill the internet. Back to square one- hard goods. pornografik Fascinating and well condensed view sounds like a book in the works If not there should be! arama motoru optimizasyonu most medicines, manufacturing is extremely complicated, expensive, and sometimes ing is to distribute for free, as much of your materials and ideas as possible time worrying that there are not enough people to buy what you are selling, you ptively simple. It contains the key to unlocking business models in the ‘pirate’ world and thansk mike It’s true that pharmaceutical companies also apply huge – sometimes obscenely huge – markups to their products, even beyond what the production costs justify. But that just means they could be sold for less in an intelligently regulated system. That’s quite different from saying that the production costs are approaching zero. They are not.Antalya Escort One of the new rules of marketing is to distribute for free, as much of your materials and ideas as possible. Thanks for reminding us that this strategy only works with the underlying generatives in place. Natasna I have found two interesting sources http://fileshunt.com and http://filesfinds.com and would like to give the benefit of my experience to you. Random Dude “Better than free” is a colossal joke. The idea that musicians, movie studios, software companies, etc. will be able to keep producing high-quality information by selling tech support and T-shirts is totally batshit insane, and only fools believe it (to say nothing of the fact that the people producing the tech support and T-shirts need not have produced the original work in the first place, this removing even that measly incentive for innovation). It’s hilarious to read all these Warren Buffetts around the web lecturing productive people on how they need to “change their business models” when there are very few business models that can work on the basis of giving everything away, and never have been, which is why copyright protection came into being in the first place. Why can’t anti-IP advocates be intellectually honest and admit that they are massively reducing the incentives for innovation by making it impossible for people to produce information for a living? Kevin Kelly Random Dude, the drive towards the free is not caused by IP legislation and will not be remedied by IP legislation. It doesn’t matter what anti- or pro-IP advocates do; digital properties will continue to slide toward the free, on average. Hölli Vals Hey Kevin. I just saw the YouTube video about web 3.0 and I have had this idea about our future economy. It’s a bit in tune with the Zeitgeist film. See, if all of our knowledge was shared, we couldn’t make money of it. I’m a musician and I kinda have the feeling that in the future people will pay for live performances, because we have computer software that is very close to sounding like a musical instrument, with a modelled human touch. So, if a person that has never played the guitar, can click a button and sound like Jimi Hendrix, than what is the coolness about all this digital music really? Infact, I think that the more advanced this gets, the less interesting it becomes. We are still in awe over a youngster that can make the violin cry and we will definately be in even more awe when a person can actually do with their fingers that what we can do in an iPhone application. So I say. Give it all out for free, it will give more value to the ones that work for it. In the meantime I will continue selling my music to try and make a living magic very thanks for article elliot Hi Kevin, thank you very much for this! I have found it inspiring, simple and useful! Regards, Thanks for the insightful post. Alicia Mann You rock. World needs more souls like you. Conor Neu Fantastic. I just came across this blog today and am already an addict. This is providing great inspiration and direction for current business plans we are working on. I hope to be able to point to this one day and say “This article drove that decision and is why it worked.” Emily W. Sussman Thank you, Mr. Kelly… both to you and your readers. The original post was an elegant and persuasive piece; the comments are a testimony to how influential you are (and, hopefully, there’s some correlation with that and you being proved right). Jonathan Hayward I’m an author, and your remarks were encouraging to read. My main site is at http://JonathansCorner.com/ , and the business side is meant to be freeconomics or better than free: “Full text is online to read for free; I’ll try to make it as nice an experience as I can and as easily available as I can. If you’d like to buy a nice hardcover book you can curl up with, I’d be happy to sell you one.” It was quite nice for me to read you article. dedektiflik This essay is sheer brilliance, Mr. Kelly. I have sent it to many people since I first read it and have gotten even more value out of it re-reading it myself today. I base my future on it no less. Thank you Louis Your site is amazing.I am very impressed to see this,i want to come back for visiting your site.Keep doing Good as well as you can.. Susan Coils Some very interesting and insightful thoughts. I like this. Susan seslichat It’s very interesting to take the 8 “generativesâ€� as a model and put existing business through it … do they fit? do they still work? is there still den I’d like to ask Major Bong about the book he mentioned – the Thiaboha Prophesy – I couldn’t find any details – do you know the author’s name or full title? David Price I found this very inspirational and thought provoking. I run a “Free” writers community and bookstore. Right now I’m creating a magzine dedicated to the members of both and have yet to determine how to “Sell” it. I would love to have you write an article along these lines stating how your concepts would help self published authors. Get back to me when you can. Impressive. Best, David Price founder of http://www.coldcoffee.ning.com Video Klip ***/// Your point about personalization reminds me of Duarte.com’s quote: “There’s no shortage of content in the world—but there is a huge need for editing.â€� Thanks for the insightful post. Alex Schleber Great post, even 1.2 years later. Just forwarded it to everyone, and posted to Twitter twice… yes, it’s that important. Dexter Bryant Jr Brilliant post. I completely agree with your points. It is impossible to prevent the proliferation of mp3 super-distribution. Using these 8 generatives is a sure-fire way to still make money with music in the current economic climate and going forward in the future. Peace+Love+Music d.BRYJ http://hitmusicacademy.wordpress.com http://twitter.com/dBRYJmusic http://youtube.com/dbryjmusic Alan Dove Very interesting ideas, and almost entirely on the mark, I think. Your final jab at pharmaceuticals, however, is definitely off base. If you ever visit a modern pharmaceutical plant and talk to the chemists running it, you’ll immediately realize that for most medicines, manufacturing is extremely complicated, expensive, and sometimes even dangerous work. It’s also highly regulated, and it should be; a tiny error can turn a batch of therapeutic drugs into a pile of lethal toxins. That’s a level of risk the printing or garment-making industries seldom face. It’s true that pharmaceutical companies also apply huge – sometimes obscenely huge – markups to their products, even beyond what the production costs justify. But that just means they could be sold for less in an intelligently regulated system. That’s quite different from saying that the production costs are approaching zero. They are not. chat As a musician trying to get his product out I love this article because it speaks to me. One thing I’ve always told artist friends or bands getting into the business is; their product is no more valuable than a pack of cigarettes. What would make someone smoke this brand over that? What would make someone buy your disc over another and why would someone download your piece of music over another even if it is free? The truth is the only a handful of artists have ever made real money in the music business when you compare it the amount of people the business has buried. It is an industry based on failure. Technology only levels the playing field in regards to distribution (you still have to build a fanbase for longterm success.) The eight generatives I feel are essential to anyone looking to build a career in this business today. Yes, there are things that can be added or tweaked ever so slightly but for what it’s worth I feel like I’ve just been let out of jail reading this article. You’ve put into words what I had been feeling for a long time and I thank you. Oto kiralama I completely agree with your points. It is impossible to prevent the proliferation of mp3 super-distribution. Using these 8 generatives is a sure-fire way to still make money with music in the current economic climate and going forward in the future. Jay Ehret One of the new rules of marketing is to distribute for free, as much of your materials and ideas as possible. Thanks for reminding us that this strategy only works with the underlying generatives in place. Wildclaw “When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.” A good eassy. I just wanted to comment on the above quote. I think I know what you mean, but the words worhless and valuable aren’t really correct here. Unfortunally, there aren’t really any convienient words to use instead, so I fully understand why you use them. An items value doesn’t change when its supply changes, unless the value of the item is specifically dependent on the supply (collector items, money, bragging items). Value is merely the top limit of the price. When supply is scarce, the value will be very near the selling price. However, the more abundant a goods is (air, water, copies), the bigger a difference you get between value and price. So, goods that become super abundant still maintain their worth. You just can’t charge for them, since the supply outreaches the demand. George Johnson Kevin, You have some interesting thoughts – and some interesting detractors. Some would argue that free copying has come and gone, but your point persists. Entire companies exist to service open source, which can be copied an infinite number of times. Of course that model deviates from your basic tenant – the open source is basically an “LE” (Limited Edition). Most open source service companies provide a full feature, scalable enterprise version for a hefty license fee. This is then fundamentally different than your premise. On the other hand, no Digital Rights Management system ever devised has withstood the test of time/hacker scrutiny. From that perspective, information and applications may continue to be copied and illegally transmitted. I don’t think any legislative or enforcement system will ever put an end to that. Back to your thesis though; I think you need to add one called “reliability”. This embodies the three elements of a classic security program (confidentiality, integrity, availability), but do so in a way that provides confidence that software or services will work when and as needed. This is a value added service surrounding software and hardware that can’t be found simply by copying something from someone else since “reliability” is truly the output of good processes (human factors). One of your generatives hint at this through “trust”, but reliability is a more fundamental building block that also leads to trust. Trust grows from having a product that delivers on expectations repeatably. Reliability is that foundation. Authenticity is great, but authentic software can be run “unreliably” leading to lack of trust even if the product is authentic. Even authentic software can have bugs and problems that must be remediated through “reliable” services, such as managing a firewall, IDS/IPS, Web Application Firewall, keeping spam filters updated, providing “reliable” patching services to our constituents/servers, etc… I hope you can see that Reliability is a function of human activity that is not replicatable and deserves it’s spot in the sun. George Tara Jacobsen This seems to dovtail nicely with the concepts of scarcity and abundance. If you spend all you time worrying that there are not enough people to buy what you are selling, you will wind up holding on to bad clients way longer than you should. Where if you believe there is an abundance of business for everyone and that the people best suited to your talents and working with you will find you, you have so many more opportunities for increased production but also a more pleasant life! John Koetsier Great article. It’s very interesting to take the 8 “generatives” as a model and put existing business through it … do they fit? do they still work? is there still profit to be made? One thing: I think we need to differentiate between truly free and virtually free. The “copy machine” operates because people like me buy internet access, people like you buy server space, companies like NetNation, my host, buy and offer rackspace, and companies like the telcos provision and rent lines. Incremental cost of using them is nil or almost nil, but you and I support this invisible giant copy machine in a very real way. Chris Lyons Your point about personalization reminds me of Duarte.com’s quote: “There’s no shortage of content in the world–but there is a huge need for editing.” Thanks for the insightful post. Dennis This is very smart and deceptively simple. It contains the key to unlocking business models in the ‘pirate’ world and ‘ long tails’ I suspect VCs should have these bullet points as a mental checklist before funding a project Ed Gerck In the digital economy, we had to learn how to copy trust and we did. For example, SSL would not work if trust could not be copied. So, this point needs a correction by Kelly. How do we copy trust? By recognizing that because trust cannot be communicated by self-assertions, trust cannot be copied by self-assertions either. To trust something, you need to receive information from sources OTHER than the source you want to trust, and from as many other sources as necessary according to the extent of the trust you want. With more trust extent, you are more likely to need more independent sources of verification. To copy trust, all you do is copy the information from those channels in a verifiable way and add that to the original channel information. We do this all the time in scientific work: we provide our findings, we provide the way to reproduce the findings, and we provide the published references that anyone can verify. To copy trust in the digital economy, we provide digital signatures from one or more third-parties that most people will trust. This is how SSL works. The site provides a digital certificate signed by a CA that most browsers trust, providing an independent channel to verify that the web address is correct — in addition to what the browser’s location line says. Reference: “Trust as qualified reliance on information” in http://nma.com/papers/it-trust-part1.pdf and Digital Certificates: Applied Internet Security by J. Feghhi, J. Feghhi and P. Williams, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-20-130980-7, 1998. Kevin Kelly Ed Gerck, that is an interesting notion — that trust can be copied, if you copy all the info about it. Say you copy all the data in an ebay reputation, would that duplicated the trust perfectly? I think it would be conveyed only if the new host of the inforamtion — the ebay wannabe — had an equal reputation. If some sleazy fly-by night company hosted the reputation even though it was perfectly copied, it would not hold the same trust. So I think it is more complicated. But it is worth thinking about. Thanks. cam balkon Value is merely the top limit of the price. When supply is scarce, the value will be very near the selling price. However, I don’t get how you’re seeing these as being definitively associated with “the path as attention Cam Balkon Dennis Excellent stuff. The key to unlocking new business models Bob Konigsberg Thank you for writing this Kevin. Your essay helps me put my own value to the marketplace into perspective. I do independent IT work, and (in your terms), what I’m selling is: Trust (People trust my solutions) Immediacy (fixing it faster than others can) Interpretation (I’ll explain in plain English) Bob martin atkins and, the solution to a problem (or pereceived) that you create in the first place. Great article – thanks martin Nick Taylor That was interesting – thank you. For a while I’ve been playing with this idea that “copying” is actually a fundamental human drive. I see it everywhere I look – everything from fashion to linguistics to basic human development – children are obsessive copiers. They often seem to like copying even more than shouting and breaking things. The internet is (similar to the kids), one giant attention-seeking machine, and a big part of it seems to be to do with either propagating memes, or mutating and propagating them – and I’ve also noticed that people tend to think that when they say “check this out”, they’re actually doing the meme a favour. And they’re right. I mean really our whole culture is based on it. If you look around the room you’ll be hard-pushed to find anything that isn’t in some way a copy. Copy, mutate, test… copy, mutate, test… copy, mutate, test… it’s what we do. I think we should be incubating this process, not bottlenecking it. James Lewin Kevin Great article – one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve read this week. In addition to your list of eight generatives, though, you should consider adding usability. A great example of how people will pay for great usability is the success of the iTunes music store. A few years ago, people thought that Napster & the Internet would be the end of the music industry. There were failed music sites by the horde. Apple analyzed how free music worked on the Internet. Then they came up with something that was so much more usable that people have been happy to give the company 4 billion dollars to download music they probably could have downloaded for free. Part of iTunes’ success at competing with free can be attributed to immediacy and findability. But they aren’t why people have paid the premium. iTunes utility and usability turned something that had been fairly dodgy into something easy and fun. 4 billion dollars of easy and fun – way better than free! www.libertytravel.com Yup, the name of the game is copy copy copy…like Picasso said good artists copy great artists steal. Doppiafila Hi Kevin, thank you very much for this! I have found it inspiring, simple and useful! Regards, Doppiafila kelebeek.net One of the new rules of marketing is to distribute for free, as much of your materials and ideas as possible.Thanks for reminding us that this strategy only works with the underlying generatives in place. Hashim Warren I would have paid you for this type of blog post you just gave away for free! I would like suggest you add one moe thing to your list – consumers are willing to pay for Community. If you build a Community around your media, people will pay to be in it. One of the reasons I paid for the NY Times Select online is because it allowed me to be one of the few to leave comments in their special sections. Too bad they didn’t leverage that feeling all the way. I think people would pay to be in a NY Times full blown social network. Also, sometimes I listen to music just to have something to talk about with my friends. Community is valuable, and something worth paying for. Andres Monroy-Hernandez Really interesting ideas. I wonder if some of the “generatives” can be completely user-supported (and therefore free as well). For example, in some way you could think of BitTorrent as a user-supported immediacy system. You could also imagine a user-supported findability system that works on top of a social network. In some ways those would not be purely free, but based on the idea that I am willing to donate unused CPU cycles and bandwidth to a larger cause. hyokon I agree with your ideas. The only problem is that most of them require extra efforts or resources. I am not sure if it is a better world where a hungry rock band should be good at figuring these other ways as well as creating good musics. Hungry artists just may not have the luxury of ‘experimenting’ a free contents like a Stanford professor does. So, I would like to suggest another, which is sharing profits with hardwares like PC, handset, network, storages. I have a belief that where there is usage there have to be profits. At the moment, the problem with the music is that there are a lot of profits, which are just distributed unfairly. I am writing mass niche(http://paragraphr.com/pages/show/11), and I think contents must be one of the best markets in which the creative smalls can flourish. Market economy, which has been based on physicial goods, just has not developed well for digitized contents yet. We need to figure it out. Kevin Kelly Hyokon, I think it will take extra effort no matter what. If you figure out a better way, please let us know. Matthew Jansen Thought provoking, as always. I suspect that two of your generative categories (findability and accessibility) are actually two expressions of the same issue: where’s that ‘thing’ I need? Accessibility refers to a ‘thing’ that I’ve already bought or used; findability refers to a ‘thing’ that I have not yet bought or used. Perhaps you can combine the two as “locatability”? And this is where it connects (in part) to the function of advertising – letting me know where to locate the right thing when I’ve already decided I need it. (As opposed to the other part of advertising, telling me about something I didn’t know I needed yet.) The weakness of the advertising model is that, as a consumer, I really need an agent working for me (not for the producer) to have confidence that I have found the best ‘thing’ at the best price. Janek Excellent article! Let’s just hope some of the big corporations read it too… Richard Smith Is the use of power lines in your picture on purpose? It seems an unlikely (although vivid) way for “copies” to move through the network. I know there have been advances in power line networking but mainline power transmission towers are not what people think of when they think of copying data. On the other hand, we now know that the energy cost of information technology is non-trivial and a factor in global warming, so perhaps this is a comment on the cost of “free?” HakaN Kevin, thanks for the thought-provoking post. As someone working in a tech product launch and PR company, I sense there are now, and will be many more ways, to communicate generative value in ways that will benefit both business and consumers. Scotch Thanks for the most interesting and thought-provoking article. As a photographer who has witnessed radical shifts in the stock photography industry and who’s finding it ever more difficult to sell images, I’ve been toying with offering free images, monetized by advertising. Now your eight “generatives” have given me fresh options to consider. Three that immediately spring to mind for digital images are Authenticity, Accessibility, and Findability. Next step is to acquire the new skill set you mention. Brian If all these services for personalization and findability were really doing their jobs effectively, there would be no need for advertising. Instead, people would pay for these services rather than paying money to vendors who have to buy ads in order to find audiences. It would be a much more pleasant model. I personally can’t stand advertising and use AdBlockPlus and DVRs to block it out as much as possible. I would definitely pay to rid the world of advertising. Geroges Kevin, You wrote a wonderful article that summarize my thoughts too. The eight generatives represent great challenges for the “labels” but great opportunities for new comers! Bravo! Geroges Bookie Unfortunately, the US courts don’t feel the same way. Steve Great post!! I just have to copy it Beyondsight Your article is interesting .And most of what you say has validity . But I would not feel comfortable without once again bringing up the other side of the ugly coin which I think you should also address for the sake of artists and musicians everywhere who cannot afford to initially provide most of their work free. No one seems to ever deal with the financial costs of artists equipment although cheaper than before is not free. Recording time , Mastering is not free.Hiring vocalists and other musicians are not free. Sure Stars and groups that have made up it already can give all of their songs away for free.People may speak of how Prince gives away his music well this wasn’t always the case. Radiohead another example can give away 4 albums and they would still be ok.Now your post did inspire this idea we can approach this from ok I ‘ll give my music away but by my songbook which costs more than the cd or my membership which costs even more. Musicians will give away music but they have to earn a living. If they are not performing they still have to make money. I’m not against providing any music for free but as with anything there should be some limit or else Musicians will quit. You see because once everyone thinks music all songs should be free . Everything else will follow.shows will be free. Memberships free. and so on and on and of course the work is de-valued. why should anyone pay for anything it’s all free..If you don’t pay your internet bill you can’t access the internet. I don’t totally disagree with everything you’ve said.It’s what you don’t say that leaves Musicians in the dark. Why buy your books ? people can just download them for free. I’m sure that musicians want fans and are willing to provide some songs free but let’s face it . Musicals instruments are not free. Manufacturing a Cd is not free and costs have to be factored.It’s simply not worth it to record a CD anymore. In the meantime I’ll concentrate on the generatives while I’m waiting to eat or pay some bills. or perhaps before death those magical generatives will come and save the very poor and hungry starving artists. Generatives are good but so is selling a few tracks, a membership , an umbrella , a frisbee, a watch because Mp3s are dead. If that’s not possible Musicians should quit and sell t-shirts. Because economically right now it’s suicide to make a cd. unless you’re songs are about backsides.Oh here’s a new album title Generatives and Backsides. My personal theory is forget i-tunes. and let musicians deal with their fans directly.I-tunes is in bed with labels who really don’t benefit artist much. It’s better business for musicians and fans .It’s one big happy family You,your fans, and Paypal. Not you, your fans , apple-itunes, major labels , snocap and paypal.when the division is done their isn’t much left. Thanks kevin Peace!(smile) Jay Fienberg Great essay. And, your “Eight Generatives Better Than Free” are super-useful. But, I don’t get how you’re seeing these as being definitively associated with “the path as attention,” when you say: “. . .the money in this networked economy does not follow the path of the copies. Rather it follows the path of attention . . .” You also put “attention” in a similarly important position in your defining of findability and your argument for the ongoing role of publishers, studios, and labels. I am aware of the “attention economy” meme, but in this context, I’d wonder if “attention” (e.g., “eye-balls”) is still a scarcity-economy way of thinking about the paths where our money will flow. In particular, I believe it’s being used as a very quantity-oriented term, and your generatives are notably quality-oriented concepts. So, beyond just attention, there’s: relationship, connection, resonance. . . Shanti @ Antishay This is brilliant. I have to much to ponder on and take in – thank you so much for writing this! As an entrepreneur and multiple small=business owner, this has given me some serious food for thought about the direction for my businesses and my personal and financial life in the next 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 years. You are a particularly eloquent writer, and I am so happy that you provided the article in Italian too! Stor Perde Thank you for a hard work putting up together this value added schemes. If I may contribute a bit, I like very much the simple idea that you cannot steal an idea you can only share it… Gerrit I fully agree with you. For years I’ve been emphasizing that in an age of reproduction (see Walter Benjamin) we have to focus on authenticity instead of copyright matters. For instance, in the music industry, distributing “canned” music for free; will make live-performances more spectacular, experimental and authentic. Selling cd’s after the show (of the show), like Prince does, is mainly interesting for the ones who attended. Gerd Leonhard Kevin, great stuff here. You and your readers may enjoy my essays I just published on “The End of Control” at http://www.endofcontrol.com – very much along the same lines. “Attention is the New Currency Forget the Idea of “Controlling Distribution…” leo It is a really interesting place to be. To find the answer one has to look back in History. Just not sure which bit at the moment. Danielly Netto There isn’t much I can say that hasn’t been said already. All I know is that this is best single piece of writing I have come across from looking at academic journal articles, magazines, newspapers that actually fits perfectly with my research on sustainable business models in the Creative Industries, I wish I could bring you to the UK to speak at all of my workshops! And to top it all you are a spiritual person which makes me believe that if you follow your bliss, you end up with a brilliant blog! I will be reading anything you publish on paper or online or on whatever medium comes next. All the best Shawn@MoneyBrick Wow! This is one of the most fascinating blog entries I’ve read ever since starting to read blogs. It really lays out the future shape of our Capitalist society and how it looks like it’s going to function. It’s true, too, that those who want to thrive in the future world of Capitalism must realize all you’ve said. Thank-you for such a great analysis. Kevin Kelly Shawn, I wouldn’t go that far. Not everything will be free. I don’t think it changes capitalism. Gary Gaglirdi Most interesting article I’ve read in a long time though I think your eight embodiments are a subset of larger number of similar attributes that ar themselves a reflection of far fewer underlying factors. Yes, information is easily copied, but information is nothing. The number of leaves on a tree in my back yard is hard information. No one cares and no one ever will. So, what makes information relavant? First, the information must serve a purpose. Next, information must take a useful form. Finally, information must be better than alternative competing information. The “leaves on tree” information fails the first test (as does most information on the net and any given moment). However, a lot of internet information fails the second test because the internet only copies CODED information, where the code can interpreted an electronic devide to be understood by a human. All types of information, for example different flavors, are impossible to encodem but the most important information that it cannot copy are functional skills. For example, I can explain guitar playing on the internet, but people have to practice that skill to obtain it in a useful form. Finally, that leaves us with better and worse informaton. Quality matters. Newton is fine unless you are launching a space craft and then you need Einstein. DERDO This site is very nice. Thank to this site Sesli Chat. I thank my friend told a very good admin. Michael Clark A very interesting summary, with lots of thoughts to keep in mind. Question: What is PDL? Is that supposed to be PSL? peyzaj Kevin Great article – one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve read this week. In addition to your list of eight generatives, though, you should consider adding usability. A great example of how people will pay for great usability is the success of the iTunes music store. A few years ago, people thought that Napster & the Internet would be the end of the music industry. There were failed music sites by the horde. Apple analyzed how free music worked on the Internet. Then they came up with something that was so much more usable that people have been happy to give the company 4 billion dollars to download music they probably could have downloaded for free. Part of iTunes’ success at competing with free can be attributed to immediacy and findability. But they aren’t why people have paid the premium. iTunes utility and usability turned something that had been fairly dodgy into something easy and fun. http://www.optimumpeyzaj.com 4 billion dollars of easy and fun – way better than free! Mathew Patterson Fantastic article Kevin, and so very applicable to the current web application market. It truly is possible to charge (and charge well) for something that can be obtained for free. The key is to make sure your customers are getting something extra for their money, and to be convinced yourself that you are offering them something worth paying for. Gabriel Schubiner First of all, I’d like to say that I really enjoyed the article; it offers a great summarization of possible answers to the difficult questions everyone in the content business is asking. Just one note, though, in your paragraph on accessibility, you claim that the services like your fictional acme co. will pay creators, but this doesn’t seem very likely. if i and you can access the content for free, it doesn’t seem as though it would be in the interest of the company to pay for it. i agree with you that aggregation and organization is a valuable service, but the artists are still going to be left hanging on this one. not that there aren’t other means to fund artists, just wanted to bring it up as a point of discussion. it seems that the other services are more suited to funding creators. Jake Thanks for this essay: some of its issues are ones I actually deal with at Grant Writing Confidential. What we sell is a classic example of something that can’t be copied: expertise. The New York Times wrote an article on the phenomenon. But the long-term implications are still difficult to ascertain. Saying so is just another way of stating the question. phoenix Very interesting; thanks for this. As a musician I’m exploring new ways to connect with people who like/would like what I do. But I’m also a photographer, and there’s an equally huge shift in the ‘value’ of images at the moment. Many of the Generatives above apply equally to this medium. So far Immediacy seems to work against photographers, whilst Personalisation, Embodiment, Authenticity and Patronage work for us. keep up the good writing. Phoenix Cristóbal M. Palmer Nice food for thought. Would-be web entrepreneurs would do well to read this. I’m a student working with ibiblio.org, which provides a lot of stuff for free and runs on donations. I see a lot of what we try to do articulated neatly above, but I’d be interested in your take on ibiblio. We think of ourselves as a library, so some questions in that vein: What are the generatives of libraries? It’s not really “free” if it’s funded by taxes, is it? How does that (taxes, presumably costs we care enough about to socialize?) fit in with the generatives? Some websites that serve a library-like mission (archive.org, wikipedia, ibiblio.org) do NOT rely on advertising at all. How does that fit with what you’ve said above? Michel Bauwens Dear Kevin, thanks for that excellent article; at the end, you mention material production as the next frontier for nearly-free copy-ability. That is exactly what we are following in this specialized section of the P2P Foundation wiki, which monitors peer production in the ‘physical’ sphere, see: URL = http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Design Thanks for the interest, Michel Bauwens Nicholas Bentley Thanks for sharing this essay and your list of eight ‘Generatives’ that are more valuable than free. This is exactly the philosophy I am trying to promote in the Rights Office system [1]. A system that accepts that copies have no value and promotes the real value in the system; the original creative input and anyone who contributes to this creativity. It does this by producing an environment that benefits all users who actively contribute while keeping basic access to the content free for those in need. I use a few of your generatives, under slightly different headings, in the ‘Incentives to buy section’ (section 6) and your comprehensive list will be useful to me. Best, Nicholas [1] Trading Rights to Digital Content (pdf), http://preview.tinyurl.com/2kneyf ev arkadaşı Bravo Excellent article! Let’s just hope some of the big corporations read it too… Emile Petrone Well said! I’m going to send a link back to this post. I have been trying to put words to what the new economy will be, and you stated it much better than I ever could. Natalie Great article! I’m loving your website; first, i read your “1000 True Fans” following a link on Just Plain Folks forum and now i’m checking out other posts, i like what you’re saying izle I would have paid you for this type of blog post you just gave away for free! I would like suggest you add one moe thing to your list – consumers are willing to pay for Community. If you build a Community around your media, people will pay to be in it. One of the reasons I paid for the NY Times Select online is because it allowed me to be one of the few to leave comments in their special sections. Too bad they didn’t leverage that feeling all the way. I think people would pay to be in a NY Times full blown social network. Also, sometimes I listen to music just to have something to talk about with my friends. Community is valuable, and something worth paying for. Bruce Newell This is a very interesting essay. It builds, helpfully, on Stewart Brand’s idea that information wants to be both free and expensive. Thank you for sharing it here. I’d add the idea that convenience adds value, in fact, that convenience drives end-users’ decisions more than many of the qualities you listed. This does not minimize their importance, but it does set the mark for those seeking to provide services (particularly when struggling with the tension between providing services that are good-fast-cheap; it’s easy to provide any two of the three). Thanks again for your essay. Gyutae Park Great article, one of the best I’ve read on the topic. I think the music industry can learn a thing or 2 about this free model… Annie McQuade You rock. Your blog rocks. I like your focus on intangibles. I think you’re on to something. I saw a lot of comments about how “it can’t be free! it can’t be free!”, but I think when we go down that road we loose sight of the ways that a 2.0 (or 3.0) environment will actually make money. Saying, “we have to make money,” is blocking people from seeing the patterns and trends already out there. When they can’t see what is actually happening in this environment, they can’t see how eventually they will make money from it. And to make money in this environment, I think you have to be willing to experiment in ways that may not make money, but will certainly, at the very least, create very interested and dedicated customers. Again, you rock. Thanks for this blog. Annie Will I give away my songs and some guitar lessons for free as ‘lead generators’. Then I sell access to my video guitar courses through a membership site. I’m not into touring and selling the experience that way anymore. I prefer to interact online to a global market. Bands or independent musicians can sell access to their ‘behind the scenes’ content like songwriting, tours, gigs, etc using a membership site with different price points. I show you how to do this at http://membershipschool.com/selling-access baseball cap Nice article. I could not bear to send my parents to a nursing home. In home care is the way for me Ed Interesting read, but at some point those deciding to support through their patronage a Radiohead song had to generate the money for that patronage from either selling a product themselves (that someone at some point *had to pay for*) or selling their labour to produce a product for someone else (that someone *had to pay for*). ‘Free’ is all well and good, but at some point people *have* to pay for it. Consumers may be willing to pay for qualities that you describe as “generatives” and not other stuff that is freely available online, however at some point a consumer still has to pay a creator for their work else the creator starves! The creator, say a writer sitting at a computer, still has production costs of food, electricity, rent etc, etc. If those paying one creator for their work, are also creators themselves dependent on patronage alone then the whole virtual economy is propped up in a circular fashion. Your argument in this sense seems syllogism. R N B Was pointed here by Coturnix. This is my subject area too, I have read your stuff before, but I lost touch with your latest thoughts. But that was truly an excellent piece. It does just develop basic CRM themes, but it takes it to the next level, which is exactly what I hoped you would do. One minor point, I know you touched upon the imortance of replicability, but there are some fundamental commodities such as natural space that do not follows these rules. But we understand the optimisitic view. And breaking down the “generative value” into eight manageable (achievable) chunks was excellent insight. Cheers. Kevin Kelly Thanks for the positive comments to all the rest who have replied. Ayfer You wrote a wonderful article that summarize my thoughts too. The eight generatives represent great challenges for the “labelsâ€� but great opportunities for new comers! Derek Lowe Authenticity is indeed the big issue with pharmaceuticals (my field of work), although we call it by the words “efficacy” and “safety”. It’s ferociously expensive, though. Manufacturing costs aren’t much at all by comparison, but they’re nonzero as well, when you consider the regulatory requirements. We’re not at the point of software or MP3s just yet. . . Oyun Hileleri Oyun Hileleri You wrote a wonderful article that summarize my thoughts too. The eight generatives represent great challenges for the “labelsâ€� but great opportunities for new comers! Oyun Hileleri Diego Moya I think I’ve identified another leg to the table of generative values: Optimization. It’s related to personalization and interpretation, but slightly different to them. Optimization takes a process already used by the client, and sells a better version that achieves the same goals with more efficiency. It’s not the same as personalization, because the adapted product/process is not designed by the producer but by the client. The optimized product -a planning- can also be endlessly copied, but it will not be as valuable for each new user as they will have different constraints that would need to find a different optimum. Another distinguishing element of optimization is that it can be precisely measured – maybe a mathematical model can be built and then minimized, or parts of the process can be compared to business best practices and tailored to fit them. The knowledge to achieve this measurement can be marketed and is valuable – it’s what good consultancy sells, more than just interpretation of a given tool, and is also the basics for logistics firms. Nim Wunnan The principles here are interesting and sound, but your list of generative qualities seems like it’s missing the most obvious ones. (I would call them emergent, but whatever.) How about critical insight, original thought, satisfying aesthetics, and pleasurable experience? These are (some of) the reasons people produce and consume culture and the media that hosts it in the first place. So what if I can get your band’s new song right now for free? No one will care if it sounds like crap. Good luck on finding digitally-transmissable instructions on making a song not sound like crap reliably, every time. If you want to look at ways of dealing with emergent/generative qualities which can’t be copied, look at the arts. They’ve been doing it for a hell of a long time. Also look at any profession which deals with personal relationships. Mutfak “When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.â€� Thanks for useful informations. Best regards Dan Lynch Wow, Kevin, you have been thinking about this for a long time and have really outlined the business plan for a zillion enterprises going forward. Only the “old guard” will still do its damnedest to hold back the tide. Esther Dyson has been saying stuff like this for a long while, too, but you have put it down succinctly here. A few pals and I started a company almost a decade ago called Garage Band and we got creamed by the studios because they would not climb aboard. They were scared. We were early. It’s all happening now. oyun Thanks Kevin Superbly insightful and masterfully written…. you sure you didn’t COPY it? Martin Chartrand I’ve got a catalog more than hundred strong of TsunaMiXes. Up to now I’ve only published 31 of then online & only in low res for promo. So when I have a catalog a 1000 strong I’ll be willing & able to sell a full res distribution rights for a good price (in uncopyable medium). In the meanwhile I’m letting others give away their stuff for free in hi res… That’s only a glance of my strategy…, to get the lowdown you’ll have to pay…, if you can afford my fee! You cannot CRUSH ME with overwhelming competitive advantage! ’cause I’m really a genius but I’m poor (for now, don’t worry I can afford to feed myself), you cannot buy that. In the long run authenticity prevails! If I get monied wanabe copycats trying their hand at TsunaMiXing anything. Then the worth of what I’ve produced is only gona go up! Look at what happened the ones who downplayed the first works of the impressionists. Know your art history & you wont have to repeat it. Martin aka : Vee Jay TsunaMiX Hosting That’s quite different from saying that the production costs are approaching zero. They are not.. alex Some really nice thoughts here. My one concern is that many of the 8 qualities that you mention are features of data, and in that sense are subject to the same rules as information goods. Immediacy, for example … since distribution costs are essentially zero in the digital age, someone will always be able to provide information faster, at a reduced price, and still make a profit. Price pressure will always be downward for immediacy. The only way an industry would be able to prevent this would be through collusion (i.e. to artifically create scarcity). Except for patronage and embodiment, I’m not convinced that in the long run all the qualities you mention won’t also be free. ~alex (usablemarkets.com) sab Nice article with much food for thought. A fascinating precursor to this is “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin, written in 1936. See wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Mechanical_Reproduction for a summary and a link. Kevin Kelly Thanks for the tip. I’ve been meaning to read that one for years. Steve Gano Very useful analysis! An analysis that every organization will need to do, some sooner than others. It is most important for organizations to assimilate your premise that, when copies are free, that which can’t be copied (mass produced, manufactured, etc.) becomes valuable. You are working through the dilemma that Stewart Brand identified when he said that information wants to be free AND information wants to be valuable. The marketplace will probably decide what generative qualities will prevail, but we should look at what qualities are possible, as you have done, and decide which ones we should favor through our good designs, based on what human qualities we value. For example, where is the quality of “direct experience”? Why do people still go to museums, or to the Grand Canyon? What is the information that is acquired by a real body in a real space? That information can’t be reproduced by Second Life, but is that just a technological hurdle to overcome? A real sense of place, or presence, can’t be manufactured or copied today, but what happens if or when it can be? “Immediacy” suggests a range of things, including the “freshness” that you describe. I think being “near to hand” is another important aspect of immediacy. This is the quality of a good information architecture and a good user interface, the kind of value that Apple and Google products embody. “Near to hand” is about ease of discovery, similar to your “findability”, but that quality as described seems to be about “push” and awareness rather than individual desire and “pull”. I look forward to exploring more of your writing here, you raise some very important and provocative ideas, thank you! igor Hi Kevin, thank you very much for this! I have found it inspiring, simple and useful! Regards, Doppiafila Derek Scruggs It costs nothing to make a pill. It costs nothing to make the second pill, but the first one is very expensive indeed. Manufacturing, even in places like China, requires a great deal more capital investment than it takes to unleash an mp3 on the Net. In the latter case, the Net requires some capital in the form of hardware, but most of it is commoditized and the cost of connecting it is distributed among the backbone providers, ISPs and end users. Almost none of that is true for pharmaceutical manufacturing (or cell phone manufacturing either). Charles Mauro Fascinating and well condensed view…sounds like a book in the works…If not there should be! nathan rudyk Kevin, thanks for the thought-provoking post. As someone working in a tech product launch and PR company, I sense there are now, and will be many more ways, to communicate generative value in ways that will benefit both business and consumers. Here’s to the Sharing Mindset! Cheers, Nathan Rudyk Oyun Incremental cost of using them is nil or almost nil, but you and I support this invisible giant copy machine in a very real way!! loscielos Excellent article. I think the other side of the coin is that there are actually products and ideas and services that are rooted in virtue: truth, love, knowledge, that are actually worth MORE when they are copied, not worth less. I realize I’m a lucky man and I’m not trying to hurt anyone by saying this, but I’ve been married for almost ten years and my love for my wife grows with every new kiss, there’s no law of diminishing returns. Look at how mainstream politics rolls out copy after copy of “bigger government, bigger war, bigger welfare, bigger debt” candidates. Then the axiom is true, you keep copying and lending copies of the dollar until its worthless. The alternative (and the wisdom of the framers of the Republic, in my opinion) is to stake the American experiment on a platform of things that actually increase in value the more copies we make and the more sharing we do – things like freedom, peace, and individual liberty. Look up the roots of the “Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe” LOCKSS principle, it’s pretty neat. Making copies can actually be a GOOD thing. Lulu I enjoyed this article a lot and have discussed it on my own blogFrontend. Trying to use these ideas now before the future comes is important, but trying to turn them into something that can be ‘done’ is often entirely different. Most people who need these ideas to work are unfortunately not in a position to make them work that well at all – however, there’s still something to be learned from the debate of free. Joe Lamantia Kevin, aren’t these eight generative values simply manifestations of scarcity – a very old-school component of value (and price)? Steve Collier Terrific concepts and great narrative. A worth sequel to John Daly’s New Rules for a New Economy. Unfortunately, the US Government and the incumbent companies who unduly influence it don’t get any of this. ryan troy Agreed, advertising is the only viable solution today, but the near future holds far more interesting value propositions. Pierre-Tubbydev The money is in the scrapbooking of the copies :-)) Andrew Kevin, you reaallly should read the Benjamin essay, not just the wikipedia graf on it. “Work of Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is arguably one of the cornerstones of an understanding of multiple media in modern life, and it describes convulsive, revolutionary changes to media distribution really elegantly. Benjamin’s points about the aura of “authenticity” are, if anything, *more* relevant now than when WofA was written, and are quite similar to what you’ve written here. (Also: check Bruce Sterling’s “Shaping Things” for more on the value of “findability”.) Jim Coen I enjoyed reading your article. I wrote last year about the problems I see in “digital noise” and how we deal with it. (http://thruthemist.blogspot.com/2007/07/economics-of-information-flow.html) Thanks for helping me see things in a different light. www.okeygame.com As that model becomes more refined, advertising will become less intrusive and annoying and more useful and “enlighteningâ€� in terms of just delivering content your are interested in. Kent Fitch Whilst agreeing that publishers, studio, labels are not needed for distribution, I’m not sure they’re needed for findability either, at least not in their current form. Tools such as Digg will continue to develop and refine the ability for recommendation groups to flourish, organising the oceans of content based on their value. Maybe these are the new PSLs, but PSLs without ownership of content or an agenda of their own beyond findability (like a library or an innocent Google). The one thing that becomes increasingly less “free” as options for spending it increase, is our time. Kevin H This is a nice list of ways to deliver value in an environment where content is available at effectively zero cost. But I’m not sure that these eight “generatives” “require a new skill set” or eliminate the need for IP “legal skills.” In fact, these eight values reflect long-established business practices that are not unique to the internet. For example, the purpose of IP/Copyright protection is essentially to maintain the owner’s advantage of immediacy and authenticity. Embodiment and patronage have been around since… ancient Greek theater? Findability on the internet has worked pretty well since Google (in the old days we had library researchers). Interpretation sounds like your standard service-oriented contract. Personalization and accessibility can add value (e.g. personalized advertising has been one of the biggest successes in e-commerce), but most net implementations of these ideas have met with tepid consumer interest. Overall, I would suggest that the future digital economy will look a lot like today’s economy. Zero-cost content will lead to new ways to capture value, but the old media market dynamics will simply reemerge in new guises. Dave Davis Hyokon, You’ve just nailed the “problem” with DIY, and the reason Gen1 punk rock went away: Making music is fun, making money is hard. Nothing has changed wrt “breaking” a band. It was hard, it remains hard. The internet possibly even makes it a bit harder, but that really depends on your destination. It’s certainly shaved the top off the ice cream cone, but it’s also created a new, thriving middle class – artists who can reliably sell 5000-10000 copies of their work can make a living with or without a label. But, as always a band needs fans to survive. And to make a living it’s an on-going process, replacing people who grow up and have kids with new ones at shows, selling product to new fans to make up for the ones who found bands they like more. In the past labels did that heavy lifting, but they also got sucked into manufacturing and distro, and today feel drawn to concert promotion. The truth is they were never especially good at ANY of those things! Manufacturing was the first thing the majors unloaded as they devolved to their present state, distribution is already following. It doesn’t take Nostradamous to see where their concert efforts are headed… Look, you don’t NEED an engineer or producer, but a good one can make the process easier, and often more successful. Likewise, no one needs a label, especially one with their hands in every pocket as we see with current 360 deals. But some entity that knows how to build a business (fan base) remains essential. You can post your songs on myspace, but unless someone’s actively shepherding ears to your page as a fulltime job, success is unlikely. The good news: The labels have largely disbanded, so the very best publicists and specialists in that work are available to everyone on the freelance market. Sadly, this has allowed the best to cherry pick clients to enhance their own record, but it’s commoditized the mojo too. But while you don’t necessarily need a label to do this work for you, someone must do it. Period. The DIY dream dies hard. It helps to recognize it never really existed at all. Without Malcolm McLaren, you’d never have heard of the Sex Pistols. Someone has to push the plastic or bits on the street. As for the notion of splitting revenues with hardware vendors, this is as problematic as subscriptions for artists. In the 90s there was a “DAT tax” that eventually moved to “music cd-r”s as well, that worked similar to this. While it’s not difficult to track sales, labels pretend it is, so the revenues don’t get back to the artists getting spins, but rather they flowed to the hits-of-the-day. Great for Michael Jackson, not so hot for Ani Defranco (who might actually get more spins due to a news story). Furthermore, the long term viability of ad-driven entertainment is not a given, but that’s certainly where the return would come from in such a deal (you don’t think cell phone makers or ISPs will accept less profit, do you?). There are no free lunches. IMO we need to re-examine royalty structures broadly, and make it easy for people to legally use music in new ways. Currently a great mashup might be ideal for breaking a new artist, but they’re impossible to clear rights for, so they live entirely underground. We simply need to make compensating creatives as transparent, efficient, and frictionless as making copies of their work. Hashim Warren Another generative that can be charged for is Community. You can give away content for free, then charge users to be in the “fan club” Wolfgang I copied your comment. I think, that is exactly what you meant! Simone Lovati Brilliant post! Thanks. I have post – or copied ? ;)- about it here Sam Adams A fascinating article – I read into it tips on thriving in a economy where services become highly commoditized and undifferentiated, both as a for-profit, a non-profit and entities within either type of organization. Jeff Very interesting article. Your points are valid but as a graduate student in the biological sciences I have to take issue with your use of DNA as an example. I assure you that both cases in which you use DNA you are not presenting logical thoughts. 1. First of all, aspirin is not free; there are production costs involved and no company gives away aspirin. Aspirin is a specific molecule that binds to a specific receptor and there is no need to tailor it to anyone’s DNA, which doesn’t make sense in the context of aspirin. If you change aspirin it’s no longer aspirin. So you’re not “personalizing” aspirin. You’re just making a different drug. 2. Sequencing a genome is indeed expensive but you say it soon won’t be and that’s definitely wrong. In the next 20 years we hope to have genome sequencing down to $1,000 per person and I wouldn’t call that cheap by any measure. Also you will not find a single pharmaceutical company interested in paying you to sequence your genome. More likely it will be to your advantage to get your genome sequenced for predicting and treating diseases you have or will have. This will become a common medical practice that you and your insurance company pay for. As for future use of the genetic code there won’t be any more “interpretation” of your genome to you now than the interpretation you get when someone looks at your cancer biopsy and tells you how advanced your disease is. Asansör This is a fantastic discussion. What is the point of copyright on the internet if everything is a copy of something. Tough one this one. Good topic for discussion. www.kelebeek.net thanks yuuuuuu Marla Mullen Fabulous article … This is especially helpful with my new company, Territory Real Estate. We are taking on the archaic industry of real estate where traditional agents/agencies still think there is value in hoarding their listing information (eh hem!, Manhattan, NY, might be the worst). However, all they are doing is pi**ing off modern day consumers as they continually fail to deliver good service at the right price all while hiding information. Anyway, we are doing exactly the opposite – buyers pay for great buy-side real estate expertise and guidance, and the property information is 100% free – and I found your article not only reinforcing, but inspiring. THX! chat Great article, one of the best I’ve read on the topic. I think the music industry can learn a thing or 2 about this free model… Ders Notları Kevin, thanks for the thought-provoking post. As someone working in a tech product launch and PR company, I sense there are now, and will be many more ways, to communicate generative value in ways that will benefit both business and consumers. Here’s to the Sharing Mindset! Ian Kemmish The problem with your “interpretation” generative came to me in a flash one day. I had submitted a “schoolboy howler” bug report for GCC, along with a fix, to the gcc-bugs mailing list, in good faith. It was intercepted by someone working for a company which made money providing paid support for GCC to various companies (and there’s your first conflict of interest). I received a reply saying that my report and fix were both correct, but that my fix would not be included in the general source distribution. I shrugged and assumed that this was because that particular bug was known to them and generating a nice revenue stream. (There’s a resonance here with the early management consultants in the 50’s who made fortunes churning out reports recommending the adoption of incentive schemes – the identical reports were free to produce, apart from inserting the right company name on the first and last pages, but the clients didn’t know this and willingly paid through the nose for them.) toner Hi Kevin, it’s nice to see some fresh thinking on this concept/problem. A lot of us are scrambling for new, outside the box, profitable ways to monetize our content. We’ve only begun to see the possibilities. Ian Kemmish Unfortunately my detailed comments seem too long and I keep getting error messages. “Interpretation” reminds me of the management consultants in the 50’s who sent out identical, free to duplicate, reports recommending the adoption of incentive schemes. Because the clients didn’t realise that the reports were free to produce, they happily paid through the nose for them. “Accessibility” reminds me that most people today can’t understand their mobile phone subscriptions. They don’t know whether they’re getting value for money or not, but they happily pay through the nose. Many of the generatives rely on turning into profit centres things which should be cost centres in any customer-centred business, with the creation of (possibly prototype) goods being cross-subsidised from these. I’ve never known that be good for quality. Or the customers. Araba Emlak Quality can sometimes be copied. Sometimes counterfeits can be exact, in which case quality has been copied. Often a counterfeit is not perfect and quality is lost. Exactly quality-equal counterfeits are much more common and likely in the digital world. In theory I can make an equal quality copy of a piece of software that is no less than the original. In the material world — right now – it is much harder to make a perfect copy. Rex Gibson What about waste. Even a digital copy of something eventually takes up some physical space or requires energy to maintain it’s existence.. I think another major area of value not just aggregation, but also in de-duplication and “waste” management. Great article. -Rex Will It took me a while to accept that songs should be free but now it’s extremely liberating. I use the songs and free guitar lessons as ‘lead generators’, getting attention and people into my ‘funnel’. And I don’t worry about copyright issue and the next new business model for record labels. Once you have your community (via an email list), from there you can upsell a certain percentage of the keenest fans into higher priced, less copyable offerings, such as a ‘backstage VIP club’. http://membershipschool.com/selling-access Kishore Balakrishnan The “copy” concept could mislead readers who use the internet mainly for sending email. Please clarify. When I send a mail to someone via my ISP, can someone somewhere other than the recipient read the mail ? David Martin Kevin, Outstanding writing. Bravos and thank you! All the best. Vincent When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. ‘ Counterpoint: Shakespears works, Mozart’s, net photos of wonderful art, the net itself, free and priceless. …………. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable. Counterpoint: The more people who have access to countless free alternatives (e.g., free music), the less valuable, desirable, sought-after the uncopyable alternatives become. The law of friction (not worth the trouble!)or diminishing returns kicks in and there’s little need to seek out expensive, limited alternatives. Gautam Jain Great, thanks! savaÅŸ oyunları ı have followed your writing for a long time.really you have given very successful information. In spite of my english trouale,I am trying to read and understand your writing. And ı am following frequently.I hope that you will be with us together with much more scharings. I hope that your success will go on. Phil Bailey Thanks Kevin Superbly insightful and masterfully written…. you sure you didn’t COPY it? oyun Hi, For some practical examples of musicians tackling these issues, check out this BBC Radio 1 documentary about the UK underground…. Konrad Product Reading your piece, I remembered that I’d heard (read) another version of the argument before (maybe it was your technology wants to be free piece), in another form, when I was a journalist. At that moment in time — the mid-late 90’s — people were starting to get their news / info. online (that’s when Salon was, er, hot!) I remember the tech-wants-to-be-free piece (or, content-wants-to-be-free is what I recall) because at the time, I was often buying (for actual money — not free) the Greyhound bus up to San Francisco, sleeping on people’s couches (chipping in for food — another not free item) and reporting a piece. I was not getting paid for any of this; I was doing it for “free” though it was costing me — quite a bit — along the way. People don’t use the phrase much but it was “on spec.” Although I’d pitched the story everywhere, I didn’t have the requisite clips for editors to take the chance and give me such a big assignment. “Come back when you have the piece.” Then possessing that mixture of determination and ambition that youth — yeah, I was that young, then — I went forward, reported, wrote the story and eventually saw it published in an alternative weekly (that is “free.”) For which I was paid the grand sum of $500. The alternative weekly then posted the story on its website (& several others), for “free” i.e., without offering me any more payment (in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which, when called on, they refused to observe), meanwhile surrounding the piece with advertising that, I assume, the weekly’s publisher got paid for. Me? Oh, it was “free.” I guess like social work or something. Then, a movie — a very bad one — used a version of the story (remember, the one that I reported and wrote) for its plotline. Again, I got nada. My hard-earned story was, to the benefit of the director/writer, “free” as she felt not a twinge of obligation to credit — or, perish the thought — pay me. When we spoke at the film festival where she was being credited for “breaking” the story — the one I’d reported and written — she couldn’t look me in the eye. Cause in this world, everything’s “free,” right? I was able to resell the story (syndicate) it to several outlets; one European magazine even reprinted it without my permission &, though I eventually got paid for that (and hired by pop to make a video based on the story, which a lawyer then sold to MTV), it was unusual. The point is, up to the point of publication — and well beyond — I had to support myself in order to write that “free” story. But it’s value then, as now, was greater to me, personally than the money I’d make. Still, I think there’s a larger lesson in this. I am no longer a journalist. For one simple reason. The sort of reporting/writing that I want to — socially conscious, investigative, long-form — isn’t being much funded by anyone these days. I am not an opinionator, a blogger or a linker: I like the integrity and effort required by original research and reporting. Unfortunately, I still have to shelter, cloth and feed myself so your notion of “free” — or, as I understand it, “No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds” — is not a model that works, at least not for me. In the tech driven riot towards “free,” what’s slowly happening, I think, is that people who might otherwise investigate, write & report (esp.) are turning away from those forms. I have a zillion ideas about issues and stories I’d love to report and write. But I know — believe me, I’ve tried — I can’t make a living at that. At some point, someone has to invest in you, the creator and support you while you create all this “free” material. A few months ago, I pitched a long-in-the-works, never-been-told-before story to the editor of a major weekly (lap dissolve ten years, now I do have the clips to get in the door.) Though he was very interested, calling me to discuss the piece, etc. he explained the paper’s feature well is now entirely written — due to budget cuts, consolidation — by staffers. When I finish the piece, he’d love to take a look at it … Fuck it, I thought, no more “free” er, “on spec” work for me. I put it away and forgot about it. Maybe I’ve become a cynical absolutist or am incorrigibly egotistical with but I think screeds like yours end up propagating & feeding into the dissolution of a better discourse. All the shiny gadgets & neat sounding phrases (“cloud computing” is my latest favorite) in the world mean nothing if there’s nothing of interest to view/listen to on them … my articles have been mute on this point but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt & go with the idea that content, in fact, may “want” to be “free.” I, for one, am a content creator who is became exhausted by the constant, incessant hold-up (larceny) that underlies creating content i.e., satisfying everyone else’s whim to pay (or not). Your argument collapses — from my P.O.V. — in that it doesn’t take into the account the investment that’s required to create all this “free” stuff. I don’t have access to well funded I.P.O.’s (that top secret creator fund — maybe you’d be kind enough to post the 1-800 number on your blog) and am still waiting to sign up for my millions so I can run around and … experiment! ‘Till then, I’m one guy, somewhat smart, & anything I do comes out of my own pocket and initiative. The point of all this is to say, I think Silicon Valley people, techies, are still nurturing a fantasy that creators — writers, musicians, reporters, whoever — are able to sustain themselves while they produce all this “free” material. The fact is, though I graduated from UC Berkeley & am driven by a strong social consciousness, at the end of the day, the “free” model you describe doesn’t work for me — I have other things to do with my time (see, above, “shelter, food, clothes.”) And I don’t believe it’s a good or long term plan to pursue or publicize. Tin Box yeah!!This is a fantastic discussion. What is the point of copyright on the internet if everything is a copy of something. Tough one this one. Good topic for discussion.good!! seks hikaye One of the new rules of marketing is to distribute for free, as much of your materials and ideas as possible. Thanks for reminding us that this strategy only works with the underlying generatives in place. dennis This is a very interesting essay. It builds, helpfully, on Stewart Brand’s idea that information wants to be both free and expensive. Thank you for sharing it here… flashoyunlar marti garaughty Hi Kevin, it’s nice to see some fresh thinking on this concept/problem. A lot of us are scrambling for new, outside the box, profitable ways to monetize our content. We’ve only begun to see the possibilities. Michael Mr. Kelly! Good viewpoint. My team and I recently developed a team collaborative process that enables a project team to accelerate their workflow by understanding the their project from a top down view. Our approach also enables the project team to collaborate regardless of the distance, the technology and the project culture. During the process development, we discovered that we do not have to protect the technical specifics of the process because of the psychology behind it. The bottom line is not everyone consciously think in terms of collaborative-driven goal and objectives building. Telling people what our process does and the general fundamentals is usually public knowledge. # The psychology specifics and tactical specifics for getting people to collaborate as a team is what we protect. # @ the end, he/she either have the conscious setting to collaborate or does not have it. reality free…, as long as the vc paid for it. housing loans- free trust, respect.–yeah thats whats going on in the economy now. join reality. other. not in the valley karry Yes, information is easily copied, but information is nothing. The number of leaves on a tree in my back yard is hard information. No one cares and no one ever will. So, what makes information relavant? First, the information must serve a purpose. Next, information must take a useful form. Finally, information must be better than alternative competing information. The “leaves on treeâ€� information fails the first test (as does most information on the net and any given moment). However, a lot of internet information fails the second test because the internet only copies CODED information, where the code can interpreted an electronic devide to be understood by a human. All types of information, for example different flavors, are impossible to encodem but the most important information that it cannot copy are functional skills. For example, I can explain guitar playing on the internet, but people have to practice that skill to obtain it in a useful form. Finally, that leaves us with better and worse informaton. Quality matters. Newton is fine unless you are launching a space craft and then you need Einstein. Oritseyemi Emmanuel Madamedon I think I agree with Alan Dove regarding your take at the pharmaceutical companies, otherwise this is a very insightful piece of work. Great job Patrick Aren’t these axioms simply a restatement of classic supply and demand? When supply is infinite, demand for non-essential goods drops to zero. At the point when you’re dealing with a cheap commodity, the way to make money is of course to either produce versions of it which have limited supply (flavored/bottled water vs tap water) or monetize services around the commodity. If something is free, you can still make money if you can offer it faster, smarter, customized, or more accessible – anything to differentiate on other than price, of course. With regards to pharma, the production cost of pills has always been zero. Only when you do with hard-to-manufacture drugs like Fuzeon or biologics (drugs made of or with biological compounds) does cost of manufacture come into play. By and large, the cost of most dry pills is considered zero for the sake of simplicity. The cost of drugs is quite simply an amortization of R&D and marketing costs plus profit. Colin Donald For some practical examples of musicians tackling these issues, check out this BBC Radio 1 documentary about the UK underground “dubstep” scene. About 10 mins in, you’ll catch a whole range of insights about how the music is embodied on short-lived vinyl discs (dubplates) that only last for 150 plays and are best heard live through bass-heavy sound systems in clubs, while the community positively declines to pirate the music because they’re loyal to the musicians. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/documentaries/080207_dubstep.shtml bjorn hinrichs Good post, Kevin. I fear diluting your list of 8 with one more…but I thought I’d offer another generative value to consider. TRANSFORMATION: Have you ever experienced an event so deeply that it practically re-wired your senses or catapulted you to a profoundly different outlook on life. Transformation hints on patronage but it feels a little different. It feels a little deeper. Perhaps it speaks to a singular human-to-human connection, whereas patronage feels a little less personal, more distant. Perhaps transformation speaks to the camaraderie two marines share returning from war. Or illuminates the exhaustion two former colleagues might share after experiencing the SF south-of-market boom(boot camp, really) together? Or could transformation elucidate how two old friends share after growing up in that same small town. Each example contains a bonding agent outside themselves. For the marines, it’s the military. For the “dot-comers” it was that circus they called a start-up. And, for the old friends it’s that friendly little town drawing them back with questions like, “Do you really need all that?” I suppose if an organization had a profound impact on me as described above I might find value in continuing the relationship. I belong to a council whose directors are working to create that connection between me and my colleagues. They care deeply about the hope in human connections. And, they act on it. I’ll pay for that. Thoughts? Murti For a while I’ve been playing with this idea that “copyingâ€� is actually a fundamental human drive. I see it everywhere I look – everything from fashion to linguistics to basic human development – children are obsessive copiers. They often seem to like copying even more than shouting and breaking things. The internet is (similar to the kids), one giant attention-seeking machine, and a big part of it seems to be to do with either propagating memes, or mutating and propagating them – and I’ve also noticed that people tend to think that when they say “check this outâ€�, they’re actually doing the meme a favour. And they’re right. I mean really our whole Online Sinema culture is based on it. If you look around the room you’ll be hard-pushed to find anything that isn’t in some way a copy. Copy, mutate, test… copy, mutate, test… copy, mutate, test… it’s what we do. I think we should be incubating this process, not bottlenecking it. 1legspider What about locality? Physical locality? Wherever our minds wander we always ‘have to’ return to the here, near and now. An identical thing that is physically closer is always more valuable than that some distance away. Perhaps that fits within your embodiment/accessibility generatives, but I would argue it needs a class of its own. Mister Zero Good piece. Marcel Thanks for this great article, some parts were known but some parts were also a real eye-opener for me. Keep up the great work, Marcel VOLKAN çalışmalarınızın devamını dilerim inÅŸ güzel olur http://www.onnumarachat.com JoseFritz Some of these rebuttals falsly segregate content creators (writers musicians etc.) The argument that creators need paid is a false syllogism. Anyone can create… in their “free” time. Web 2.0 has taught us that people with day jobs will create; not for money, but because they choose to. Robert Hughes, Jr. At least in educational settings the quality of “interpretation” can be expanded to include the ideas of “guidance and explanation.” The value of a good class is not the syllabus, the text or the classnotes, it is the value of the instructor. It is the opportunity to seek further clarification or to get to ask questions that link your current knowledge to some new idea. This is why MIT can afford to give away its course content and still find students willing to buy the opportunity to be in the classroom with an instructor. Somewhere is the qualities of “accessibility” and “findability” is the quality of organization. The value of an article in Wikipedia is more valuable than the same article that stands alone because the article embedded in the organizational structure of an encyclopedia can be easily linked to deeper information and related ideas. There is great value in this “organizational structure.” sesli chat Thank you. Very much gaston monescu McLuhan has plenty to say on the somewhat philosophical vein you are working here. ‘advertisers would pay you to look at their products if they could figure out how to’, or something to that effect. hats off to your excellent work here- it is possibly the only germane work i have read on the subject. Thomas Great Article! You are the ghost writer of Chris Anderson Book “Free”? Or is he just copying? Most of your points would be the distinctive marks of a really good brand. In the media industry there are still no really good brands out there. Why? Why? Why? VeeJayTsunaMiX “When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.” Untrue! Do you remember your previous life Kevin!? 3) Plentitude, Not Scarcity As manufacturing techniques perfect the art of making copies plentiful, value is carried by abundance, rather than scarcity, inverting traditional business propositions. The value of an invention, company, or technology increases exponentially as the number of systems it participates with increase linearity. The abundance upon which the network economy is built is one of opportunity. Networks spew fecundity because by connecting everything to everything, they increase the number of potential relationships, and out of relationships come products, services and intangibles. Kevin Kelly from “New Rules for the New Economy” http://www.panarchy.org/kelly/newrules.1998.html Let me add that the more copies they are, the more the actual owner’s savoir-faire or that his originals are worth! Especially if he was able to popularize low resolution copies of the works & never sold out his catalog or the company that made it happen. Hope you don’t mind me breaking the consensus that your assay generates. People are so uncritical these days they forget conveniently the history & context of it all. They are so many other arguments I could make against your thesis but I’ve made one maybe that’s enough to spark a much needed, good old flame war! Come on people wake up! Flattery will only get you so far! Get real! Martin Chartrand aka : VeeJayTsunaMiX, producer, director of TsunaMiX HD The Next Wave! Gabriel Agbokou Jr. As a musician trying to get his product out I love this article because it speaks to me. One thing I’ve always told artist friends or bands getting into the business is; their product is no more valuable than a pack of cigarettes. What would make someone smoke this brand over that? What would make someone buy your disc over another and why would someone download your piece of music over another even if it is free? The truth is the only a handful of artists have ever made real money in the music business when you compare it the amount of people the business has buried. It is an industry based on failure. Technology only levels the playing field in regards to distribution (you still have to build a fanbase for longterm success.) The eight generatives I feel are essential to anyone looking to build a career in this business today. Yes, there are things that can be added or tweaked ever so slightly but for what it’s worth I feel like I’ve just been let out of jail reading this article. You’ve put into words what I had been feeling for a long time and I thank you. Timothy Fish I think you are right that people want to pay artists and content producers. Most people realize that “free” isn’t really “free” and they are willing to pay to encourage people to produce more quality stuff, because they want the person to get what he deserves or if for no other reason, out of guilt. I personally would prefer to donate money to website owners who provide me with resources I can use over seeing ads all over the place. cv örneÄŸi You wrote a wonderful article that summarize my thoughts too. The eight generatives represent great challenges for the “labelsâ€� but great opportunities for new comers! Alain Pierrot Brilliant and useful insights! One point IMO should be considered: “free” is not the same as “infinitesimally cheap”. Copies, if similar to information stored in a “superconductive wire”, suffer the “exothermic” constraints of supraconductivity, which means they do have a cost. I guess this is reflected in your “accessibility” and “embodiment” generatives. Could it be useful to consider general relativity concepts such as “events horizons” to explain why something is (more) valuable for one actor than another (and link your immediacy and personalization generatives)? Thanks again for your important contribution! Kelvin clayn Great article. It’s very interesting to take the 8 “generativesâ€� as a model and put existing business through it … do they fit? do they still work? is there still profit to be made? One thing: I think we need to differentiate between truly free and virtually free. The “copy machineâ€� operates because people like me buy internet access, people like you buy film izle server space, companies like NetNation, my host, buy and offer rackspace, and companies like the telcos provision and rent lines. Incremental cost of using them is nil or almost nil, but you and I support this invisible giant copy machine in a very real way. kara murat I’m sure that musicians want fans and are willing to provide some songs free but let’s face it . Musicals instruments are not free. Manufacturing a Cd is not free and costs have to be factored.It’s simply not worth it to record a CD anymore. In the meantime I’ll concentrate on the generatives while I’m waiting to eat or pay some bills. or perhaps before death those magical generatives will come and save the very poor and hungry starving artists. Generatives are good but so is selling a few tracks, a membership , an umbrella , a frisbee, a watch because Mp3s are dead. If that’s not possible Musicians should quit and sell t-shirts. Because economically right now it’s suicide to make a cd. unless you’re songs are about backsides.Oh here’s a new album title Generatives and Backsides. My personal theory is forget i-tunes. and let musicians deal with their fans directly.I-tunes is in bed with labels who really don’t benefit artist much. It’s better business for musicians and fans .It’s one big happy family You,your fans, and Paypal. Not you, your fans , apple-itunes, major labels , snocap and paypal.when the division is done their isn’t much left. Thanks kevin Peace!(smile) Lucky Larson Kevin, I enjoyed the piece and the comments. SO IN THE END NOTHING WORTH HAVING IS REALLY FREE!!! If info is free, production and access are not. If a version of every particle of data and media is capied and accessible then getting a quality, desirable version will cost plenty. I can get limited TV, streaming audio and video and many radio channels for “free” but I have to buy the equipment to get it and then suffer through advertising to enjoy it. If I want to watch or listen to whatever, whenever, with limited or no advertising, then I have to pay for more equipment and access privileges (like my dish, DVR, High-Speed connection etc). NOTHING IS REALLY FREE!!! I guess it is “better than free” . . . if you are on the right end of the distribution channel. seks hikaye A great example of how people will pay for great usability is the success of the iTunes music store. A few years ago, people thought that Napster & the Internet would be the end of the music industry. There were failed music sites by the horde. Apple analyzed how free music worked on the Internet. Then they came up with something that was so much more usable that people have been happy to give the company 4 billion dollars to download music they probably could have downloaded for free. Part of iTunes’ seks hikaye success at competing with free can be attributed to immediacy and findability. But they aren’t why people have paid the premium. iTunes utility and usability turned something that had been fairly dodgy into something easy and fun. kelebek thanks.. Heli Books aren’t equipped with instant messaging and social networking though. This isn’t a positive or negative thing, but surely it impacts at least the intensity of spending hours in ones living room reading an entire book. I think the Kindle vs. paperback book test is a good one. How do we react to even the smallest changes in our experience in reading. From page turning to scrolling (or pressing next page?), from paper reflecting light into our eyes to a screen sending it directly etc. At what point in the spectrum from book to evden eve nakliyat screen does any major change in our brains occur. My suspicion is that any little change in the technology of reading is vastly overshadowed by our environments. lostpoet This is an amazing piece. and I do not have anything to add after the deluge of comments, so just a little thank you from my part of the world Diane Coyle Another item for your list is uniqueness and the status that brings, Veblen-style jimbowtieus Great stuff! How about “Associativity”, which includes the concept of Community, mentioned above (fan club, social network) and all the varieties of context: “show me more like this”, “here’s the next thing you may want to know”, “here’s an antonym”, etc. — information that leads to other information. Random Dude Let’s say you’re right and there’s nothing that can be done to protect copyrighted material on the web: obviously that’s going to make it very difficult for people to produce music, video, books, software, etc. and make money doing it. That will mean that all content will either be advertising for some service or physical product, or will be produced by amateurs with day jobs (day jobs doing precisely what, I wonder). To me that’s *obviously* not a good thing. The popularity of piracy pretty much proves that the professionally produced stuff is better than the free crap. Everyone knows you can get better stuff on BitTorrent than you can on YouTube and open source software sites. Why can’t anti-IP advocates at least be honest and admit this? In any case, it’s not true that “the drive towards free” is inevitable. Computer technology makes piracy easier, but it also makes it easier to monitor. We just need to start taking it more seriously. It’s a lot like punishing counterfeiters. It’s pretty easy to make knockoff 20 dollar bills with an inkjet printer, but we don’t stop enforcing the counterfeiting laws just because counterfeiting is easy to do. We need to start treating software piracy and the like the same way. Just as allowing counterfeiting would remove the incentive for anyone to work for money, piracy removes the incentive for people to work to produce information and needs to be taken seriously. dofus kamas Very interesting ideas, and almost entirely on the mark, I think. Your final jab at pharmaceuticals, however, is definitely off base. If you ever visit a modern pharmaceutical plant and talk to the chemists running it, you’ll immediately realize that for most medicines, manufacturing is extremely complicated, expensive, and sometimes even dangerous work. It’s also highly regulated, and it should be; a tiny error can turn a batch of therapeutic drugs into a pile of lethal toxins. That’s a level of risk the printing or garment-making industries seldom face. Alain Pierrot Brilliant and useful insights! One point IMO should be considered: “free” is not the same as “infinitesimally cheap”. Copies, if similar to information stored in a “superconductive wire”, suffer the “exothermic” constraints of supraconductivity, which means they do have a cost. I guess this is reflected in your “accessibility” and “embodiment” generatives. Could it be useful to consider general relativity concepts such as “events horizons” to explain why something is (more) valuable for one actor than another (and link your immediacy and personalization generatives)? Thanks again for your important contribution! Promo2 Kevin, you are absolutely right when you are talking about current marketing trend. Priceless ideas. Must read! Rob Thanks for the interesting read. Really got me thinking. I wrote a response on my blog and would appreciate any comments/critique. Crisss “When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.â€� A good eassy. I just wanted to comment on the above quote. I think I know what you mean, but the words worhless and valuable aren’t really correct heremirc indirmsn indirspor haberlerimirc indirkoltuk yıkamaUnfortunally, there aren’t really any convienient words to use instead, so I fully understand why you use them. An items value doesn’t change when its supply changes, unless the value of the item is specifically dependent on the supply (collector items, money, bragging items). hosting It’s true that pharmaceutical companies also apply huge – sometimes obscenely huge – markups to their products, even beyond what the production costs justify. But that just means they could be sold for less in an intelligently regulated system. That’s quite different from saying that the production costs are approaching zero. They are not. Shelley Noble This essay is sheer brilliance, Mr. Kelly. I have sent it to many people since I first read it and have gotten even more value out of it re-reading it myself today. I base my future on it no less. Thank you. Anne Wayman Kevin, suspect you’re at least partly right… you usually are. Claudio Soares Hi Kevin, FYI: Rodrigo Velloso, from Google Brazil, translated your article “Better than Free” to Brazilian Portuguese: http://www.pontolit.com.br/blog/2008/10/29/melhor-que-gratis/ Best regards, Claudio Soares http://www.pontolit.com.br/blog http://www.twitter.com/pontolit Kevin Kelly @Claudio: Thanks. We’ll add it to the list. ZZMike “Technology wants to be free” – an amusing concept, sort of like “guns kill people”. What it really means is “we want our technology to be free”. It overlooks the notion that until technology drops like manna from heaven, it’s going to be made by somebody. Somebody who needs a place to sleep, needs lunch, dinner; somebody who may even have a family to support; somebody who needs net access to create and distribute new technology; and companies that need fairly elaborate machinery to do little things like nanotech. “It costs nothing to make a pill.” OK, then, whip me up a few tablets of tenofovir or Baraclude. I’ll even pay postage. Herbert Verweij In a world of “free” we pay for something that could be free, because it bridges our technology gaps. This article remembers me of the theory of economic alchemy by Paul Zane Pilzer. The economics of abundance, the economics of free rests on six crucial principles of alchemic thinking. The sixth law relates to the economic potential of free: YOUR IMMEDIATE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL IS DEFINED BY YOUR TECHNOLOGY GAP. Bertil Thank you Kevin for that summary of what economics is all about: too much neo-classical short-cuts for my blood at the other econo-blogs. I would like to answer to the heart-felt, subjective testimony by Konrad Product, an alas very true aspect of the digital revolution, seen from the point of view of unemployed information worker. Times are hard, some would say challenging: I cannot doubt they are plenty of real journalists out there, looking for demanding, involving, reporting — in spite of having a vast majority of copy-pasters ruining what used to be News. I still believe that long essays are the format to go and make money with reporting: the New Yorker, or Granta are still on business, aren’t they? A daily here (in France, called _Lib’ration_) was praised for dedicating a full page to a month-long investigation, every day: the paper is now bought by those who want to be seen with it, or read that particular page. Maybe ask them whether they would pay for a translation of your piece: what you describe is the kind of story I’ve read there. If what you have is more a thirty-page long thing, then _XXI_ might be your shot: it’s a surprising �magazine� that just went out, inspired by the afore-mentionned NYer & Granta, trying to react to that depressing impoverishing of news. It’s not instant, it’s not superficial: it is deep, thoughtful and very big on the visual arts (comic, photo). Because of a surprise success, they might have more offers then what they need, but maybe try them too. You might need a painter, or a photograph and a translator–but these should be your new friends now. If a particular outlet doesn’t carry your ideas, then make your own; if all publishers are a**-holes, go to Lulu.com, and sell you story your-self. It’s not your job, but it needs to be done–and if you really are bad with people (which I doubt) there are tons of bloggers desperate for great content to promote. The lesson is: Konrad, you cannot sell you story as is; you have to add something, probably one of the elements listed by Kevin. Jon Koerner Check out ArtistShare.com friarminor Late to the dance but just as fascinated by your wonderful piece, Kelly. It just confirms to me 2 things: 1. Reality: Tech is caught between push and pull of economics 2. Behind the facade: Tech isn’t the cold-blooded and devil-may-care, rampaging elephant it appears to be but an idea still looking for a way towards not just being valuable but a cup-holder of ‘values’. Oh well, free is surreal as it is about putting money in a world that struggles with the word ‘fair’. oyunlar I fully agree with you. For years I’ve been emphasizing that in an age of reproduction (see Walter Benjamin) we have to focus on authenticity instead of copyright matters. For instance, in the music industry, distributing “cannedâ€� music for free; will make live-performances more spectacular, experimental and authentic. Selling cd’s after the show (of the show), like Prince does, is mainly interesting for the ones who attended. Robert Nagle Here’s a response . Good article. (Now I need to read the other responses that showed up after I wrote about it). Ronald Wopereis hi Kevin, thanks much for your original thoughts. i created an attention diagram, see http://www.attentioninstitute.nl/index.php?id=1126 the diagram shows how attention is produced and consumed, how attention is created and digested. best regards, Ron http://www.attentioninstitute.nl Essay Writing Amazing !!! I look forward to reading more on the topic in the future. Keep up the good work of term paper writing! This blog is going to be great resource. Love reading it jib10 Why do you assume that musicians should be able to make a living by selling copies of their performances? It is a relatively new phenomenon, prior to recorded music, musicians made a living by performing live and selling sheet music. In ‘Now and Then’ books many of the old photos from 100 years ago show bizs with signs that say things like ‘Support Live Music’. At that time recorded music was growing and fewer and fewer venues hired live musicians. The musicians at the time, who all made a living by playing live, were convinced that recorded music was the end of professional music or, more accurately, the end of their professional life. Technology changes, biz models change, and it can really suck for the people caught in the middle when the change occurs. But talent is unique and there for valuable and there will always be a way to get paid. Jay Dugger I think you’ve missed a reason for better than free. Namely that free permits massive consumption and so encourages indiscriminate consumption. Paying for something encourages the buyer to value the purchase. What you obtain too cheaply often gets esteemed too lightly. EST Cheers, Jay.  Agreed, it’s not that there aren’t exceptional things out there for free.  It’s just that it’s the ‘Exception’.  It doesn’t have to be expensive at all, but typically, coming from someone whose been on the business, tech, sales end of things for years, a dollar amount, however small, indeed creates more value.  Additionally, I couldn’t agree more that free stuff generally saturates quality usage and consumption.  It’s the psychology behind it all – like the ‘Perception’ of $ – nothing more. Nick Sparagis “Our wealth sits upon a very large device that copies promiscuously and constantly.” Someone will read this 500 years from now and think it’s cool. What’s the point in discussing IP? Kevin you convinced me in “What Technology Wants” that every invention or discovery is made sooner or later. Do ideas really belong to any one person? Maanaay How the heck you know all this stuff ? Is it the Asia thing that made you think like this? I am an Asian but don’t know jack.  Alex P ANY technology that saves you more money than it costs you, is in effect cheaper than free. Paola to Random dude, what u call piracy which is not the right word, started not because of the possibility of copying digital products but because how unfair the system of copyrights in music and movies is.  It’s absolutely ridicolous that even after buying the original cd the public has to pay each time he or she listen to the same song. Do you pay the t-shirt you are wearing each time you wear it? No, are the musicians paying the copyright of the instruments they use, the dresses, etc. each time their song is played, nope.  If they would and if all were following the same rules then it would be a different story. So tell me why the public has to. And most of all how can u call piracy when u are actually paying the digital canon each time you buy a cd or dvd even if u use it to put your own stuff. Same applies for radios or music equipments….By paying the digital canon u are paying ..so how can someone say it’s piracy…. Then another factor is that, where does the money go? Like it’s well written and true in the article the public is very happy to pay the artist. But that’s it, they want to pay the artist and the sound engineers,  not the vultures that have actually nothing to do with the music. Another point is the factor of quality, look at the movies…now is getting a bit better but for a decade they were really bad, because they didn’t pay the writers they use the money for special effects and for crazy star fees, that may very well be a good investment in publicity but they kill the quality of the movies. Empty story without dialogues…So a lot of people just doesn’t want to support a system where the talent (writers, good but not well known actors….) are under paid, and work in conditions of instability closer to slavery than else….the one way to say No thank you, we want quality is by not buying the bad ones. Also is not true that the internet is going against quality and music movie production, very much the opposite, on radios and cinemas they only show the blockbusters, but not the other 90 per cent of the movies and songs, while in the internet those movies do have a space and are seen ….Cinemas all have the same programs, and only bet for the ones with huge stars or publicity budgets, they don’t take risks, as if the audience is stupid.  The rest of the movies goes straight to dvd if they are lucky…and not because they are worse very often is very much the opposite. (so who is really destroying the arts) Let’s be fair and analyze everything in its deep connotations and consequences before taking  sides. Internet just gave the tools to act and not being passive victims of a faulty system. The public wants to pay the artists, but wants all of them to be paid all of them to survive and be able to live out of their craft and not just 4 of them far too much and nothing to the others. Not to mention that if we speak about copying, the first ones to actually copy and steal are exactly the big companies….By having a monopoly they can afford to buy for little little money when they actually do instead of just stealing, which is most of the cases,  songs, materials ideas etc etc from the unknown artists or programmers etc that are unknown and have no resources to legally fight back …. is that fair? They can but the others cannot? why?  suspicious of bad editing Picture in article is electricity pylon – shocking error – don’t send emails on high voltage lines pls Mike Swayze I for one was extremely glad to see that there is an online course available free for the study of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, etc. Lately (and I understand why), the brilliant professors who have enlightened so much of my existence with their work (freely) are needing to make a little money for their efforts (to my loss..) oh well- so it goes… (say La Vee, say La Gair..(SIC))…. munderwa ishtiyaq I don’t have any words to appreciate this post…..I am really impressed ….the person who created this post surely knew the subject well..thanks for sharing this with us. ishtiyaq munderwa Katty Thanks for sharing this useful and relevant information with us! The article shows professional attuitude to the point, contains really good advice and seems to be very insightful indeed. daniel.secrist%sea-cwa.org I worry that the key log in this network is findability, and that we may soon reach a practical limit on this.  Sarah Thank you for a superbly written article! It is not often you come across someone with so much to say and such valid points, and who expresses it well. I also find the discussion one of the single most important ones. As a worker in the drug industry, you are right on spot about the cost of drug “copying”, although there’s exceptions, like drugs that have to be purified from the living bodies of real animals or people, which then rocket in price. pako http://www.alfainversiones.blogspot.com pako http://www.inversionesynegociosenparaguay.blogspot.com pako negocios e inversiones http://www.inversionesynegociosenparaguay.blogspot.com Anononymus Awesome post and awesome blog. Greetings! Nuratrim Guest As a musician whose only medium of distribution/communication to my fans is through this copy machine, how do I maximize these “generatives” to add value to my product? Rafa Marsiglia Random dude, I totally agree with you. Ellie Kesselman Me too. seslichatseslisohbetwebcam Vielen Dank, Merci de partager belle Thank you for sharing beautiful Vielen Dank für schöneSesli Chat Sesli Sohbet ne-nerede speakychat Seslidunya.com Camila Andrews So you mean to say that we can use it for free apk files clash of clans mod apk freedom apk and sb game hacker apk 18videolar http://www.18videolar.com biggest porn archive Ellie Kesselman YOU win the prize, Random Dude! Four years later, this describes October 2014 rather well: “all content will either be advertising for some service or physical product, or will be produced by amateurs with day jobs (day jobs doing precisely what, I wonder). To me that’s obviously not a good thing.” Shovo Shake Want to make $5k Monthly Online? WAIT! I Want To Teach You… How YOU can easily earn an extra $3,000 this month! How To Make $25, $100, $500, $1,000, and $3,000 per sale! How YOU can start making money in the next 7 days! How To Get Started Today, Risk Free, Guaranteed! Go To:>> http://bit.ly/13LoEKX ozgurtasnakliyat super bır yazı olmus emegınıze saglık basarılar dılerım http://www.ozgurtasnakliyat.com berkpromosyon basarılar http://www.berkpromosyon.com ramin I totally agree with this post Internet + Shopping = money http://emenshop.tk Tory S. Anderson I originally came across this in the PDF form (from ChangeThis) and was happy to find this site. Taken together with articles like Wikipedia’s article on DRM it offers a perspective on intellectual property that is much more appropriate than the misappropriation of conventional physical property concepts. yusuf http://www.yusufyilmaz.net.tr Thnaks Nice omg Atefe Abolfazli printing services Faik Emre YILMAZ http://www.gubidik.org ve http://www.abidik.org başarılar diler kardeş. Faik Emre YILMAZ PSD indir ve http://www.abidik.org başarılar diler kardeş. ARCHERY Online oyunlarda zaman geçirip elde ettiğiniz ögeleri satabilir, alabilir, takas edebilirsiniz tüm bu işlemler için hesap satış ilan platformunu kullanabilirsiniz. http://hesapsatis.com/ Ahmet Cem Aktaş dizi fragmanları Manolyasesli .Com Sesli chat;insanların duygularını,yaşadığı tecrübelerini,sıkıntılarını,üzüntülerini,mutlu anlarını,güncel yaşamlarını sanal internet ortamında mikrofon ve ses donanımlı bir sohbet chat,iletişim sistemdir.Sınırlama yoktur.Her sesli chat http://www.manolyasesli.com/sesli-chat kullanıcısı istediği her konu hakkında sesli sohbet ,sesli chat merkezi olan sitemiz kurallarına riayet ededek şekilde sohbet chat yapabilir.Sesli chat kısaca budur. http://www.manolyasesli.com/sesli-chat Rolling Muse In the case of music, Personalization and Findability are two sides of the same coin. Personalization is what fans want. Findability is what artists want. The 6 other points have been commoditized by Apple, Spotify, Youtube (and other smaller players like Tidal and Bandcamp). Whoever manages to solve personalization and findability together will win the battle for the music business. Tala 5 years later I find this. Evergreen content. What I don’t get is how is it that everything is free when there are costs for creating running and maintaining the machines that copy everything? And the cost of electricity. The consumer isn’t paying. But somebody is. Who is it? ESTEDT It’s a difference of fixed cost vs. variable cost. You’re correct that everyone pays to keep their part of the infrastructure running — you pay for your cell phone, Google pays for its servers, ISPs pay for their cable lines, etc. That’s fixed cost. But the variable cost of sending one more tweet over the already-running internet is so close to zero that it is free. Maybe it’s a millionth of a kilowatt-hour of electricity, which averages $0.00000015 in the United States in 2017. İstanbul Halı Koltuk Yıkama I think you’ve missed a reason for better than free. Namely that free permits massive consumption and so encourages indiscriminate consumption. Paying for something encourages the buyer to value the purchase. What you obtain too cheaply often gets esteemed too lightly. http://www.istanbulhaliyikamaciniz.com treegb 中文翻譯版已經掛了, 看 Internet Archive 的備份 : (Chinese translation version is down, see the snapshot from Internet Archive backup ) : https://web.archive.org/web/20141223150905/http://tuxfans.com/2008/02/05/154/ ahmet Beylikdüzü Cam Balkon, yaz ve kış aylarında balkonların özelliğini kaybetmeden şık bir görüntü sağlayan yeni ve estetik bir sistemdir. 1 Cam Balkon kullanımı kolay, güvenlik açısından oldukça sağlam, temizlik açışından da işinizi kolaylaştırmaktadır. 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Cam balkon yaptıracak tüketicilerin cam balkon yaptırmadan önce çok iyi araştırma yapmalarını öneriyoruz. http://www.1cambalkon.com ahmet Beylikdüzü Dünya Etüt Merkezi Beylikdüzü’nde butik eğitim, bire bir özel ders merkezi, etüt merkezi, eğitim koçluğu, Butik Dersane hizmetleri veren profesyonel bir eğitim kurumudur. 2011 yılından beri uzman eğitimcilerle hizmet veren kurumumuz her sene başarılarına yenilerini katmaktadır. http://www.dunyaetut.com ahmet Yaz Dönemi TEOG Kursu 21 Mayıs 2017 ile 1 Ağustos 2017 tarihleri arasında gelecek yıl 8. sınıfta okuyacak öğrenciler için Yaz Dönemi TEOG Kurs Programı erken kayıtlarımız başlamıştır. 1.Teog sınavı (2017 Kasım ayında) konularının tamamını yaz döneminde bitirerek öğrencilerimizin yeni dönemde psikolojik olarak hazır olmasını sağlamak ve Teog sınavı yarışında diğer öğrencilere göre daha avantajlı olması sağlanır.Öğrencilerimiz yaz kursu ile 1.TEOG konularını bitirdiğinden eylül ayından itibaren 1.TEOG konularıyla ilgili farklı kaynaklardan soru çözme ve pratik yapma, okulda öğretmeninin 1.Teog konularını anlatmasını beklemeden soru eksiğini giderme ve daha fazla sayıda kaynak bitirme fırsatı olacaktır http://www.beylikduzuteog.com ahmet Beylikdüzü Özel Ders Beylikdüzü’nde butik eğitim, bire bir özel ders merkezi, etüt merkezi, eğitim koçluğu, Butik Dersane hizmetleri veren profesyonel bir eğitim kurumudur. 2011 yılından beri uzman eğitimcilerle hizmet veren kurumumuz her sene başarılarına yenilerini katmaktadır. http://www.beylikduzuozelders.info ahmet Yaz Dönemi YGS Kursu 20 Mayıs 2017 – 05 Ağustos 2017 tarihleri arasında önümüzdeki yıl 12. sınıfta okuyacak öğrencilerimiz için YGS Kurs Programı planladık.YGS (Mart 2018) konularının tamamını yaz döneminde bitirerek öğrencimizin yeni eğitim-öğretim dönemine psikolojik ve teknik olarak hazır ve sınav yarışına daha avantajlı başlamasını sağlamak istiyoruz.Öğrencimiz yaz döneminde YGS konularını bitirdiği için Eylülden itibaren YGS konularıyla ilgili farklı kaynaklardan bireysel olarak soru çözme ve pratik yapma, aynı zamanda LYS ye daha fazla zaman ayırma ve çok sayıda kaynak bitirme fırsatını yakalayacaktır. http://www.beylikduzuetut.info ahmet Etüt nedir ve ne amaçla yapılır? Etüt çalışması denilen şey verilen ev ödevlerinin tamamen ve yanlış yapmadan tamamlanmasına denir. Ancak etütte yalnızca ödev yapılır denilemez. Öğrencinin kavrayamadığı, kafasında soru işaretlerinin kaldığı ders konuları ile ilgili anlayabileceği şekilde konu öğrendiği alandır etütler. Ek çalışmalar ve bir takım tekrarlar yapılarak o öğrencinin konuyu tamamen kavramasına yardımcı olunur. http://www.beylikduzuetutmerkezi.com Manyak Tahmin iddaa Tahminleri Şkeli maçlar http://www.manyaktahmin.com Clinton Petersen The price of a music cd, is the same price of an itunes album download. Free is over, the network is now a mirror of the real world. The network is now ruled by advertising companies i.e facebook, twitter, google. Kim ALLAMANDOLA My idea of freedom: I’m live in Emacs; I spent time learning it and have fun with it, I use it to manage mails (via notmuch), feeds (via elfeed), ng (via gnus), notes (via Deft/org-mode), writing and managing any kind of document often exported via pandoc/LaTeX/etc (via org-mode), as a PIM, as a chat client, … I’m feeling free. I have a fully-integrated environment, I own and control my data, I can process my data myself, I can customize any aspect of my “environment” and I can communicate and cooperate with other people on other systems without worry about specific application or version of the application or platform on both sides etc. Today’s? Well, someone push (sadly with success) the old mainframe paradigma named it “cloud” or “web 2.0″ etc. You do not own your data, you can’t customize your environment, only choose between “third party” customization witch in general means “skins”/”icon sets”/”fonts” or rearrenge toolbars etc. In the ancient (and still alive) time you send mails, multi-platform, text based, fully manageable. Today you use WhatsApp so you can work only on a limited subset of platform, communicate with a limited subset of applications of specific version, you totally depend on WhatsApp online services etc. Yesterday we write on newsgroups, contents is therefore user-made. Today we read websites. Yesterday we use RSS/Atom to “handle” the “flux of information” from “the internet”, today we use aggregators so other choose for us. etc. Even this comments are on Disqus. If something on Disqus brake we have no local copy and no choice. That’s the different: not free on “money side” but free as in freedom on one side and a “golden prison”/”walled garden” on the other side. Sorry for my English and the long post. ESTEDT And here we are, six years after your comment, in 2017. A Taylor Swift MP3 costs $1.29, and two tickets to her live performances easily cost more than $500. Her music might not be to your taste, but many think she produces “high-quality information.” Moreover, she seems to be making a living doing it. And she’s hardly the only one doing so. IP costs less than it used to, but the value of actual work (seeing Taylor onstage and performing, live, right in front of you) by talented artists has increased. Moreover, it’s unlikely someone like Taylor Swift would have enjoyed her success without that cheap IP (not just song recordings, but YouTube videos, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) as a marketing device. Do you still have a problem with “better than free”? It seems to be working out. ganesh Agree. Why do we assume inevitability of these bad things and surrender to them? Kim ALLAMANDOLA If you are a musician, not a company how leave on top of them, you can publish your songs on various free streaming sites (like Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, …) having some non-invasive ads and ask for support in the form: “hey! You like my songs and you are a web-designer? Please help me making a good looking website to host my music, free of charge, downloadable in .ogg, .mp3 etc instead of being tied to a streaming service. If your songs are good you obtain a nice-looking website for free and you can pay a hosting for it with the small income from advertisements. You can put a “donate” button on you new site. If you are really good you get money from it+the *non invasive* ads. That’s the path. Simply we do not need anymore music Big company. At least small recording studios scattered around the world. Make music is an art, not a business and should be rewarded as an art. If you make music for getting a Limousine, well, better chose another “job”. John Pickler What excellent article, thank you. cambalkon Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your web-site is very cool. http://www.camdanbalkon.org ttshosting Good information site. Thank you. My site https://www.ttshosting.com.tr cambalkon We need to start treating software piracy and the like the same way. http://www.katlanircambalkon.net Back to Top 
opencontent-org-1480	----	If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access – iterating toward openness Skip to the content iterating toward openness pragmatism before zeal Menu Close Menu Categories open content If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access Post author By david Post date November 8, 2017 2 Comments on If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access Imagine that – somehow – you’ve never used the internet before. A good friend and long-time internet user finds this out and begins trying to describe to you how awesome the internet is. However, for some inexplicable reason, all of his arguments for why you should be on the internet focus on cost. While it is absolutely true that each of these services is cheaper than its pre-internet counterpart, cost is far and away the least interesting thing about any of them. Would these arguments actually inspire someone to want to use the internet? If you’re already familiar with the internet, the whole line of argument seems to miss the point. It omits the heart and soul of what makes the internet amazing. Who thinks about the internet this way?   Yesterday IHE published an article about the “inclusive access” programs offered by most major textbook publishers. These are purchasing programs in which “institutions are signing up whole classes of students to automatically receive digital course materials at a discounted rate, rather than purchasing individually.” What problem does the inclusive access model purport to solve? The inappropriately high cost of textbooks. Here’s a VP from Pearson: Tim Peyton, vice president of strategic partnerships at Pearson, said it was no secret that publishers like Pearson had made textbooks too expensive and had seen sales drop as a result. “The print model is really a broken business model for us,” he said, adding, “we’re thinking about how to move away from print, and move towards digital” …. Publishers can offer discounts of up to around 70 percent with inclusive access because their customer share is increasing, explained Peyton. While everyone wants educational materials to be less expensive, lower costs are the least interesting thing about digital, networked learning. The inclusive access model’s goal of reducing the cost of textbooks apparently reminded the article’s author of OER, because she includes some discussion of OER toward the end of the article. However, like many others outside the immediate OER community, this author seems unaware that there is anything more to OER than “free textbooks” that – just like the inclusive access model – make education more affordable. When interviewees Nicole Allen and Rajiv Jhangiani try to discuss some of the problems that are unsolved by the inclusive access model, it feels like the author struggles to understand them because they don’t relate to cost. And obviously, both inclusive access and OER are about solving the cost problem. By focusing on cost, the article takes a page directly from the publishers’ playbook. Keeping the conversation laser-focused on cost is the core of their defensive strategy with regard to OER. Because when you think the problem to be solved is the high cost of textbooks, the way you solve that problem is by lowering the cost of textbooks. When you think the problem to be solved is the high cost of textbooks, inclusive access programs and OER adoption are just two competing approaches to solving the problem. Can you see it? When we focus on cost, we put inclusive access and OER on equal footing. When our presentations and our writing and our speaking and our advocacy focus primarily on ways that OER alleviate the cost problem, we’re actually doing exactly what publishers want. In June I wrote, the free versus affordable [i.e., cost-focused] debate is … a decoy. A distraction. A first class, super skillful, street corner magician “look over here so you don’t see what’s happening over there” sleight of hand. When OER advocates say “free” and publishers say “affordable,” launching into an argument about the distance between those two positions … it’s an easy debate to get lost in. Certainly interesting enough to consume your attention for an entire webinar. However, the true strategy here isn’t to narrow the distance between free and affordable in the mind of the listener (though you might think it is). The real purpose is to prevent the listener from turning their attention from “free” to “permissions.” “But no one cares about permissions,” you might protest. “We can’t expect people to learn the 5Rs,” you might explain (somewhat) patiently. “You can’t fit the educational problems related to permissions into a sound byte,” you might chide. But believe me when I say that if we can’t figure out how to make the teaching and learning problems caused by copyright the core issue we are solving with OER (with cost as an important, but secondary, issue), OER will go the way of MOOCs – a few years of wild hype about revolutionary potential followed by inevitable domestication by the academy. I’ve been shouting this from the rooftops for months now (most recently in July). And yet here we are again, with OER characterized as nothing more than a free textbook and, consequently, inclusive access held up as a reasonable alternative to OER. When we allow the false notion that OER are free textbooks to prevail, this is what we get. Publishers can compete with free textbooks by making their more-restrictive-than-all-right-reserved offerings 70% more affordable. And they have ten billion annual incentives to keep the conversation centered on the problems their business models are capable of solving. When, o when will we turn our attention in earnest to OER-enabled pedagogy – to all the teaching and learning practices (and associated benefits) that are possible only in the context of OER adoption? When will we stop focusing on cost to the exclusion of other benefits? Yes, reducing the cost of education is one of the benefits of OER adoption – and an important one at that. And yes, I get that everyone understands cost, and so it’s easy to lead with cost. But we are slowly killing ourselves with this tactic. Every time we  focus a conversation about OER on cost, we simultaneously strengthen the arguments in favor of inclusive access. Like Gmail, Instagram, YouTube, and Wikipedia, it’s true that OER cost less than the alternatives – but that’s not what’s most interesting or inspiring about any of them. Think for a moment about the internet – what exactly is so exciting and inspiring and useful about the internet? (Pause here to consider that question – you’ll use this answer below.) Given that academics like to begin from a “problem statement,” perhaps we should begin working on a clear, concise, and compelling statement of the myriad problems caused by the traditional approach to copyright in the context of educational materials. (The benefits of OER adoption will be easy to identify given this list.) I think many of us have an intuitive sense of what many of them are, but we’re generally miserable at communicating them. So I put the question to you, dear reader – what are some of the problems caused by using the traditional approach to copyright in the context of educational materials? (Keep in mind your answers to the question about the internet from two paragraphs back.) Here’s a quickly brainstormed list to get you started: Students and faculty are reduced to a “look but don’t touch” relationship with their materials Errors in materials cannot be corrected in a timely manner More effective local examples cannot be integrated directly into materials Materials inevitably speak from a single perspective, and multiple viewpoints cannot be integrated directly into materials Faculty are forced to hide and conceal their fair use or TEACH Act-protected efforts to improve instructional materials, making it impossible to share or collaborate with other faculty and causing an enormous duplication of effort Accessibility improvements made to materials must be regularly destroyed and recreated by each individual institution, causing an enormous duplication of effort Students often lose access to their materials at the end of the semester Students also often lose access to their own work as well, in the form of highlights, notes, and other annotations Students are significantly inconvenienced / learning is harmed when publishers disable printing, copying, pasting, and other standard technical capabilities that can support student learning (these digital restrictions are enforced through copyright) The monopoly on copying and distribution granted by traditional copyright means prices for educational materials remain artificially high The full power of the internet – comprised mainly of its unique capabilities for connecting, copying, editing, and sharing – cannot be brought to bear in the context of traditionally copyrighted educational materials, leaving us to fight our educational battles with one arm tied behind our backs What would you add to this list? What are some of the problems you see caused by using the traditional approach to copyright in the context of educational materials? Once a sufficiently comprehensive list of problems is generated we can begin the process of synthesizing it into a concise message. Maybe that will finally allow us to stop playing into the publishers’ hands by talking about cost all the time. Maybe it will help us focus on where the real power of OER lies – in it’s expanded capabilities and possibilities. Related ← Improving the OpenEd Conference, Report Back 1 → More on the Cost Trap and Inclusive Access 2 replies on “If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access” Enkerlisays: November 9, 2017 at 1:15 pm My answer to the Internet question had to do with a part of the Network Effect. There’s a multiplier effect happening through putting things online. And, yes, publishers have been doing some of this. But their models focused on “access to content” does make it much harder to benefit from really widespread, virus-like multiplication. For textbooks specifically, been asking publishers to consider a way to build bridges between people using the same “titles”. If two instructors who “adopted” the same textbook get a chance to communicate about their experience, something really neat tends to happen. Same with learners from different institutions answering each others’ questions about a chapter. This can be very close to the typical MOOC’s forums. But it’s also Stack Overflow, Disqus, or even Quora. Sure, this can also be very challenging and is likely to cause the same kind of problem as we notice in most forums… if no care is provided to build a strong community with a shared culture. This is basic community management stuff and is actually easier to do with learners (or teachers) than with most people who congregate around some material. Now, there’s something to be said about bringing annotations to the mix. Added a few “tates” to this very piece, using Hypothes.is. https://via.hypothes.is/https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5219 As several pedagogues from the #DigPedPosse have found out (say, Robin DeRosa and Remi Kalir), the Open Web allows for quite a different type of conversation when you start annotating it in learning contexts. More on the Cost Trap and Inclusive Accesssays: November 13, 2017 at 9:19 am […] recent post about the cost trap and inclusive access prompted responses by Jim Groom and Stephen Downes. I’ll respond to Jim’s post first, […] Comments are closed. This blog is written and maintained by David Wiley. Opinions are my own. This blog focuses on issues relating to openness in education. For my thoughts on improving success for US postsecondary students, see my other blog improving student success. Unless otherwise noted, the contents of this site are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Should you choose to exercise any of the 5R permissions granted you under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, please attribute me in accordance with CC’s best practices for attribution. If you would like to attribute me differently or use my work under different terms, contact me at david dot wiley at gmail dot com. © 2020 iterating toward openness Powered by WordPress To the top ↑ Up ↑ 
opencontent-org-4249	----	More on the Cost Trap and Inclusive Access – iterating toward openness Skip to the content iterating toward openness pragmatism before zeal Menu Close Menu Categories open content More on the Cost Trap and Inclusive Access Post author By david Post date November 13, 2017 1 Comment on More on the Cost Trap and Inclusive Access My recent post about the cost trap and inclusive access prompted responses by Jim Groom and Stephen Downes. I’ll respond to Jim’s post first, as it provides an opportunity for some necessary clarification on my part. [Back in 2012 – 2013] I was impressed (like many others I’m sure) with how Wiley was able to frame the cost-savings argument around open textbooks to build broader interest for OERs. If you’re a longtime reader of Iterating Toward Openness, you’ve read my discussions of means and ends in this context a number of times. For example, in 2015 I wrote that “My ultimate goal is this: I want to (1) radically improve the quality of education as judged by learners, and (2) radically improve access to education. And I want to do it worldwide.” For reasons I have outlined countless times (relating to the pedagogical innovation only possible in the context of permission to engage in the 5R activities), I believe OER adoption is a critically important means to achieving this end. As Jim notes above, for some period of time talking about the cost savings associated with OER was an effective way to advocate for OER adoption, helping us get a step closer to the end goal. However, in the new context of inclusive access models, arguments about “reducing the cost of college” and providing students with “day one access” are increasingly ineffective at persuading faculty to adopt OER because publishers have completely co-opted these messages. Ask a publisher why inclusive access is good for students and the list of reasons they will provide sounds like it came straight off a 2013 OER advocacy slide. But what does bother me a bit is the suggestion that OERs have not been primarily (and very intentionally) marketed as a cost saving strategy for years now. And the idea of pivoting away from that at the exact moment Pearson, Cengage, and McGraw-Hill are adopting that approach seems a bit too convenient. I fear it is OER wanting it both ways. What do you offer when cheaper is no longer enough? Well, you can return to the authenticity of the pedagogical experience of open and reassert the primacy of the open license. But when you do this, the Creative Commons license (as well as the 5 Rs) seem to be just as much a brand as anything those corporate publishers are doing to corner the market. It’s not an accident or “convenient” that I’ve been clamoring about this for months. My increasingly intense pleas are a direct response to both publisher behavior and publisher messaging. The question we must each ask ourselves is – what is the real goal of our OER advocacy? If your real goal is promoting OER adoption (because you believe in its transformative potential or for any other reason), then it is time to talk about permissions first and cost second – and to clearly address cost as part of the problem caused by a lack of permissions (as I will explain in further detail below). However, if your end goal was never OER adoption, but was increasing access and affordability (and that’s a worthy goal!), there’s nothing you need to change in the way you talk about cost. In fact, if improving access and affordability are your end goal, you may be starting to feel like your work is just about finished – inclusive access models are delivering day one access and drastically lowered costs to students. Personally, my goal is not to provide less expensive access to the same teaching and learning experience to more people – access and affordability have never been my end game. My goal is to facilitate radical improvements in education for everyone in the world, and I continue to believe that we will only see these improvements in proportion to the degree that we succeed in broadly deploying an open education infrastructure (of which open educational resources are a key component). But increased access and affordability are one of many ways students benefit when their faculty adopt OER, and it was not intellectually dishonest to begin OER advocacy conversations with the cost benefit (rather than one of the others) when that was the most effective argument for adopting OER. Likewise, it is not intellectually dishonest to begin future conversations with a different benefit. Cost is no longer the most effective argument for adopting OER. You may argue that we’re not quite to the point yet where this statement is strictly true. If we’re not, the time is soon coming, and the language the entire field uses to advocate for OER adoption is a huge boat that will be very slow in turning. Even now I worry that we may have started too late. On to Stephen’s response. This opens with a lengthy recounting of the many ways in which he has been a long-time, stalwart champion of OER-enabled pedagogy and taking umbrage at my call for greater focus here. Yes, Stephen, you have been talking about this consistently for a long time. Consequently, I’m obviously not talking to you when I encourage people to be more focused on OER-enabled pedagogy. After defending his record of commitment to OER-enabled pedagogy Stephen addresses me personally (and sometimes aggressively) in his post, even going so far as to claim an intimate understanding of my thoughts and motives. I this think merits a longer response. I won’t spend much time responding to the first section of Stephen’s essay, which is essentially a lengthy demonization of commercial entities. I will say only this: I am constantly surprised by the degree to which many of my friends, who are otherwise thoughtful academics, are perfectly willing to stereotype in this arena. To listen to them speak and read what they write, it seems as if these people who otherwise make their livings in the tiny nuances between large generalizations believe categorically that all non-profit entities are agents of righteousness and all for-profit entities are agents of evil. I believe many of them would be aghast if I accused them of stereotyping on the basis of age, race, gender identity, or religion. But stereotyping on the basis of tax status seems to be acceptable – perhaps even expected – in some parts of academic culture. It’s hard to believe this needs repeating, but organizations and individuals deserve the basic courtesy of being judged by their own actions and not those of others in any class to which they might belong. Moving on to the substance of his response, Stephen writes: The core issue here, argues Wiley, is one of permissions, not cost. It is absolutely true that permissions are the core issue and not cost, because cost is a function of permissions. The only reason publishers are able to inflate the costs of their educational materials so outrageously is their monopoly on permissions to make and distribute copies granted to them by copyright. If Campbell’s Biology were openly licensed or in the public domain, it would be available in a wide range of formats with a wide range of supports at a wide range of prices. But because Pearson has the exclusive rights to distribute this title, there is no competition and you’ll pay over $200 for a new copy. On the other hand, the public domain title Pride and Prejudice is about $8 per new paperback copy no matter who you buy it from (and cheaper or free in other formats), because everyone has permission to copy and distribute it. You’ll pay slightly more for an annotated copy, which might run you $15. (How do you feel about people who create value-added editions of public domain literature?) The egregiously high cost of educational materials is a symptom of taking a traditional approach to copyright with educational materials. Traditional “all rights reserved” copyright is the cause; high costs are but one of its many negative effects. Moving forward, when we talk about cost we should do so in the context of permissions – both because our work should strike at the roots, not hack at the branches, and because this is a way of talking about cost that is unlikely to be co-opted by publishers (unless they move to openly license most or all of their catalogs). Stephen next asserts his own commitment to OER-enabled pedagogy by questioning mine. We are focused on the advantages of OER-enabled pedagogy. What do you think the whole MOOC thing George Siemens and I and others was about? Beginning in 2003 and continuing consistently thereafter I have depicted learning resources as words in a conversation, and applied the logic of language to the logic of reuse. In 2006 I described and recommended the community-based model to support sustainable OER-based pedagogy. In the intervening years we’ve seen no support from David Wiley with respect to this alternative model. His focus has been on traditional institutions of learning and the traditional classroom model. When he has worked toward the production of OERs, it was to produce textbooks. I’ve spent years working toward a pedagogy of sharing and networks and communities enabled (partially) by open educational resources; Wiley has appeared disinterested. (emphasis in original) It’s true that I have not thrown my efforts into Stephen’s community-based model operating mostly outside of formal institutions. This is true for two reasons. The first relates to one of my all-time favorite quotes, this one from Linus Torvalds: Don’t EVER make the mistake that you can design something better than what you get from ruthless massively parallel trial-and-error with a feedback cycle. That’s giving your intelligence _much_ too much credit. We need an ecosystem of models – lots and lots of ways of trying to sustain and scale positive impact in open education. We need lots of smart people doing everything they can to move those different models forward. We need those models to bump into each other in the world and to evolve over time. Hopefully, if we engage in this process of surfacing and working to advance a range of models long enough (“massively parallel trial-and-error with a feedback cycle”), we can find one or more that actually works. For the good of the field, Stephen shouldn’t want me working on his model any more than I should want him working on mine. (Parenthetically, this is also one of the primary reasons Lumen is a for-profit and not a non-profit. There is very little diversity in the ways organizations working in open education are structured (almost all are non-profits) or in how they sustain their work (primarily through grants, supplemented with some services revenue). For example, the field desperately needs to diversify our sources of revenue. What would happen to the field if Hewlett announced tomorrow that they were changing the focus of their education funding? It might not be tomorrow, but they won’t fund OER indefinitely. We need many people exploring many models for scaling and sustaining the impacts of open education if we’re going to find models that work over the long-term.) The second reason I haven’t invested heavily in Stephen’s approach is that I continue to be interested in the formal learning that happens in accredited institutions that award recognized credentials. Those credentials continue to be one of the best paths to achieving economic security for oneself and family. Many of those accredited institutions serve a large number of first generation, low income, academically underprepared students who need significant support and encouragement during the learning process. Needless to say, these students are not roaming autodidacts who, left to their own (digital) devices, will thrive and succeed as “free range learners” in a world of MOOCs. I see a significant need to continue to focus on the teaching and learning that happens in these spaces, and so I continue to work here. Stephen is also upset that I accuse people of “‘not talking about open pedagogy’ when they take a perspective that is not based in the precious 5 Rs.” Because no one knows what ‘open pedagogy’ means, I am very careful not to use that term and I made no such accusation in my post. The term “OER-enabled pedagogy” has a very specific meaning, which is grounded specifically in the 5Rs, and OER-enabled pedagogy – and only OER-enabled pedagogy – is what my post was about. Stephen then discusses my critique of the predominant model of delivering MOOCs: The problem [Wiley] sees with these MOOCs isn’t the pedagogical model per se, it’s that they have the wrong licensing. “I believe we must ground our open thinking in the idea of open licenses. Specifically, we should advocate for open in the language of the 5Rs,” he writes. And this has been his position consistently for a number of years. (emphasis in original) Yes, this has consistently been my position for several years. In addition to being the root cause of the cost problem, a lack of permissions constrains our ability to engage in a range of more authentic, constructionist pedagogies. Some (though certainly not all) of the problems with xMOOC pedagogies are a function of the lack of permissions teachers and students have in the traditionally copyrighted content around which these courses are most often designed. We learn by the things we do. Copyright prohibits us from doing specific things. Consequently, copyright prohibits us from learning in specific ways. Open licenses grant us permission to engage in these previously prohibited activities. Consequently, openly licensed content allows us to learn in new ways. Exploring and leveraging the new ways of learning enabled by open licenses is the core of what OER-enabled pedagogy is all about. Stephen continues: The reason people talk about the cost of open educational resources is because some people – David Wiley included – think it’s an essential part of ‘open’ that the resources be commercialized and that vendors charge money from them…. Wiley (and a cluster of other OER advocates) insist that creators must use a CC-by license, allowing commercial use, if they want their work to be considered open. My definition of open, when used in the context of open content or open educational resources, has been crystal clear and unchanging for over a decade. Open means free plus permissions. (If you’re interested, you can read this tiny review demonstrating that the “open” in open content, open educational resources, open access, open data, open knowledge, open source, and open standards means “free plus permissions.”) The only real change in my stance has been the addition of a 5th R to the permissions three years ago. Nowhere in my definition of open is there a requirement that a resource be licensed in a way that allows for commercial use. In fact, one of my main problems with the “open definition” is that it does explicitly require licenses to allow commercial uses of materials for them to be considered “open.” This is one of several reasons why you never hear me refer to that body of work. I disagree with it strongly. It is true that I advocate for CC BY because this license maximizes reusability, is the most interoperable of all CC licenses, and is the easiest for people to comply with. With other CC licenses you almost always get well-meaning people violating the terms because they don’t actually understand what ShareAlike, NonCommercial, or NoDerivatives mean (it’s hard enough to get people to follow the best practices for attribution). But while I advocate for CC BY, I also advocate for the community to be understanding when people or institutions make other choices. As I wrote in defense of projects that choose the BY-NC-SA license, When an institution enters a new world (like the world of open educational resources) we can and should expect the early adopters to move in baby steps, dipping their toes in before diving in head first. The force of will necessary to motivate the institution to take even these tiny initial steps comes at great personal costs of time, effort, and political capital to the individual champion or tiny band of champions who push the cause within the university. The costs are very real. In my view, the so-called “free content movement” should welcome these institutions with open arms and applaud their first attempts at entry into the community. After all, just getting a handful of university courses digitized, licensed By-NC-SA, and posted online takes a massive commitment of time and love and tears and pain. This is a genuinely laudable first step. However, instead of a show welcome and gratitude, too often the institutional champions are greeted with complaints that their resources aren’t “free enough” and accusations that they must not really care about helping people learn, because they couldn’t convince their institutions or faculty peers from day one that they didn’t need the NC clause. After suffering the pains of conception and birth of their project, this feels like the ultimate insult to the champions. It dispirits and depresses them at exactly the moment when we should be encouraging them, building them up, and refreshing them before they begin round two. For some creators of OER, an NC-bearing license will always be the best choice (though I believe these cases to be rare). For other creators of OER, an NC-bearing license will be the first step on a journey toward more openness. Either way, when people begin licensing their content as OER, we should explain to them what the community has learned over the last two decades of openly licensing content and then allow them to make an informed decision. Then we should respect that decision. I advocate for CC BY. I also advocate for respecting others’ choice of license. Stephen’s mind reading fails him when he claims I “think it’s an essential part of ‘open’ that the resources be commercialized and that vendors charge money from them.” Nothing remotely like that has ever been included in my definition of open. Stephen continues: At core, Wiley sees ‘commercial’ as good, while I don’t. More accurately, I think, Wiley sees ‘commercial’ as the only good, while I think that public and community-based non-commercial alternatives are equally viable. Again, Stephen’s mind reading is almost as wrong as it is possible to be. I believe education to be an undertaking so large in scope and so critical in importance that we need all hands on deck – including individuals, governments, community-based networks, non-commercial organizations, and for-profit companies. I believe each of these are capable of making unique and important contributions. But I also believe that in order to make positive contributions to the great educational undertaking an individual or organization (regardless of its tax status or lack thereof) needs to share a relatively small set of common values. Some individuals, government agencies, community-based networks, non-commercial organizations, and for-profit companies share these values. Others don’t. But when multiple groups with some shared values collaborate to achieving a common goal, much more is accomplished than when we exclude willing and anxious participants who share many of our values and want to contribute. I want to pause here to make a point I believe to be critically important. You don’t need to have ALL values in common with another person or organization in order to collaborate productively toward common goals. For example, I am constantly impressed by the good work done by the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable. The SLIFR is a group of organizations (Baha’i, Baptist, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, Sikh, and others) that disagree on the most fundamental of all things – literally, the very meaning and purpose of life. But they share other values, like a desire to end homelessness in SLC, and so they focus on those common values to do collaborative work that benefits many people. Not even the faculty member in the same department in the office next door to you shares all your values. Our growing inflexibility and unwillingness to work with others with whom we share some values – but who fail to pass an ideological purity test – is the primary cause of dysfunction in our politics at the moment. I hope we can avoid repeating this mistake in education. (See what I did there? Religion and politics in the same paragraph!) Finally, Stephen writes: Of course [Wiley] wants us to stop talking about cost – that would deflect the criticism of his own business model. Lumen Learning is in the same business as Pearson, Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education: selling textbooks (directly or indirectly) to students…. You want me to stop talking about cost, David? Stop charging money for something that should be free. Return education to the community network. Help work with us together without putting a price tag on it. (emphasis in original) Stephen is generally quite thoughtful. But here he joins a cast of characters who appear to have made no effort to learn about what Lumen actually does but who still feel comfortable making public statements about our work based purely on their assumptions. When Stephen asks Lumen to stop charging money for something that should be free and return it to the community, what does he imagine those things to be? Is it the OER we have aggregated, aligned with learning outcomes, consistently formatted, supplemented with videos and interactives, and meticulously attributed? Is it the new OER whose creation we’ve commissioned? Is it the new OER we’ve created ourselves? All of that is publicly and freely available to the community under open licenses on our website. So that can’t be it. Is it the software we’ve created to help faculty manage all the complexity around attribution in the context of revising, remixing, and making compilations of OER? Is it the software we’ve created to simplify the process of integrating OER into any LMS via the open standards LTI and Common Cartridge? Is it the work we’ve done to make it easier to align WordPress-based content with learning outcomes? Is it the features we’ve added to and the bugs we’ve fixed in the Pressbooks plugin for WordPress? Is it the improvements we’ve made to the IMathAS quantitative assessment platform? Is it the extensions we’ve made to the Open Assessments platform? All of that is publicly and freely available to the community under open licenses on our GitHub site. So that can’t be it. Is it the time Lumen staff spend each week on the phone, on email, in face-to-face workshops, and in other settings helping people find, use, improve, integrate, and update OER that Stephen thinks should be free? Is it the time they invest in data-informed continuous improvement, increasing the effectiveness of OER term after term? Is it the AWS hosting, systems monitoring, backups, and other technical services they provide and support? People’s time and technical services like hosting have real, recurring costs associated with them. And yet Lumen provides a fair amount of this to the community for free anyway, for example, through our Office Hours and by paying for the hosting of the community instance of IMathAS running at myopenmath.com. Many, many people take advantage of these services, which have real, recurring costs and which Lumen provides for free as a service to the community. But if you want Lumen staff to be responsible and accountable for running, managing, and supporting your OER-related infrastructure, yes, we charge for that – just like OER Commons does for its Microsites service. Or if you want to use the new tools we’ve developed to support personalized learning in the context of OER, yes, we charge for that – just like OpenStax does for its Tutor product. Or if you want us to fly to your campus and run OER workshops for your faculty and provide other implementation support, yes, we charge for that – just like Open Up Resources does. And I sincerely and wholeheartedly believe it is completely appropriate for us to charge a fee for these services, just like other organizations in the open education space do. I think Stephen’s call for Lumen to ‘stop charging money for something that should be free and return education to the community network’ reflects, most likely, his lack of understanding of what we do and how we do it. But I don’t know that for certain. Hopefully, he now has a clearer sense of what we do and his future criticisms will be better informed. And no, Stephen, Lumen is not “in the same business as Pearson, Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education.” They are primarily in the business of leveraging their copyright monopolies on content duplication and distribution to extract exorbitant fees from students, and secondarily in the business of building technologies that enforce and protect those monopolies (e.g., implementing novel DRM in proprietary content delivery platforms). Lumen is in the business of doing just the opposite. Related ← If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access → The Cost Trap, Part 3 One reply on “More on the Cost Trap and Inclusive Access” "We need many people exploring many models for scaling and sustaining the impacts of open education..." https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5244 #bcoetcsays: November 15, 2017 at 1:33 pm […] need many people exploring many models for scaling and sustaining the impacts of open education…" https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5244 […] Comments are closed. This blog is written and maintained by David Wiley. Opinions are my own. This blog focuses on issues relating to openness in education. For my thoughts on improving success for US postsecondary students, see my other blog improving student success. Unless otherwise noted, the contents of this site are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Should you choose to exercise any of the 5R permissions granted you under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, please attribute me in accordance with CC’s best practices for attribution. If you would like to attribute me differently or use my work under different terms, contact me at david dot wiley at gmail dot com. © 2020 iterating toward openness Powered by WordPress To the top ↑ Up ↑ 
opencontent-org-7427	----	Open Education License Draft – iterating toward openness Skip to the content iterating toward openness pragmatism before zeal Menu Close Menu Categories open content Open Education License Draft Post author By david Post date August 8, 2007 19 Comments on Open Education License Draft If you follow this blog with any regularity you’ll have seen this coming for several weeks now. When I began recommending that people quit using OpenContent licenses (developed in 98 and 99) and begin using the new Creative Commons licenses (in 2003), I said it was one of the hardest things I had ever done. And it was. (More background). Today I take the lid off the next most difficult thing I’ve done. As I describe below, I hate the idea of license proliferation. However, I feel that there are several convincing arguments that we need a new license at this point in the history of open content, and specifically in the history of open education. After providing the arguments and my thoughts below, you’ll find a draft of the first license issued by OpenContent in eight years – the Open Education License. The Four Rs of Open Content When I began promoting the idea of open content almost 10 years ago, there were four main types of activity I was interested in promoting (although it took me some time to get to the point where I could articulate them clearly). The four main types of activity enabled by open content can be summarized as “the four Rs”: Reuse – Use the work verbatim, just exactly as you found it Rework – Alter or transform the work so that it better meets your needs Remix – Combine the (verbatim or altered) work with other works to better meet your needs Redistribute – Share the verbatim work, the reworked work, or the remixed work with others Notice how each of the first three Rs encompasses those that came before it. Reusing involves copying, displaying, performing, and making other uses of a work just as you found it. Reworking involves altering or transforming content, which one would only do if afterward they would be able to reuse the derivative work. Remixing involves creating a mashup of several works – some of which will be reworked as part of the remixing process – which one would only do if afterward they would be able to reuse the remix. (A “remix” in which no reworking is done is an anthology (a collection of simple reuses) and not particularly interesting for the purposes of this discussion.) In the learning objects literature and elsewhere, endless problems have been caused by the fact that people say “reuse” when they actually mean “rework” or “remix,” or some combination of the first three Rs. This is a classic problem of imprecision; of talking fast and loose. Add to this difficulty the fact that each of these three Rs thrives under different conditions, and you’ve got a recipe for general confusion. For example, take “rework.” This R deals with creating a derivative by altering or adapting a work. Traditionally licenses have tried to strengthen the rework activity through the “copyleft” mechanism. Copyleft is an idea borrowed directly from the world of free or open source software, requiring that derivative works be licensed using the exact same license as the original. This insures that when derivatives are created from a copylefted open content work, those children and grandchildren works remain open content, licensed using exactly the same license as the original. However, while copyleft strictly requires that all future generations of derivative works be free and open, copyleft significantly hinders the remix activity. For example, conservative estimates say that there are approximately 40 million creative works that are currently licensed using a Creative Commons license. About half of these use the ShareAlike clause (Creative Commons’ copyleft clause). Of those creative works that use SA, about two thirds (~13 million) use By-NC-SA, while the other third (~7 million) uses By-SA. While statistics on GFDL adoption are harder to come by, because Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects use the GFDL we can safely estimate at least 7 million works are licensed using the GFDL (which contains its own copyleft clause). Since half of all CC licensed materials are licensed using a copyleft clause and all GFDL licensed materials are licensed using a copyleft clause, this means that over half of the world’s open content is copylefted. And while the CC and GFDL copyleft clauses guarantee that all derivative works will be “open,” they also guarantee that they can never be used in remixes with the majority of other copylefted works. You can’t remix a GFDL work with a By-NC-SA work when the licenses require that the child be licensed exactly as the parent. Each parent had one and only one license – which license would the derivative use? It’s just not possible to legally remix these materials; copyleft prevents this remixing. While promoting rework at the expense of remix – in other words, taking the copyleft approach – is fine for software, it is problematic for content and extremely problematic for education. As educators, we are always remixing materials for use in our classrooms both in the “real” world and online. Your mileage may vary, but over my last 15 years of teaching I would estimate that my remixing activities outnumber my reworking activities 10:1 or more. If other teachers are like me in this regard, then, copyleft is a huge problem for open education. Like the American football coach who tries to use his successful offensive and defensive strategies with a European football (or soccer) team, the open source advocate who brings the successful idea of copyleft into the world of open content will eventually be disappointed. The primary activity of the open source software developer is reworking; the primary activity of the open educator is remixing. Different activities require different supporting strategies to be successful. If we are serious about wanting the freedom to legally and frictionlessly remix educational materials, we have one of two choices: either ignore the OpenCourseWares, Wikipedia, and other copylefted open content of the world (i.e., work only with open content that isn’t copylefted), or forcibly constrain ourselves to one subset of the “open” content universe. Do you see the irony? About the Copyleft and Attribution Restrictions Some supporters of copyleft licenses like CC By-SA and the GFDL claim that they give users the ability to use and reuse open content with “no restrictions.” Obviously, requirements for attribution and copylefting of derivatives are very real restrictions that should not be overlooked. While supporters claim that “some restrictions are necessary to protect freedom,” and that requirements for attribution and copylefting fall into this category, both these restrictions can be problematic both practically and philosophically. I’ve spent a significant amount of time above describing why this is the case for the copyleft restriction. When you contemplate the different cultures and cultural values in the world, it isn’t hard to imagine scenarios in which the requirement for attribution would prevent appropriate uses of open content. One need only contemplate any of the areas of enduring unrest in the world to understand that the requirement to attribute a reuse or rework of content to a Sunni or Shia author, for example, will prevent members of the other group from using the content. Sadly, over a dozen other examples of this kind (Israeli / Palestinian, etc.) could be given. It quickly becomes clear that the requirement to attribute the original author can be a subtle but no less real way of discriminating against persons or groups. (If the accusation of being an instrument of discrimination is not convincing enough to some open source advocates, this situation also puts the seemingly innocuous requirement for attribution at odds with one of the basic premises of the open source definition.) I believe it is absolutely crucial that we do everything we can to live up to the ideals of nondiscrimination expressed in the definition, our institutions, and civilization generally. Why Not a Public Domain Dedication? If the appropriate goal for a license is, as it appears, to make open content available without any restrictions, why not simply dedicate the works in question to the public domain? There are a number of problems with a public domain dedication (like that offered by Creative Commons). First, dedicating a work to the public domain is a significantly more involved process than licensing a work. While Creative Commons is rightly famous for how easy their license selection technology and little green buttons make licensing your work with a CC license, the public domain dedication is much more complicated and includes a number of steps, including making a request for Creative Commons to send you an email regarding your intent to place a work in the public domain. This rigamarole is not the fault of Creative Commons; they have simplified as much as possible the process of putting a work in the public domain in the US. But secondly, and more importantly, it may be impossible under the law in some jurisdictions to place a work in the public domain. For example, in the EU authors have certain rights that cannot be contracted or licensed away, making it impossible for an author to legally relinquish all rights to a work (or put it in the public domain). Creative Commons also recognizes this problem with the statement that their public domain dedication “may not be valid outside of the United States.” Hence, a public domain dedication is not an internationally viable mechanism for open content. About the Four Rs and the Four Freedoms I hate definitions and taxonomies outside the hard sciences. I hate them particularly because I have been involved in the political contests of creating and perpetuating them – specifically, definitions and taxonomies of “learning objects.” Whose definition of learning object is best? Whose taxonomy is best? These are largely meaningless political battles I left behind many years ago. It therefore surprises no one more than it surprised me that I felt the need to list and explicate the Four Rs, especially in the context of the existing “Four Freedoms.” While the Four Freedoms have their roots in free or open source software, they have been discussed in the context of open content as well. Wikipedia’s Terry Foote summarized the freedoms at our 2005 Open Education Conference as: Freedom to copy Freedom to modify Freedom to redistribute Freedom to redistribute modified versions Freedom 1 is analogous to the first R, reuse. Freedoms 3 and 4 are analogous to the final R, redistribute. Freedom 2 is either analogous to the second R, rework, or is an amalgamation of the second and third Rs, rework and remix. In either case, the Four Freedoms do not distinguish sufficiently between the rework and remix activities. This leads to the problems described above in which rework is considered and supported at the cost of remix. These are distinct activities that require different environmental conditions. The Four Freedoms as listed by Freedom Defined also fail to make this distinction: the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired from it the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part, of the information or expression the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works While the “father knows best” approach of copyleft places only incentive obstacles in the path of would-be creators of derivative works (by stripping them of the ability to choose how to license their derivative works), copyleft places legal obstacles in the path of would be remixers. This problem is difficult to see through the imprecision of the way the Four Freedoms deals with “modify,” and this is one reason I felt justified in listing and explaining the Four Rs. Purpose of the New License The purpose of the new license is to create a way for people to license their works in such a way that: applying the license is easy for authors and understanding the license is easy for users, engaging in any of the four Rs of open content can occur in a completely frictionless manner, the license imposes no restrictions on licensees, decreasing the chances of accidental discrimination against persons or groups, and remixing is well supported, so that licensed content is legally remixable with any other content to which the remixer has rights, whether (c), CC, GFDL, or differently licensed, decreasing license incompatibility problems. The Approach In the context of historical approaches to using copyright law against itself, the new license takes the approach of granting licensees all the rights for which they would need a license under current, applicable law. Credit Where Credit is Due The language of this license draft borrows heavily from the Creative Commons licenses, which only seems appropriate. Adopters of the new license will also be able to use Creative Commons’ RDF metadata in their documents to describe to Google, Yahoo!, and others what rights are associated with their works, as follows: <rdf :RDF xmlns=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/” xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”> <license rdf:about=”http://opencontent.org/licenses/oel/1.0/”>   <permits rdf:resource=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#Reproduction” />   <permits rdf:resource=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#Distribution” />   <permits rdf:resource=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#DerivativeWorks” /> </license> </rdf> Finally, Raquel Xalabarder has been extremely helpful in clarifying the international issues around the license. And now, on to the draft. Open Education License Draft Draft 0.9, August 8, 2007. This is a draft document and is not yet intended for use. Disclaimer The OpenContent Foundation is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. Distribution of this license does not create an attorney-client relationship. The OpenContent Foundation provides this information on an “as-is” basis. The OpenContent Foundation makes no warranties regarding the information provided, and disclaims liability for damages resulting from its use. License Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to exercise any and all rights in the Work for which You would require a license under current, applicable law, including (but not limited to) the rights to: Reuse the work verbatim, just exactly as you found it Rework, alter, or transform the work so that it better meets your needs Remix and combine the (verbatim or altered) work with other works to better meet your needs Redistribute the verbatim work, the altered work, or the remixed work Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer Unless otherwise mutually agreed to by the parties in writing, licensor offers the work as-is and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the work, express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantibility, fitness for a particular purpose, noninfringement, or the absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence of absence of errors, whether or not discoverable. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so such exclusion may not apply to you. Limitation on Liability Except to the extent required by applicable law, in no event will licensor be liable to you on any legal theory for any special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages arising out of this license or the use of the work, even if licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Termination Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work). So… what do you think? Related Tags licenses, open content ← The Design and Use of Simulation Computer Games in Education → Assymetry, Hypocrisy, and Public Domain 19 replies on “Open Education License Draft” iterating toward openness by david: Open Education License Draft « Identity Unknownsays: August 8, 2007 at 8:05 am […] Aug 8th, 2007 by Ryan Lanham Open Education License Draft […] Cem Kanersays: August 9, 2007 at 10:48 am I’ve been struggling with the idea of an Open Education license as well. There are (at least) two types of material and (at least) two types of users. Materials: – generated by the instructor (or other instructors who share it under some sort of open license) – generated by the students Users: – the instructor (and future instructors) – the student who wants to reuse / quote another student’s work. There are legal and ethical reasons for restricting reuse of student material in the absence of a license. There are confidentiality issues for restricting attribution of student material, not least of which is the need to allow space for students to try out really dumb arguments in order to get feedback. The risk of a permanent record of the form, “This person is an idiot, read what s/he wrote…” is too serious to ignore. Some colleagues and I have been wrestling with this for a while and are currently using the following license for our online courses. You are welcome to mine this for ideas. http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/BBST/ASTBBSTIntellectualProperty.htm — Cem Open Knowledge Foundation Weblog » Blog Archive » The Open Education License Draftsays: August 9, 2007 at 5:15 pm […] Dr. David Wiley of Open Content published the Open Education License Draft. Before the text of the draft itself he relates some of his thoughts and experiences relating to […] Wide Open Education » …and the punchsays: August 9, 2007 at 5:47 pm […] David Wiley’s windup: The release of a new OpenContent License draft. While at first you might be thinking “Why another open license?” but as David […] D'Arcy Normansays: August 10, 2007 at 7:55 am David, I’ve been struggling to understand why a new license is warranted. How would this benefit either the original creator, or the content “repurposer” beyond what a plain vanilla Creative Commons Attribution license provides? That license allows derivative works, doesn’t require share-alike (although that can be added), and requires attribution. It also allows commercial use (of the original and/or derivative works) – or not, if desired. Would it be as effective to just recommend a particular combination of CC bit flags? Open Education License - Attribution is important - D'Arcy Norman dot netsays: August 10, 2007 at 10:16 am […] read David’s post on the proposed new Open Education License, and I’ve been struggling to understand why a new license is needed. Here’s the comment […] leighblackallsays: August 10, 2007 at 4:17 pm Hi Dave, I’m going to second D’Arcy here on needing more clarification on why CC BY is not usable. In education and academia it is (or should be) normal to attribute the sources or original creator. It is common practice in text, very uncommon with images and other media. I see the CC BY as complimentary to the academic effort to sustain links with the past. Public Domain or a derivative license of similar intent, makes allowances for that attribution to slacken off, and so the links with the past may fray. I struggle to see how attribution can be seen as a restriction. I have no trouble seeing how copyleft is restrictive. Attribution seems almost more a moral obligation, and certainly an academic best practice. So why not a plain old CC BY? Steve Foerstersays: August 11, 2007 at 5:52 am Public domain dedications are not difficult. Most of the Creative Commons process is legally unnecessary. Simply appending a notice that you are dedicating the material to the public domain is sufficient. For those for whom that’s not a good solution, then like the others, I have to ask what’s so wrong with CC-BY that a new license is warranted. Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge - petermr’s blog » Blog Archive » open data: are licenses needed?says: August 11, 2007 at 7:49 am […] Open Education License Draft and Assymetry, Hypocrisy, and Public Domain […] Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge - petermr’s blog » Blog Archive » open data: concepts from David Wileysays: August 11, 2007 at 8:18 am […] Open Education License Draft Published by david […] » Open science and licensing » business|bytes|genes|moleculessays: August 11, 2007 at 10:14 am […] reading Open education license draft Assymetry, Hypcrisy, and Public […] Peter Rawsthornesays: August 11, 2007 at 12:36 pm I’m going to stray from the questioning theme of the other comments and state that I like this description. I’m still fence sitting on the actual license… I like this description for it is articulates the issues around an open educational license. I may be so bold to say it is the best I have read. Its been hard to find a good written description of the issues within such a OER license. And finding the right balance for open educational content licensing does seem to be hard. I agree with the statements about Remix vs. Reuse and as an educator I would say a 10:1 ratio of remix over reuse is correct. I also like the comments about attribution and how this could limit the use of materials, particularly cross-culturally… In the end, I like how David has put this on the table. At a time where ccLearn is being developed it may bring more views into the fold as ccLearn (and others) mature… Dr. Klaus Grafsays: August 11, 2007 at 5:15 pm German declaration according § 32 III German Copyright Law making a work nearly Public Domain: http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/4157270/ Steve Foerstersays: August 12, 2007 at 7:53 am I should add that I hadn’t heard that insightful cross-cultural argument against requiring attribution before. I had always assumed that attribution was a harmless requirement but no I see how it could be otherwise. Can a personal genome sequence get a creative commons license? : The Personal Genomesays: August 12, 2007 at 10:09 pm […] more discussion on data licenses, there is a good discussion happening elsewhere via Deepak Singh, David Wiley, and Peter Murray-Rust. August 13, 2007 | Filed Under Open Access, Privacy, Genomic Data, […] Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge - petermr’s blog » Blog Archive » What do we mean by open science?says: August 24, 2007 at 2:52 pm […] Wiley’s Open Education License, an attempt to put legal muscle into a Public Domain dedication; the linked post contains an […] Andrew Renssays: August 19, 2008 at 2:41 am Why not wait to see how CC 0 develops before licence proliferation? CC 0 seems to meet your criteria. If it does not, then why not? Giorgos Cheliotissays: October 13, 2008 at 8:27 pm Hi, I saw you quoted one of my old blog posts on CC usage. It is very outdated by now! Current estimates of the number of CC licensed content are at about 100 million, not 40. iterating toward openness » Blog Archive » Contra NC - Mostlysays: April 1, 2009 at 3:37 pm […] I began developing the notion of the 4Rs of open content. (These were first presented in the “Open Education License” draft back in 2007.) The 4Rs include the rights […] Comments are closed. This blog is written and maintained by David Wiley. Opinions are my own. This blog focuses on issues relating to openness in education. For my thoughts on improving success for US postsecondary students, see my other blog improving student success. Unless otherwise noted, the contents of this site are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Should you choose to exercise any of the 5R permissions granted you under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, please attribute me in accordance with CC’s best practices for attribution. If you would like to attribute me differently or use my work under different terms, contact me at david dot wiley at gmail dot com. © 2020 iterating toward openness Powered by WordPress To the top ↑ Up ↑ 
oro-open-ac-uk-5974	----	None 
newspaperownership-com-5094	----	THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS By Penelope Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media School of Media and Journalism University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill © 2016 Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-4696-3402-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4696-3403-6 (ebook) Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press 116 South Boundary Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808 www.uncpress.org THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 4 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A Dramatically Changed Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Fewer Newspapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Fewer Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Fewer Owners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 The Rise of a New Media Baron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 How the New Media Baron is Different . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 The Largest 25 Companies in 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 2008 and a Tectonic Shift for the Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 The Largest 25 in 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 How the New Media Barons Grew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 The Profile of a New Type of Owner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 The Lack of Transparency and Civic Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Post-2014: Consolidation Continues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 The Emerging Threat of News Deserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 The National Footprint of the Largest 25 Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 The Vast Reach of Investment Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Where Investment Companies Bought Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 What Investment Companies Look For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Investment Strategies vs. Community Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Six States: Six Case Studies Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Kentucky and West Virginia . . . . . 49 Diminished Local Newspapers: An Unfilled Void . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 The Challenges for Newspapers and Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 Finding Solutions: Saving Community Journalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Source Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Additional Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 CONTENTS 5 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 6 Much attention has been focused in recent years on the country’s largest and most revered national newspapers as they struggle to adapt to the digital age. This report focuses, instead, on the thousands of other papers in this country that cover the news of its small towns, city neighborhoods, booming suburbs and large metropolitan areas. The journalists on these papers often toil without recognition outside their own communities. But the stories their papers publish can have an outsized impact on the decisions made by residents in those communities, and, ultimately, on the quality of their lives. By some estimates, community newspapers provide as much as 85 percent of “the news that feeds democracy” at the state and local levels.1 This means the fates of newspapers and communities are inherently linked. If one fails, the other suffers. Therefore, it matters who owns the local newspaper because the decisions owners make affect the health and vitality of the community. For the past two years, the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has collected, researched and analyzed data from 2004 to 2016 on more than 9,500 local newspapers. Our 2016 database includes1,700 small weeklies with a circulation of 2,000 or less, as well as 20 large metro dailies with more than 200,000 weekday circulation, such as the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post. However, because our focus is on traditional local newspapers, regardless of their size, we excluded the large national papers — The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today — from our analysis, as well as specialty publications such as business journals and shoppers. This report, divided into four sections, documents dramatic changes over the past decade. With the industry in distress, local newspapers are shrinking, and some are vanishing. At the same time, a new type of newspaper owner has emerged, very different from traditional publishers, the best of whom sought to balance business interests with civic responsibility to the community where their paper was located. As newspapers confront an uncertain future, the choices these new owners make could determine whether vast “news deserts” arise in communities and regions throughout the country. This has implications not just for the communities where these papers are located, but also, in the long-term, for all of America. PREFACE 7 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Over the past decade, a new media baron has emerged in the United States. Private equity funds, hedge funds and other newly formed investment partnerships have swooped in to buy — and actively manage — newspapers all over the country. These new owners are very different from the newspaper publishers that preceded them. For the most part they lack journalism experience or the sense of civic mission traditionally embraced by publishers and editors. Newspapers represent only a fraction of their vast business portfolios — ranging from golf courses to subprime lenders — worth hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars. Their mission is to make money for their investors, so they operate with a short-term, earnings-first focus and are prepared to get rid of any holdings — including newspapers — that fail to produce what they judge to be an adequate profit. The rise of this new media baron coincides with a period of immense disruption and distress for the entire newspaper industry. With profits and readership declining dramatically, every newspaper publisher is grappling with an uncertain future, and many worry about their paper’s long-term survival. As a result of these dynamics, many smaller cities and towns could lose their local newspapers and with them the reliable news and information essential to a community’s economy, governance and quality of life. The prospect of such “news deserts’’ across entire regions of the country would have significant long-term political, social and economic consequences. Within the last decade, several hundred newspapers have shut down, merged or cut back from daily to weekly publication. Most of the approximately 8,000 local newspapers that survive are small dailies and weeklies with a circulation of less than 15,000. Many are the primary, if not sole, source of local news.2 The decisions that the new, as well as long- time, owners of newspapers make in the near future will have implications both for the health of local journalism and for the vitality of their communities. This report documents and analyzes dramatic ownership trends during a pivotal decade and considers the long-term implications. Here are some of the findings: • Since 2004, more than a third of the country’s newspapers have changed ownership; some sold two or more times. Faced with steep declines in revenue, many long-time owners have declared bankruptcy or decided to sell while they can. Since the cost of acquiring a newspaper has fallen in tandem with shrinking profits, astute buyers with access to financing have snapped up newspapers at bargain rates in small and mid-sized markets. The new owners can then cut costs and recoup their investment in only a few short years. Whole newspaper chains have disappeared, acquired by other companies. Before the 2008–09 Great Recession, the most active acquirers were large publicly traded EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 8 chains, such as Lee, McClatchy and News Corp. Since then, newly formed investment groups, including New Media/GateHouse, Digital First and Civitas, have been the most aggressive purchasers. • The largest newspaper companies are larger than ever, and still growing. Big chains can achieve significant cost savings by merging production, sales and editorial functions of several newspapers, while also amassing an audience large enough to remain attractive to advertisers. At the end of 2004, the three largest companies owned 487 newspapers with a combined circulation of 9.8 million. Today, the three largest companies own about 900 papers that have a combined circulation of 12.7 million. • The large investment groups tend to employ a standard formula in managing their newspapers — aggressive cost cutting paired with revenue increases and financial restructuring, including bankruptcy. Most have financed acquisitions with significant debt. To reduce costs, the new media barons have typically laid off staff, frozen wages, reduced benefits and consolidated sales and editorial functions. With revenues and profits still declining, much initial cost cutting has been painful, but necessary — and may have actually saved some newspapers in the short term. However, for the most part, profits derived from cost cutting have not been reinvested to improve their newspapers’ journalism, but used instead to pay loans, management fees and shareholder dividends. • In contrast to 20th century media companies that would “buy and hold” newspapers for many years, the new newspaper-owning investment groups actively manage their properties, keeping a short-term focus on the bottom line. Because the media barons acquire newspapers primarily — or solely — as an investment, often as a relatively modest part of a diverse portfolio of nonmedia assets, they do not, or need not, pay close attention to the quality of journalism produced by their newspapers. They are constantly buying, trading and selling newspapers in their portfolio. Because they own so many newspapers, they can absorb the loss if an individual newspaper fails. If investment firms cannot sell an underperforming newspaper, they close it, leaving communities without a newspaper or any other reliable source of local news and information. • Investment groups are geographically concentrated. They own between a fifth and a third of the newspapers in many states in New England, the upper Midwest, and the South. The seven largest investment groups own and operate more than 1,000 newspapers in 42 states, or close to 15 percent of all American newspapers, as defined for this study. Five of the seven largest newspaper-owning investment firms did not exist a decade ago, so it is difficult to predict whether they will continue to acquire papers or decide to sell the newspapers they currently own and move onto other more attractive investment options. • Most newspapers owned and operated by investment groups are located in economically struggling small and mid-sized communities where the newspaper is the only source of local news. Without significant fresh investment, the bond between newspapers and their readers and advertisers will erode. Strong newspapers enhance the quality of life by producing journalism that documents a community’s life and identifies its issues, while providing advertising that connects consumers with local businesses. • Newspapers must adapt to the digital age to remain viable community builders, or else they remain tethered to the fast-fading print-only world of yesterday. This will require a significant investment by newspaper owners and a long-term commitment to these struggling communities, not the short-term focus on earnings that has, so far, been the hallmark of the investment groups that have aggressively purchased papers in the last decade. Some communities have already become news deserts, having lost their local newspapers. Many others may soon follow. Concerns about the role and ownership of newspapers have been voiced and debated since the founding of the country. However, the dramatic shift in ownership of newspapers over the past decade — coupled with the rapidly deteriorating finances of community papers — brings added urgency to a new version of an age-old question: In the digital age, what is the civic responsibility of newspaper owners to their communities? “A newspaper is an institution developed by modern civilization to present the news of the day, to foster commerce and industry, to inform and lead public opinion, and to furnish that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide,” proclaimed Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune from 1925 to 1955. For two centuries, newspapers have been an indispensable auditor of democracy at all levels in this county. By documenting the shifting landscape of newspaper ownership and assessing the threat of news deserts, this report seeks to raise awareness that universities, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, community activists and government may have greater roles to play in addressing the challenges confronting local news media and our democracy. What can be done to save the journalism that has been provided by community newspapers for more than 200 years? There are no simple answers and no guarantees. It will take a concerted and committed effort by many to avert a growing number of news deserts. 9 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 10 A DRAMATICALLY CHANGED LANDSCAPE FEWER NEWSPAPERS, FEWER READERS, FEWER OWNERS The years between 2004 and 2014 were pivotal for the newspaper industry, reversing the good fortune of the previous decade when advertising revenue and profits spiked, while circulation declined very slowly. By 2004, it was apparent to industry analysts and investors that the migration of readers and advertisers to the internet threatened the soundness of the century-old newspaper business model. But few predicted how quickly that pace would pick up and profitability would decline. Then, the Great Recession of 2008–2009 delivered a staggering blow to advertising and the bottom line, driving many owners out of business and giving rise to a new kind of media baron. The surviving newspapers and their owners confront a significantly different business environment today than in 2004. This report analyzes data on more than 9,500 daily and weekly papers at three intervals between the end of 2004 through mid-2016 to document how dramatically the industry has changed in recent years. Updated through July 30, 2016, it draws on statistics in the 2004 and 2014 Editor & Publisher’s Newspaper Data Book and 2016 E&P data accessed online, as well as information shared by the consulting firm BIA/Kelsey.i Faculty and researchers in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism supplemented the information in these two databases with extensive reporting and research. They conducted interviews with industry analysts and professionals, and analyzed U.S. Census data, as well as the financial records and press releases issued by newspaper owners. This analysis shows that the pace of change in the industry is accelerating, even as the underlying economics of ink-on-paper continue to worsen. 1 BIA/Kelsey conducted a telephone survey of newspaper executives and managers while Editor & Publisher employed a digital and mail survey of senior executives at individual papers. Both relied on the accurate feedback of respondents and have the type of reporting errors inherent in any survey. When we spotted errors, we corrected them in our database and will continue to update our analysis as new information becomes available. If you detect an error, please fill out and submit the “corrections” form available on our website, www.newspaperownership.com. Today there are at least 600 fewer newspapers and almost 900 fewer owners than in 2004. Circulation has dropped 25 percent. As newspapers and owners fell by the wayside — and circulation declined along with profits — consolidation in the industry increased. The largest chains grew even larger, as a new type of owner emerged. 11 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 12 ii The three national papers excluded from the database are The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. In addition to shoppers and specialty publications, newspapers published less frequently than once a week were also excluded. As a result, some statistics in this report may differ from those listed on company websites. Even so, our adjusted total may be overstating the number of local newspapers, since many companies list geographic editions and supplements as separate papers. How many newspapers are there in U.S. today? It depends on how they are counted. The number of newspapers listed in various databases ranges from 7,000 to more than 12,000. Industry spokesmen and analysts estimate there are 11,000 newspapers. The focus of this report is on local newspapers that publish journalism oriented toward a specific geographic region, community or ethnic group. Therefore, national newspapers, specialty publications— such as business journals and lifestyle magazines— and shoppers or similar advertisement-based printed materials were excluded from the UNC database and this analysis. ii After these adjustments, there were 8,591 local newspapers published at least once a week listed in the 2004 UNC database. Between 2004 and 2014, 664 newspapers vanished from UNC’s database. At the end of 2014, only 7,927 local papers were still being published. This total included large daily metros, such as the Los Angeles Times, as well as very small weeklies and dailies. Of the surviving papers in 2014, the vast majority — 6,474 — had circulation of less than 15,000. DAILY NEWSPAPERS In 2014, there were at least 138 fewer daily papers than in 2004. This compared with a loss of 91 in the preceding decade.3 Between 2004 and 2014, 42 dailies in 21 states in the UNC database either ceased publication or merged with another paper. Since 2014, an additional 11 dailies have closed or merged. Eight of the closed papers since 2004 were in a metro area, such as Denver, Honolulu and Seattle, where there was more than one daily, usually published under a joint operating agreement with another company.4 But most of the other 22 papers that closed were the last surviving dailies in their communities. This included the 188-year-old Daily Southerner, covering the eastern North Carolina community of Tarboro, population 11,000, and the 111-year-old Medina Journal-Register, covering that village of about 6,000 on the Erie Canal in upstate New York. In 2013, the Journal-Register, with 1,500 circulation, cut back publication from daily to three times a week in an attempt to stave off closure. Both papers closed in 2014. (See newspaperownership.com/additional-material/ for a list of closed or merged dailies from 2004-2016.) More than 100 newspapers in the database shifted from daily to “weekly” or nondaily delivery of their print editions. This study, as does Editor & Publisher, defines “weekly” as three or fewer times a week. All but 90 of those reconstituted nondaily papers had a circulation of less than 10,000. Five of the six largest newspapers to FEWER NEWSPAPERS U.S. NEWSPAPERS: 2004 & 2014 DAILY NONDAILY 664 fewer newspapers in 2014 SOURCE: UNC Database 2004 7,122 8,591 TOTAL 1,469 2014 7,927 TOTAL 1,331 6,596 scale back print publication to three times a week were owned by Advance, which moved in 2011 to emphasize its online newspaper sites.5 The significant cost of publishing daily print editions is likely to accelerate the trend to nondaily distribution in the coming decade. Only two nondailies shifted to daily distribution — small papers in Texas (clantonadvertiser.com) and Alabama (dailytrib. com), each with less than 7,000 circulation. A handful of newspaper owners tried to defy the odds and launch a daily newspaper, but only one was still operating in 2016. The owner of a local Christian television station launched a second daily paper with a circulation of 3,000 in Kittanning, PA, in 2008 (kittanningpaper.com). In contrast, the Long Beach, California, Register, started in 2013, and the Los Angeles Register, in 2014, were both shut down after only several months of operation.6 WEEkLY AND NONDAILY NEWSPAPERS The economics of weeklies and nondailies held up better than for dailies. Between 2004 and 2014, there was a net loss of 526 nondailies in the UNC database. While 1,561 nondailies were discontinued, 1,035 were added, including more than 100 dailies that converted to weekly. Most of the weeklies that closed were suburban editions of daily papers that were merged back into the larger metro paper. The majority of the “new” weeklies were also in the suburbs. Many were sections in daily papers that were spun out as separate editions. Increasingly, large media companies have been building networks of weeklies in suburban communities, in an attempt to put together a sizable audience that attracts advertisers back to print. For example, by 2014 two companies — Tribune Publishing and Shaw Media — produced and distributed almost all the weeklies in the suburbs of Chicago. SOURCE: UNC Database See newspaperownership.com/changed-landscape/ for location of daily papers that were closed or merged, or shifted to nondaily publication. THE VANISHING DAILY NEWSPAPER: 2004–2016 Between 2004 and 2016, fifty-six dailies closed or merged; 109 shifted to nondaily publication. CLOSED/MERGED REDUCED TO WEEkLY 13 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 14 Since 2011, more people have read news online than in a print newspaper, according to the Pew Research Center.7 So it is not surprising that newspaper circulation plummeted 20 percent between 2004 and 2014. The dramatic circulation drop occurred despite new rules and guidelines adopted by the industry after 2004 that allowed newspapers to count print and online readership that had been previously excluded.8 Circulation statistics in the UNC database primarily represent audited print-copy distribution, an admittedly imperfect measure since it does not count the increasing number of people who access local news online. However, readership data for most digital editions of the newspapers in this report are not widely available or comparable. Therefore, print circulation becomes a proxy — albeit imperfect — for the decline in influence and reach of local newspapers. About half of the decline in circulation stemmed from existing newspapers shedding readers, while the other half resulted from the closing of daily and nondaily newspapers. Daily circulation declined by 28 percent by 2014. Daily newspapers with more than 100,000 in circulation in 2004 suffered a stunning loss of 43 percent. By 2014, only 69 dailies had print circulation above 100,000, down from 102 in 2004. Circulation of weeklies dropped 15 percent. Larger nondailies with circulation over 50,000 dropped slightly more. FEWER READERS U.S. CIRCULATION: 2004 & 2014 DAILY NONDAILY Circulation had decreased by more than 23 million by 2014 SOURCE: UNC Database 2004 67.0 mil 117 MIL TOTAL 50.0 mil 2014 93 MIL TOTAL 36.0 mil 57.0 mil 15 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS As economic conditions worsened after 2004, a steady stream of owners decided to sell or declare bankruptcy. More than a third of newspapers changed ownership. Many independent family- owned newspapers were sold to the large chains. As a result, in 2014, the nation had 3,034 newspaper owners, down from 3,897 in 2004. As the number of owners decreased, consolidation — especially among the largest companies — accelerated. By 2014, the largest 25 companies owned 2,199 papers. The next largest 25 companies owned only 631 papers. The largest 25 companies in 2014 owned more than half of all dailies in the country — 721 out of 1,331 — and one-fifth of all nondailies — 1,478 out of 6,596. During the past decade, there has been extensive turnover among the largest owners. Several of the large chains in 2004 were acquired by other companies; others sold divisions or groups of newspapers. Each of the largest 25 companies in 2004 and 2014 was assessed on the basis of its corporate and financial characteristics and categorized in one of three ways: • A traditional private chain, such as Hearst or Advance. • A publicly traded company, such as Gannett or McClatchy. • An investment entity, in which the principal owners and/or operators are hedge and pension funds, or private and publicly traded equity firms. FEWER OWNERS NEWSPAPERS OWNED BY 25 LARGEST COMPANIES: 2004 & 2014 DAILY NONDAILY The largest companies owned 423 more papers in 2014 SOURCE: UNC Database 2004 1,097 1,776 TOTAL 679 2014 2,199 TOTAL 721 1,478 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 16 In 2004, the largest 25 companies owned 1,776 papers. The publicly traded companies and private chains owned 80 percent of these papers. Investment entities owned only 20 percent. By 2014, the largest public and private chains in the country possessed only slightly more than 50 percent of the 2,199 papers now owned by the largest 25 companies. Seven large investment entities — five of which had not existed in 2004 — owned the other half. The next chapter, “The Rise of New Media Baron,” documents how and why investment entities have assembled large chains of newspapers in recent years, growing to such prominence in the industry. Speaking at a worldwide gathering of newspaper editors in 2005, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch noted downward readership trends and predicted somewhat facetiously that the “the last reader recycles the last newspaper in 2040.”9 The newspaper world has contracted significantly since that prediction was made. In 2010, in the wake of the Great Recession, newspaper advertising revenue fell below 1950 levels, adjusted for inflation. It has continued to decline every year since.10 Today there are many fewer readers, fewer newspapers and fewer owners than a mere decade ago. These dramatic changes, coupled with rapidly deteriorating economics, raise questions about the long-term future of ink-on-paper newspapers and pose difficult choices for the owners of surviving papers. By 2014, investment companies owned almost half of the newspapers owned by the largest 25 companies SOURCE: UNC Database NEWSPAPERS OWNED BY LARGEST 25 COMPANIES: 2004 & 2014 Company Type: Public Investment Private 2014 377 (17%) 1,031 (47%) 791 (36%) 2004 576 (32%) 352 (20%) 848 (48%) 17 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 18 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON 19 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Some of the largest newspaper companies today did not exist in 2004. Private equity funds, pension funds and other investment partnerships have moved quickly to acquire hundreds of distressed papers. They’ve purchased entire chains that have been forced into bankruptcy, as well as smaller private newspaper companies whose longtime owners have given up struggling to adapt economically and technologically to the digital era. Today, seven of the largest 25 newspaper ownersiii are investment groups. Their recently established empires are surpassing in size the large chains of the 20th century, and they are still growing as they continue to snap up more and more ink-on-paper newspapers at bargain prices while disposing of unprofitable ones. Unlike the local owners of the past who had a stake in their communities, or the professional managers who ran those large 20th century chains, these new newspaper owners focus almost exclusively on driving the performance of their holdings, of which newspapers are often a small and expendable part. The decisions that these new newspaper owners make and the business strategies they pursue over the next few years will determine whether these newspapers survive and in what form. As profits and readership declined rapidly over the past decade, causing immense disruption in the industry, newspaper empires built in the 20th century fell, and a new type of newspaper owner rose to power. iii “Largest” is determined by number of newspapers owned, not total circulation. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 20 Newspapers in this country are equal parts business enterprises and civic institutions with special constitutional protections. With each generation of newspaper owner, there has been debate about how to prioritize obligations to the public versus those to major shareholders. The newest generation of media barons — the investment portfolio managers — are not journalists nor do they share journalism’s traditional civic mission. Their priority is maximizing the return on the assets in their diverse portfolios. Therefore, their rapid ascent raises new and pressing concerns about the responsibilities of newspaper owners in the digital age. A technological innovation in the 19th century, the steam-powered printing press, gave rise to the first generation of newspaper barons. It allowed newspapers to print and distribute their newspapers to mass audiences, which, in turn, attracted the attention and dollars of advertisers who paid to reach these readers. In the era before radio and television, many newspaper barons amassed great wealth and often wielded tremendous political influence. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, competing in the era of “yellow journalism,” famously used their big-city newspapers to inflame passions leading up to the Spanish-American War. However, in towns and cities across the country, newspapers were largely owned by local residents. These publishers and their editors often had political clout in their states and cities, but — whether conservative or liberal — they had cultural and economic constraints. If they did not serve the interests of their readers and advertisers, they risked losing business to a competing paper. So, in contrast to the “yellow journalists” of their time, owners such as the Ochs family, which owned the Chattanooga Times and then The New York Times, or the Bingham family, which owned the Louisville Courier-Journal, worked to establish a reputation for editorial excellence and fairness. In the process, these early newspaper barons established the modern, multi- subject newspaper and became the dominant advertising option for most local businesses. As radio began to draw audiences and advertising in the 1920s, some of these owners concluded they needed to own more than one or two newspapers to remain competitive with both readers and advertisers. E.W. Scripps and Hearst assembled the first large privately owned “chains,” consisting of 20 or more papers in cities across the country.11 Concerns were immediately voiced about the span and influence of these new chains, but they faded as radio and television began to amass even greater audiences. By 1960, 32 percent of newspapers were owned by a chain, and the early potent media barons had been replaced by a second generation of owners.12 Professional managers held most of the executive positions in the large newspaper chains that arose in the latter half of the 20th century. But, in contrast to many other corporations, the newspaper business remained largely a family- centered enterprise. The large chains bore the name of the founders — Gannett, Lee, Knight Ridder, Dow Jones — or the name of the flagship paper — Advance, The New York Times, the Tribune. Often, descendants of the founder held the top posts of publisher, editor, CEO or chairman. Between 1960 and 1990, another trend emerged: One after another competing paper in communities across the country ceased publication. In an effort to Over the past century, there have been three types of newspaper owners. The founders, who established iconic newspaper brands such as The New York Times or the Chicago Tribune, dominated the industry in the first half of the 20th century. They were succeeded by corporate newspaper managers in the second half of the century who built large chains, including Gannett and Knight Ridder. Now, in the last decade, investment entities, run by financial portfolio managers, have quickly assembled newspaper groups that dwarf the big chains of the 20th century. HOW THE NEW MEDIA BARON IS DIFFERENT preserve “diverse” viewpoints in major metro areas and save the surviving newspapers, the Department of Justice often approved joint operating agreements that allowed two competing papers to merge business operations. But in the small and mid-sized markets, only one newspapers usually survived. These papers became de facto monopolies, the prime source of news in their communities as well as the only viable advertising option for local businesses. At many such newspapers, profit margins soared to 20 percent and even 40 percent. The large chains competed with one another to acquire these papers. Some large companies — such as Hearst and the Newhouse/Advance group — chose to remain private and financed their acquisitions either through debt or profits from their own newspapers. Several big-name newspaper companies — Gannett, Knight Ridder, Lee, McClatchy, Pulitzer, Scripps, Dow Jones, The New York Times and The Washington Post — raised capital for acquisitions by selling stock on either the New York or American stock exchanges. Some bought television stations and magazines, too. By 2000, chains owned more than 90 percent of all American newspapers.13 Most privately owned chains — for example, Shaw Media and Boone — were smaller than the publicly traded chains and typically confined themselves to a specific geographic region. Publicly traded chains had to be attentive to their shareholders, a development that raised concerns as to whether powerful newspaper corporations would put shareholder expectation ahead of substantive journalism and their responsibilities to the community. However, since most newspapers sold for 13 times yearly earnings,iv large chains still had a strong financial incentive to take the long-term view when evaluating whether to purchase a newspaper.14 To allay concerns, such publicly held companies as The New York Times, The Washington Post and Dow Jones created dual classes of stock, giving the founders’ descendants controlling voting rights. Other chains, such as Knight Ridder, Times Mirror and McClatchy, focused on winning Pulitzer Prizes and other journalism awards to enhance their reputation, as well as their brand, in the marketplace.15 The transition to the current generation of newspaper baron began in the 1990s. The newspaper industry recorded historic levels of advertising revenue, profitability and circulation in the 1980s and 1990s.16 Seeing that newspapers produced a steady and reliable source of income, institutional investors — including hedge and pension funds — bought shares in publicly traded newspaper companies. At first, hedge and pension funds were, by and large, passive investors. In 2000, however, print advertising revenue began a dramatically steep decline. By 2005, some passive investors had become activist shareholders, pressing newspaper companies to pursue new strategies and advocating selling entire companies. In 2006, for example, three hedge funds, acting in concert, compelled Knight Ridder, with 61 papers and more than 4 million in circulation, to sell to McClatchy, then a much smaller company.17 The financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008–2009 exacerbated the already considerable economic woes of newspapers. With newspaper valuations at historic lows, hedge funds, private equity partnerships and publicly traded investment entities began snatching up hundreds of properties, mostly in small and mid-sized communities. In 2004, the legacy chains of the 20th century still dominated the list of the nation’s largest newspaper companies. By 2014, a mere decade later, they had been supplanted by the investment groups that had grown overnight by purchasing distressed legacy companies. The once-passive investors had become full-fledged owners and operators. As if to distinguish themselves from the iconic newspaper chains of the previous century named after their founders, these new media barons adopted corporate-sounding names — New Media/ GateHouse, Digital First, BH Media, Civitas, 10/13 Communications. Few in the top management ranks had journalistic experience or passion. They viewed newspapers as investments — one of many in their portfolio of businesses. iv Newspapers have historically been valued based on the financial benchmark EBITDA, which stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization” are deducted. The net income figure listed on a company’s financial statements includes payments and deductions for these items, which can fluctuate widely year to year. Therefore EBITDA is considered a more reliable measure of a company’s operating efficiency over the long term. 21 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 22 The size and span of influence of newspaper companies can be calculated either in terms of total circulation or number of papers owned. Until recently, the newspaper industry has largely used circulation as the primary standard. And yet, in assessing the reach of newspaper owners across many communities, the number of papers controlled is an equally important measurement. In a city of 100,000, for example, a newspaper owner would have roughly the same influence whether its publication had circulation of 20,000 or 30,000. Meanwhile, an owner of four newspapers with 5,000 circulation in four towns would have influence in each of those localities, even with circulation below the newspaper in a mid-size city. With circulation as a measurement, big-name, well-recognized companies founded in the 20th century dominated the field in 2004. Three of the largest five companies — Gannett, Knight Ridder and Tribune Co. — were publicly traded. They had combined circulation of 14.6 million. The third- and fifth-largest chains — Advance Publications and MediaNews Group — were private companies. They had a combined circulation of 6.8 million. The 10 largest companies had a combined circulation of 30 million, or more than a fourth of the total circulation in the country. When the number of newspapers owned is used as a measurement, instead of circulation, a very different picture emerges. In 2004, the top five companies ranked by newspapers owned were Gannett, Liberty Group Publishing, the Journal Register Co., Community Newspaper Holdings and MediaNews Group. Liberty Group Publishing and Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) — along with American Community Newspapers (ACN) — had been formed at the end of the 1990s, when newspaper revenue and profits were near their peak.18 In the late 1990s, as newspaper profits soared, several privately held investment firms began to quietly purchase small newspaper chains as they came on the market. By 2004, two of these companies had accumulated more than 300 papers between them and had become the second- and fourth-largest chains in the country, in terms of number of newspapers owned. However, most of the papers they owned were in small markets, so their arrival went unnoticed by industry professionals and analysts, who focused on circulation in determining the biggest newspaper companies. Using circulation as a yardstick, the chains assembled in the latter half of the 20th century — Gannett, Knight Ridder and Advance, among others — still topped the list. THE LARGEST 25 COMPANIES IN 2004 THE LARGEST 10 COMPANIES BY CIRCULATION: 2004 Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Gannett 177 95 6,796 5,044 2 knight Ridder 64 37 4,184 3,849 3 Advance Publications 89 26 4,136 2,695 4 Tribune Publishing 34 13 3,620 3,262 5 MediaNews Group 97 46 2,697 2,099 6 Journal Register Co. 151 27 2,120 630 7 Hearst Corporation 20 12 1,852 1,579 8 McClatchy 27 12 1,604 1,397 9 EW Scripps 22 18 1,589 1,524 10 Media General 50 24 1,410 864 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private 23 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS For Knight Ridder, Advance and their legacy newspaper peers, ink-on-paper publications brought in robust revenue and profit, a portion of which financed their mission as providers of news and information. In contrast, these three privately held investment entities — Liberty Group Publishing, CNHI and ACN — viewed newspapers as investments, pure and simple. Statements by these firms’ investment managers described small newspapers, most with circulation of less than 10,000, as reliable and consistent sources of income for their portfolios of diverse business assets. Small rural markets, they believed, would be relatively insulated in the coming years from competition — either from traditional media, such as television, or the internet, which was then still in its infancy. • Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) was founded in 1997, as part of a diverse portfolio of investments made by the Retirement Systems of Alabama. CNHI initially acquired papers from Media General and Hollinger International, as well as additional properties from Thomson in 2000 and Ottaway in 2002.19 • Liberty Group Publishing, established in 1998, was financed by Leonard Green & Partners LP, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that specialized in turning around troubled companies. Liberty Group Publishing initially purchased 160 papers from Hollinger International, which was selling 40 percent of its U.S. community group in an effort to pay down debt.20 • American Community Newspapers was established in 1998 as Lionheart Holdings with the financial backing of Weiss, Peck & Greer’s private equity group and Waller-Sutton Media Partners LP. It quickly grew through the acquisition of E.W. Scripps Co.’s Dallas Community Newspaper Group and three major purchases from families in Minnesota and Kansas. Lionheart Holdings was rebranded as American Community Newspapers in 2002.21 LARGEST 25 COMPANIES IN 2004, RANKED BY NUMBER OF PAPERS OWNED Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Gannett 177 95 6,796 5,044 2 Liberty Group Publishing 159 65 838 347 3 Journal Register Co. 151 27 2,120 630 4 CNHI 149 86 1,256 890 5 MediaNews Group 97 46 2,698 2,099 6 Herald Media 92 3 828 297 7 Advance Publications 89 26 4,136 2,696 8 Lee Enterprises 79 43 1,377 1,109 9 Ogden Newspapers 71 38 937 569 10 knight Ridder 64 37 4,185 3,849 11 Landmark Media Enterprises 61 8 960 466 12 Pulitzer 55 15 1,025 581 13 Media General 50 24 1,410 864 14 Paxton Media Group 50 28 532 333 15 Freedom Communications 45 22 1,301 857 16 Hollinger International 44 7 770 470 17 American Community Newspapers 44 2 417 12 18 Morris Communications 39 26 790 678 19 Cox Newspapers 38 17 1,260 1,092 20 News Media Corporation 38 5 165 24 21 Morris Multimedia 37 6 349 56 22 Boone Newspapers 37 12 294 67 23 Rust Communications 37 19 193 114 24 Horizon Publications 37 22 172 96 25 Suffolk Life Newspapers 36 0 533 0 SOURCE: UNC Database See newspaperownership.com/additional-material/ for a list of newspapers owned by the largest 25 companies in 2004. Company Type: Public Investment Private THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 24 In 2004, these investment groups held 352 papers — or 20 percent of all the papers owned by the largest 25 companies. But because these companies had purchased small papers, they controlled only 7 percent of the circulation among the top 25 group. All that would change over the coming turbulent decade as other investment groups moved in, displacing the media barons that dominated the charts in 2004. For their part, Liberty Group Publishing and American Community Newspapers went through multiple iterations over the course of the decade as the investment firm managers reshuffled their portfolio, making numerous acquisitions and divestitures. After bankruptcy in 2009, American Community Newspapers ceased to exist, its newspapers sold off to other large companies by its creditors.22 After several financial restructurings, Liberty Group Publishing morphed into New Media Group/GateHouse. In 2014, only Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. existed much as it had in 2004, but with two dozen fewer newspapers. 25 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Newspaper advertising revenue peaked in 2000 at $64 billion, adjusted for inflation. In the wake of the dot-com bust and the short recession that accompanied the 9/11 terrorist attacks, revenue declined sharply. By 2004, various institutional investors — including hedge and pension funds — had accumulated between 40 and 57 percent of the shares in publicly traded media companies.23 But each of the firms held only a small percentage of any company and were usually passive investors. The revenue plunge served as a wake-up call for hedge fund and pension fund managers, who began aggressively questioning newspaper executives about their digital strategies. Some lobbied boards of directors to “consider all strategic alternatives,” including sale of the company. In the years leading up to 2008, newspapers in small and mid-sized markets with very little competition typically sold for 13 times annual earnings. This meant that new purchasers needed to own a paper for at least 13 years in order to recoup their investment.24 As entire legacy companies — such as Pulitzer and Knight Ridder — became available, other legacy companies became active bidders. In addition to paying a premium price to acquire a newspaper company, many buyers took on substantial debt. In 2005, large public and private companies spent $3 billion acquiring papers from one another. Lee Enterprises led the way, paying $1.5 billion to acquire the Pulitzer group.25 In 2006, more than $10 billion changed hands, with the McClatchy Co., which had 27 papers in 2004, purchasing all of Knight Ridder’s 61 papers for $4 billion. McClatchy then sold four papers to MediaNews Group and Hearst in a transaction valued at $1 billion.26 In 2007, sales hit $20 billion, driven by News Corp.’s $5.6 billion acquisition of Dow Jones and the $8.2 billion purchase of the Tribune Co. by Sam Zell, a real estate mogul and private equity fund manager.27 Between 2005 and 2008, newspaper advertising revenue continued its downward trajectory, even as newspaper publishers scrambled to sell more digital advertising to compensate for the loss of print revenue. Despite this, investors remained somewhat bullish on newspapers in small and mid-sized markets, where print advertising declined less rapidly.28 As the nation focused on a historic presidential election, and Wall Street and Main Street slipped toward a stunning downturn; 2008 turned out to be a pivotal year in newspaper ownership. The 2008–2009 Great Recession decimated the print advertising revenue of papers in both large and small markets. This paved the way for the transition of institutional investors from minority shareholders to outright owners and operators. At the beginning of 2009, the market capitalization of publicly traded companies such as Gannett, McClatchy and Lee had fallen more than Hedge funds and pension funds also began betting on newspapers in the 1990s, seeing them as “safe” investments. Numerous institutional investors began acquiring stock in publicly traded companies — such as Knight Ridder and The New York Times Co. As the migration of readers and advertisers to the internet increased in the early years of the 21st century, many began agitating boards and executives of these chains to make changes or sell their newspaper empires. In the wake of the 2008–2009 Great Recession, the valuations of newspapers dropped almost overnight. Suddenly passive investors — hedge funds and private equity funds — decided it was time to buy newspapers. Since 2010, they have been acquiring papers at bargain basement prices and assembling large chains. 2008 AND A TECTONIC SHIFT FOR THE INDUSTRY THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 26 80 percent.29 As a result, newspapers were being valued by investment firms that typically arranged financing at only three to five times yearly earnings. This meant acquirers could potentially sell, or “flip,” a newspaper in three to five years and make a profit on the sale. Instead of the “buy and hold” strategy practiced by the legacy newspaper companies who had paid 13 times earnings before 2008, purchasers of newspapers since 2008 have been able “buy and sell” properties more frequently. Also, at substantially reduced sales prices, companies have been able to buy multiple newspapers for the same price they would have paid for only one previously. The total amount of money spent on acquisitions spiked in 2007, fell dramatically in 2008 and has hovered below 2004 levels since. Most of the major purchasers before 2008 took on substantial debt to pay for their acquisitions.30 As newspapers’ revenues and profits plummeted in the wake of the Great Recession, Lee Enterprises, Tribune Company and MediaNews Group, among others, were forced into bankruptcy proceedings by 2012. With the large legacy companies mostly shut out of the market, recently formed investment companies were well-positioned to purchase not only newspapers at bargain prices, but also entire companies that had filed for bankruptcy or were disposing of properties to pay down debt. Consequently, by 2012, the number of major newspaper acquisitions had rebounded to previous levels. But, because of the lower valuations of newspapers, the total dollars spent on acquisitions has been less than $1 billion in every year since 2007. In 2010, the trough year, only $149 million was spent. By 2012 sales bounced back to $643 million and reached a post-recession high of $827 million in 2015. TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT TO ACQUIRE NEWSPAPERS: 2002–2015 Prices for newspapers peaked in 2007. Since then, entire chains have been purchased for less than $1 billion. 2002 $100 million $5 billion $10 billion $15 billion $20 billion 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 SOURCE: Dirks, Van Essen & Murray $1.2b $576m $918m $3.1b $10b $20b $884m $184m $149m $789m $643m $681m $760m $827m 27 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS The path from 2004 to today has been a convoluted one, featuring high newspaper turnover, numerous company mergers and acquisitions, and new actors entering the fray. Ten of the 25 largest companies in 2004 were purchased either in full or in part by other companies. Six of the largest 25 companies in 2014 had not existed in their current form in 2004, including five investment firms. Six privately owned traditional newspaper companies grew enough to make the list, three other private companies dropped off the list and one (Suffolk Life Newspapers) ceased operations. By 2014, six of the 10 largest newspaper owners, measured by their number of newspapers, were investment entities: • Liberty Group Publishing, purchased by Fortress Investment Group in 2005, morphed into New Media/GateHouse and became the largest chain, with 379 newspapers.31 • Digital First Media, formed in 2011, was the second largest, with 208 papers. • Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., formed in 1997, had 21 fewer papers than in 2004, but still ranked fourth with 128 papers. • Sixth-ranked Civitas Media, formed in 2012, had 98 papers. • Tribune Publishing was seventh largest, with 95 papers; it had gone through two corporate restructurings and a bankruptcy between 2008 and 2014. • BH Media, a division of Berkshire Hathaway formed in 2012, had 76 newspapers and was the ninth-largest company.32 In all, seven investment entities ranked among the largest 25 newspaper owners in the country in 2014, including the 18th largest, 10/13 Communications, formed in 2009. More than a third of all newspapers — 2,906 — have changed ownership at least once since 2004. Newly formed investment firms — both privately held and publicly traded — have been the most aggressive purchasers since 2008. As a result, seven of the largest 25 newspaper companies by 2014 were investment firms. THE LARGEST 25 IN 2014 LARGEST 25 COMPANIES IN 2014, RANKED BY NUMBER OF PAPERS OWNED Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 New Media/ GateHouse 379 119 3,138 1,725 2 Digital First Media 208 79 4,574 3,067 3 Gannett 197 82 4,884 3,015 4 CNHI 128 77 1,159 825 5 Lee Enterprises 111 52 1,520 1,212 6 Civitas Media 98 35 694 312 7 Tribune Publishing 95 18 3,444 2,137 8 Shaw Media 82 9 450 115 9 BH Media 76 31 1,367 1,088 10 Ogden Newspapers 75 31 1,367 1,088 11 Advance Publications 74 21 2,714 1,396 12 McClatchy 69 29 2,921 1,943 13 Landmark Media Enterprises 57 4 550 182 14 Boone Newspapers 53 22 355 154 15 Paxton Media Group 51 30 406 281 16 Community Media Group 51 10 228 57 17 News Media Corporation 48 3 195 17 18 10/13 Communications 47 3 948 49 19 North Jersey Media Group 46 2 662 186 20 Black Press Group 45 9 1,118 426 21 Stephens Media 44 9 1,100 315 22 Rust Communications 44 18 185 104 23 ECM Publishers 42 1 472 3 24 Forum Communications 41 11 409 183 25 Adams Publishing Group 38 9 305 83 SOURCE: UNC Database See newspaperownership.com/additional-material/ for a list of newspapers owned by the largest 25 companies in 2014. Company Type: Public Investment Private THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 28 The seven investment entities owned twice as many dailies in 2014 as in 2004, and three times as many nondailies. They controlled six times as much circulation, expanding from 2.5 million in 2004 to 15.3 million in 2014. Consequently, ranked in size by circulation, four of the largest 10 newspaper companies in 2014 were also investment entities. • Digital First Media was second largest, with 4.5 million circulation • Tribune Publishing was third, with 3.4 million. • New Media/GateHouse, fourth largest, had 3.1 million • BH Media, ninth, had 1.4 million As investor ownership expanded, the number of large publicly traded companies declined from six to only three. By 2014, Knight Ridder, Pulitzer and Media General had been acquired by one of the other large companies. This left only Gannett, Lee and McClatchy among the 25 largest companies. Gannett remained the largest company as ranked by total circulation, and the third largest in terms of newspapers owned. Lee had become the fifth largest in terms of number of newspapers, and eighth largest in circulation. McClatchy was the fifth largest in circulation and 12th largest in numbers of papers. Overall, the number of newspapers owned by the largest publicly traded companies had dropped to 377, from 576, and the combined circulation had declined to 9.3 million, from 16.9 million. There was also turnover among the largest private chains. Some, such as Advance and Hearst, hunkered down and remained largely intact. Others, such as MediaNews and Suffolk, filed for bankruptcy and were purchased by investment firms or closed.33 Still, others — especially the small regional chains such as Boone and Rust — selectively acquired papers that came on the market in the post-recession years. As a result, the overall number of newspapers owned by the 16 largest private companies fell only slightly, to 791 in 2014, from 848 in 2004. However, combined circulation for the large private companies declined by a third — to 9.8 million. By 2014, the seven largest investment groups dominated both in terms of number of newspapers owned and total circulation. They owned 240 newspapers more than the 16 largest private chains and 654 more than the three publicly traded chains. Their combined circulation had grown from a paltry 2.5 million in 2004 to 15.3 million, surpassing the total circulations of both the large private and public chains. THE LARGEST 10 COMPANIES BY CIRCULATION: 2014 Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Gannett 197 82 4,884 3,015 2 Digital First Media 208 79 4,574 3,067 3 Tribune Publishing 95 18 3,444 2,137 4 New Media/ GateHouse 379 119 3,138 1,725 5 McClatchy 69 29 2,923 1,943 6 Advance Publications 74 21 2,714 1,396 7 Lee Enterprises 111 52 1,520 1,213 8 Hearst Corporation 29 15 1,386 958 9 BH Media 76 31 1,367 1,088 10 Nash Holdings (Jeff Bezos) 32 2 1,334 665 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private HOW OWNERSHIP CHANGED AMONG THE LARGEST 25: 2004–2014 NEWSPAPERS 2004 2004 2004 2004 2004 2004 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 DAILY DAILY INVESTMENT COMPANIES Number of Companies 2004: 3 2014: 7 DAILY NONDAILY NONDAILY NONDAILY PRIVATE COMPANIES Number of Companies 2004: 16 2014: 15 PUBLIC COMPANIES Number of Companies 2004: 6 2014: 3 CIRCULATION SOURCE: UNC Database 352 TOTAL 1,031 TOTAL 15.3m TOTAL 9.8m TOTAL 15.9m TOTAL 2.5m TOTAL 791 TOTAL 377 TOTAL 9.4m TOTAL 884 TOTAL 576 TOTAL 16.9m TOTAL 199 669 6.1m 4.0m 6.0m 1.3m 595 214 3.2m 563 335 4.8m 153 362 9.2m 5.9m 9.9m 1.2m 196 163 6.2m 285 241 12.1m 29 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Investment companies have aggressively sought to expand their newspaper portfolios over the past decade. Digital First, Civitas, BH Media and 10/13 Communications were all founded during the 2009–2012 period. New Media/GateHouse and Tribune emerged from bankruptcy in 2012 and 2013 and joined the pack in pursuit of more papers. Here’s a graphic presentation of how the companies grew, based on press releases and news accounts. (For year-by-year details on acquisitions and divestures of the largest investment companies, see newspaperownership.com/additional-material/.) At the end of 2014, the seven largest investment groups owned 362 dailies and 669 nondailies. Almost 90 percent of their 1,031 newspapers were acquired after 2004, their largest transactions occurring between 2010 and 2012. HOW THE NEW MEDIA BARONS GREW NEWSPAPERS ACQUIRED, SOLD, MERGED, OR CLOSED: 2004–2016 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 New Media/GateHouse 2 266 140 45 2 23 54 73 27 7 2 11 35 8 6 10 19 13 6 2 Digital First 4 1 144 28 13 10 5 8 7 6 CNHI 10 9 23 1 5 5 1 1 2 2 2 1 3 Civitas 44 59 3 8 2 2 tronc/Tribune 1 56 9 3 2 1 BH Media 1 65 4 7 1 2 10/13 Communications 1 3 15 28 2 1 2 ACqUIRED SOLD CLOSED/MERGED SOURCE: UNC Database & Various Press Releases Number of newspapers listed may not reflect total shown in press releases, which may include non-community newspapers (i.e. shoppers, business journals, etc.). THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 30 Perhaps the biggest difference between the new newspaper barons and their predecessors is their pivot away from a long-term commitment to local journalism and the communities their newspapers have historically served toward a short-term investment and management strategy. In annual letters to shareholders, public statements by executives and press releases on their websites, the investment owners clearly acknowledge their laserlike focus on financial return. For example, Warren Buffett’s 2012 annual letter to shareholders explained that Berkshire Hathaway buys newspapers as attractive investments, given their low purchase cost and their de facto monopoly status in small and mid-sized markets.34 Buffett has also made clear his willingness to shed his firm’s stake in newspapers and move onto other investments as conditions change. In his 2014 shareholder letter, he described Berkshire Hathaway’s readiness to redeploy capital from a declining operation: “At Berkshire, we can — without incurring taxes or much in the way of other costs — move huge sums from businesses that have limited opportunities for incremental investment to other sectors with greater promise. Moreover, we are free of historical biases created by lifelong association with a given industry and are not subject to pressures from colleagues having a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. That’s important: If horses had controlled investment decisions, there would have been no auto industry.”35 As a group, large investment firms that own newspapers share at least five of the following eight characteristics: • The stated emphasis of the parent company is to maximize shareholder return on investment. They do not state an equal commitment to journalism and the community. (See http://newspaperownership.com/ additional-information/ for a sampling of statements made by managers and executives of investment companies.) • Many properties were acquired as a group from other media companies through either purchase of entire companies or divisions. Nine of the largest newspaper owners in 2004 were purchased in full or in part by investment firms. • Majority financial and/or operational control of the firm is held by a small number of institutional shareholders, such as lenders, private equity firms or investment fund managers. Three are fully owned by private equity partnerships and one by a pension fund. In the three publicly traded companies, lenders or other types of institutional investors hold enough shares to determine the fate of the company. • The company was formed or incorporated within the past two decades and is a relative newcomer to newspaper ownership. Five of the seven investment entities were formed in the past decade. Large newspaper-owning investment entities have financial and corporate profiles distinctly different from the newspaper chains that preceded them. These investment firms are relatively new to owning newspapers and managing them. The newspapers they own are often part of a portfolio of non-newspaper properties, including real estate, retail establishments and financial services. THE PROFILE OF A NEW TYPE OF OWNER 31 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS • The newspaper holdings are part of a portfolio of non-newspaper companies. The diverse business interests of these new newspaper owners include auto dealerships, real estate, financial instruments, distressed retailers, manufacturing firms and pharmaceutical and transportation companies, to name a few. • There has been much movement of individual newspapers within portfolios. More than a third of all newspapers changed ownership in the past decade, many of which have been bought and sold two or more times. • There have been two or more financial restructurings, including bankruptcy reorganization, a rebranding after selling the company or flips between public and private ownership. Four of the companies have filed for bankruptcy; two have flipped from either public to private or private to public. • A private equity company, a hedge fund or pension fund has at some point during the past decade owned all or a significant portion of the enterprise. Four are owned either by a private equity fund, hedge fund or a pension fund. Two of the three publicly traded companies have been owned for at least a year by private equity funds. DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INVESTMENT COMPANY CHARACTERISTICS NewMedia/ GateHouse Digital First CNHI Civitas tronc/ Tribune BH Media 10/13 Communications The stated emphasis of the parent company is to maximize shareholder return on investment X X X X X X X Many properties were acquired as a group from other media companies through either purchase of entire companies or divisions. X X X X X X X Majority financial and/or operational control of the firm is held by a small number of institutional shareholders, such as lenders, private equity firms or investment fund managers. X X X X X X X The company was formed or incorporated within the past two decades and is a relative newcomer to newspaper ownership. X X X X X X The newspaper holdings are part of a portfolio of non-newspaper companies. X X X X X X There has been much movement of individual newspapers within portfolios. X X X X X There have been two or more financial restructurings, including bankruptcy reorganization, a rebranding after selling the company or flips between public and private ownership. X X X X A private equity company, a hedge fund or penion fund has at some point during the past decade owned all or a significant portion of the enterprise. X X X X X X See http://newspaperownership.com/additional-material/ for details on the characteristics of each of the seven largest investment groups. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 32 While UNC researchers were assembling the data in this report on new media barons, The New York Times was independently reporting on the movement by private equity entities into delivering local and state government services.36 The Times report on Fortress Investment Group did not mention that the firm now owns more newspapers — under the New Media/GateHouse brand — than any other chain, but it provided this insight into the sweep of the holdings of major investment entities: “While little known outside Wall Street, Fortress covers a cross section of American life through companies it owns or manages. It controls the nation’s largest nonbank collector of mortgage payments. It is building one of the country’s few private passenger railroads. It helps oversee a company that manages public golf courses in several states.” In this context, the rise of new media barons raises questions of accountability and transparency: Who makes decisions on overall strategic direction and content of the newspapers these firms manage? What’s the structure of these newspaper-owning companies? Publicly traded newspaper companies are required to submit quarterly and annual reports with audited financial statements and management assessments of the business.37 Still, financial statements of the three publicly traded investment companies — New Media/GateHouse, BH Media and Tribune — are difficult to decipher, especially as they relate to the performance of their newspaper properties and their long-term strategy for them. Private investment companies are required to disclose only the most basic information.38 Here is a summary of relevant financial developments of major newspaper-owning investment firms from what can be ascertained from publicly available information, including company websites and press releases: New Media/GateHouse (Fortress Investment Group): 379 Newspapers in 2014 In 2005, the private equity firm Fortress Investment Group (FIG) entered the newspaper business by purchasing the Liberty Publishing Group from Leonard Green & Partners, a Los Angeles-based investor. Fortress has $70.5 billion in assets under management and describes itself on the company website as “a leading, highly diversified global investment management firm” that “applies its deep experience and specialized expertise across a range of investment strategies — private equity, credit, liquid markets and traditional asset management — on behalf of over 1,600 institutional investors and private clients worldwide.” In 2006, Fortress took the Liberty Group Publishing public under the GateHouse brand. A year later, Fortress, itself, became the first large private equity company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2013, after purchasing the Dow Jones Local Media Group through Newcastle Investment, a company owned and managed by Fortress,39 GateHouse filed for reorganization through a pre- packaged bankruptcy. All newspaper properties were transferred into a newly created subsidiary called New Media Investment Group, also publicly The American press exercises a freedom guaranteed in the Constitution. Newspapers have almost always been run as for-profit businesses, but with a special civic role in the nation and in their local communities. In turn, the public has an interest in the companies and people who exercise the freedom and power of the news media. It is very difficult to ascertain the intentions of the new newspaper owners. The websites of the newspapers they own invariably proclaim their commitment to public service journalism. Yet the press releases and publicly available material of the investment partnerships that own these newspapers focus on financial return for shareholders. THE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY 33 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS traded.40,41 Fortress assumed the majority of the debt and management of New Media, and in return receives stock, stock options and a management fee of 1.5 percent based on the value of the stock. Some of the largest shareholders in New Media include Vanguard, T. Rowe Price and BlackRock.42 Since emerging from bankruptcy, Fortress, under the New Media/GateHouse brand, has continued to expand and has pledged to fund $1 billion in acquisitions through 2016.43 Today, New Media has a market capitalization of about $640 million, accounting for less than 1 percent of Fortress’ $70.5 billion in assets. Digital First Media: 208 Newspapers in 2014 Alden Global Capital, a privately owned hedge fund operator, founded Digital First Media in 2011 as a subsidiary that included newspapers in the MediaNews Group and Journal Register Co. Alden had assumed ownership of the MediaNews Group in 2010 and Journal Register in 2011 through bankruptcy proceedings. The Journal Register, which was the third-largest newspaper company in 2004 with 151 papers, had sold off more than half of its papers by the time Alden Capital assumed ownership. MediaNews and Journal Register were formally merged in 2013. Alden has also purchased outstanding debt from a number of private newspaper owners, including Freedom Communications. Digital First acquired The Orange County Register, owned by Freedom Communications, in bankruptcy proceedings in 2016. Because Alden is privately held, there is little available information on the finances of the company or its owner/founder, Randall Smith.44 In 2014, Alden announced its intention to sell Digital First Media. Two private equity groups — Cerberus Capital Management and Apollo Global Management — expressed interest in purchasing the company, but the deal for the entire company never materialized.45 Since then, Digital First Media has acquired Freedom Communications, while also quietly disposing of some properties. Recently, it has sold The Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune to Paul Huntsman, brother of former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., as well as its small papers in southern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts to a group of local businessmen. Community Newspaper Holdings (CNHI): 128 Newspapers in 2014 CNHI was created in 1997 as a holding company for the Retirement Systems of Alabama to purchase newspapers. The Alabama retirement enterprise manages 23 investment funds. The income from CNHI makes up such a small portion of the diversified $36.6 billion investment portfolio that it is not broken out in annual reports. Since 2004, the company has made only small acquisitions, usually purchasing independently owned and operated papers in small markets. During the same period,it has sold or closed more than three dozen of its underperforming newspapers. Civitas Media: 98 Newspapers in 2014 Versa Capital Management, a private equity firm based in Philadelphia, formed Civitas Media in 201246 when it combined four media subsidiaries the company had bought in bankruptcy or financial distress. Those four were Freedom Central, a division of Freedom Communications; Heartland Publications; Impressions Media, and Ohio Community Media (Brown Publishing). Since forming Civitas Media, the firm has not made any major acquisitions. As of 2015, Versa had $1.4 billion47 in assets under management, including ownership of retailers, restaurants and manufacturers. According to its website, Versa Capital focuses on buying “distressed properties.”48 The company’s target criteria for acquisitions include “Chapter 11 or Out-of-Court Restructurings” and “Reorganizations & Liquidations.”49 tronc/Tribune Publishing: 95 Newspapers in 2014 In 2007, the publicly traded media company, which included radio and television stations, as well the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, was purchased for $8.2 billion by investor Sam Zell, who then took the company private, financed primarily with debt.50 Zell is founder and chairman of a private investment firm, Equity Group Investments, which has a diverse portfolio of assets, including real estate, energy, transportation and retail. The Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008, listing $7.6 billion in assets against a debt of $13 billion.51 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 34 In 2012, the company emerged from bankruptcy under the control of its institutional creditors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Oaktree Capital Management LP and Angelo, Gordon & Co. In 2014, the Tribune newspapers were spun off from the broadcasting assets with $350 million in debt, and the restructured company began trading again on the New York Stock Exchange as Tribune Publishing. The publishing company made its first acquisition in 2014, buying the suburban newspaper group of the Chicago Sun-Times. In 2016, Michael Ferro, owner of the Chicago Sun- Times, began accumulating shares of Tribune Publishing through his private equity firm, Merrick Ventures LLC, after donating his shares of the Chicago Sun-Times to an unnamed charitable trust to alleviate concerns about a conflict of interest.52 Since becoming CEO and publisher, Ferro has brought in health tech investor Nant Capital, managed by Patrick Soon-Shiong, part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. The two investment firms owned 27 percent of the stock of tronc at the end of June 2016 and have the ability to purchase up to 50 percent of the shares.53 BH Media: 76 Newspapers in 2014 Berkshire Hathaway, the international conglomerate and holding company founded by Warren Buffett, has a market capitalization of $368 billion.54 It owns a diverse portfolio, including insurance, clothing, manufacturing and retail. BH Media was formed as a newspaper subsidiary in 2011 after Berkshire Hathaway purchased the Omaha World-Herald in Buffett’s Nebraska hometown. In 2012, BH Media bought Media General’s newspapers.55 Since then, BH Media has expanded through acquisitions of smaller newspapers. Revenues from BH Media account for less than 1 percent of total Berkshire Hathaway revenues.56 In contrast to investment fund managers who are relative newcomers to the newspaper industry, Buffett’s experience dates back to the mid- 1970s ,when he purchased The Buffalo News and was appointed to the board of directors of The Washington Post Co., a position he held for more than two decades. In his 2012 annual shareholder letter, Buffett devoted an entire section to explaining his rationale in purchasing Media General. With earnings multiples, which determine purchase price, at historic lows, local newspapers, he said, were especially attractive acquisitions, and with a “sensible” digital strategy, they should be viable for years to come. But he also said that BH Media was willing to shutter any newspaper operating at a loss, citing the closing in 2012 of the Manassas News & Messenger, a 10,000-circulation daily in Virginia. In 2016, Buffett stressed that all his papers are profitable, “but the trend lines are discouraging.” With the exception of national papers, he said, “no one has cracked the code” to developing a sustainable business model.57 10/13 Communications: 47 Newspapers in 2014 This private investment firm, formed in 2009, is a partnership between 10K Investments, owned by two Reno, Nevada, businessmen, and 13th Street Media, owned by Randy Miller, who previously owned the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera before selling it to E.W. Scripps in 2005. 10K investor Arne Hoel has served on the boards of Swift Communications, which owns small newspapers in Colorado and California, and American Consolidated Media, which sold its 100 newspapers to Adams Publishing Group and New Media/GateHouse. Hoel’s partner, Brett Coleman, sold a residential construction company in 2005 and has no previous newspaper experience. Since its formation, 10/13 Communications has made three major acquisitions: Freedom Communications’ Phoenix assets, the Dallas operations of American Community Newspapers and ASP Westward’s Houston newspapers. The company also bought the ITZ Group, a digital consulting company, in 2013. 35 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS As of mid-2016, the three largest newspaper chains — New Media, Gannett and Digital First — own 898 newspapers, nearly twice as many as the three largest chains in 2004. They control a combined 12.7 million in circulation. • New Media/GateHouse owns 432 papers in 32 states and controls 3.6 million in circulation. • Gannett currently owns 258 papers in 34 states and has 5.2 million in circulation. In recent months, Gannett has made two unsolicited attempts to buy tronc/Tribune. If brought to fruition, such an acquisition would add 104 newspapers with 3.4 million in circulation to Gannett’s portfolio. • Digital First owns 208 papers in 15 states and has 3.9 million in circulation. Here are the major purchases made by the three largest companies: • New Media/GateHouse purchased 39 local papers in 2015 for $102.5 million from the privately held company, Stephens Media.58 • Gannett, after spinning off its broadcast properties in 2015 into a separate company called Tegna, emerged debt-free and immediately began buying newspapers again.59 It has purchased 20 papers from the Journal Media group60 and 11 papers in Texas that had been jointly owned with Digital First.61 Most recently it purchased 46 newspapers from the North Jersey Media Group.62 • Digital First added 22 papers that had previously been part of Freedom Communications,63 but also shed 18, including the Salt Lake Tribune64 and several smaller papers in New England. In addition, it merged several papers.65 Tribune Publishing, renamed tronc in 2016, is now the sixth-largest chain, in terms of number of papers, up from seventh place in 2014. It bought the San Diego Union-Tribune and its accompanying community newspapers for $85 million.66 It also rejected two bids by Gannett to purchase the company at 5.5 times annual earnings.67 Two privately held newspapers companies — Adams Publishing Group and Boone Newspapers — were also active purchasers of small-market papers in 2015. Adams Publishing Group, a family investment fund formed in 2014 to buy and operate small newspaper chains in Ohio, purchased 24 community papers from Nash Holdings, which also owns The Washington Post.68 Adams now holds 52 papers. Boone Newspapers, which prefers to buy family- owned papers or small chains, purchased nine more papers and now owns 61 papers. If Gannett succeeds in acquiring tronc/Tribune, it will own 362 papers in 36 states and control 8.6 million in circulation — more than six times the circulation of the Wall Street Journal and more than twice the circulation of all the 432 papers owned by New Media/GateHouse. The largest newspaper companies are larger than ever before. Until recently, however, the government had expressed little concern about the merger and acquisition activity. Then, early in 2016, the Department of Justice sued to stop Tribune Publishing from purchasing Freedom Communications, citing antitrust concerns. Tribune would have a dominant market share in Since 2014, the big chains have grown even bigger. Some legacy companies have re-entered the market and begun bidding against the investment groups. Most notably, in 2016, Gannett made two major purchases — Scripps/Journal Media and North Jersey Media. Meanwhile, New Media/GateHouse, Digital First and BH Media have continued to acquire newspapers and newspaper chains. The acquisition sprees of the largest companies have begun to raise questions. Among them: How big is too big? Are the measurements used to determine “monopoly” in a local market still valid in a digital era? What are the responsibilities of the owners of these large chains of newspapers to the communities where these papers are located? POST-2014: CONSOLIDATION CONTINUES THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 36 southern California if it owned the two Freedom papers — the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise — as well as the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.69 Digital First Media, which had submitted a lower bid than Tribune, then purchased Freedom Communications for $52.3 million from local owner Aaron Kushner, who had filed for bankruptcy. Consolidation usually occurs in a mature industry dealing with declining revenues and profit margins. The remaining firms attempt to achieve economies of scale with both costs and revenues. The large chains — including many of the legacy newspaper owners — assume that they need to own many papers in many regions to attract advertising and to hold down costs. This raises the question: Is consolidation the only answer, and will it pay the bills much longer if the industry does not develop new business models? It is difficult to predict if the fevered pace of the past decade will continue. Or if the new media barons — the large investment entities — will continue to be the dominant buyers and operators. They may choose to divest their newspaper holdings and move on to other more attractive options. The massive consolidation and reshuffling of ownership since 2004 has both short-term and long-term ramifications for communities that have historically depended on their newspapers to provide them with the news and information that strengthens democracy and capitalism at the local level. The larger the chains become, the more detached and disconnected newspaper owners become from the communities their newspapers have historically served. The next section, “The Emerging Threat of News Deserts,” considers what is at stake for both the industry and communities across the country. LARGEST 25 COMPANIES RANKED BY NUMBER OF PAPERS OWNED: 2016 Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 New Media/ GateHouse 432 125 3,577 1,813 2 Gannett 258 109 5,171 3,292 3 Digital First Media 208 62 3,941 2,038 4 CNHI 125 75 1,105 727 5 Lee Enterprises 113 52 1,335 867 6 tronc/Tribune 104 19 3,433 2,054 7 Civitas Media 90 34 693 332 8 Shaw Media 83 9 439 87 9 Ogden Newspapers 82 41 747 434 10 BH Media 80 33 1,321 947 11 Advance Publications 74 21 2,491 1,142 12 McClatchy 68 29 2,538 1,516 13 Boone Newspapers 61 26 367 174 14 Landmark Media Enterprises 57 4 552 156 15 Paxton Media Group 53 32 473 328 16 Adams Publishing Group 52 14 438 133 17 Community Media Group 52 11 289 63 18 News Media Corporation 48 3 219 17 19 Black Press Group 47 9 1,375 507 20 10/13 Communications 45 3 860 60 21 Rust Communications 44 18 236 135 22 ECM Publishers 42 1 486 2 23 Forum Communications 41 11 355 154 24 Horizon Publications 32 22 142 91 25 Trib Publications 35 0 118 0 SOURCE: UNC Database See newspaperownership.com/additional-material/ for a list of newspapers owned by the largest 25 companies in 2016. Company Type: Public Investment Private 37 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 38 THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS 39 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS In states and some larger cities, niche online news organizations have sprung up to fill gaps left by the downsizing of metropolitan newspapers. But for residents in smaller cities and towns, from Goldsboro, North Carolina, to Minot, North Dakota, the internet offers little substantive coverage of events and issues of everyday interest and importance. Unless local newspapers in those communities reconstruct themselves and sustain their coverage online, who will pay attention to the actions of the city council, the success of local schools, or the safety of the town’s water supply? In the 20th century, newspaper publishers used revenue from selling print advertising to pay for public service journalism, the day-to-day reporting and commentary that inform citizens and improve the quality of life in a community. That old model no longer delivers sufficient revenue, and newspaper owners are struggling to come up with a new one. Legacy owners, such as McClatchy and Advance, as well as newcomers, such as New Media/Gatehouse and BH Media, have made painful cuts in expenses. Overall newsroom staffing has fallen below 1970s levels. Even among the surviving newspapers, the editorial scope and influence of newspapers have diminished. Some new media barons — New Media/ GateHouse, Digital First, tronc and 10/13 Communications — have also implemented aggressive digital strategies, aimed at capturing new readers and at opening a wider revenue stream. But in chasing “clicks” and “audiences” to appeal to local advertisers, their cookie- cutter newspaper websites and social media postings supply pithy and entertaining features for “sharing,” “listicles” and the sort of videos ubiquitous on the internet.70 Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether local news is delivered through ink-on-paper or over a mobile phone. What matters is that a local news organization reports on important issues and provides context and analysis so citizens can make informed decisions and hold their public officials accountable. Unprecedented consolidation in the newspaper industry has placed the fate of local journalism into the hands of fewer companies than ever before. The largest chains have grown so large that they necessarily have less attachment to the communities where they own newspapers than even the barons of previous eras. The rise of the newest media owners, with their emphasis on profit benchmarks instead of civic responsibility, has added a new wrinkle. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many newspapers adopted slogans that touted their public service mission: “All the News That’s Fit to Print” or “The Only Newspaper in the World That Gives a Damn About Yerington (Nevada).” The now-defunct Cleveland Press, which Time magazine identified in 1964 as one of the top 10 local newspapers in America, had a straightforward motto: “The Newspaper That Serves Its Readers.” By contrast, a manager’s manual from the investment firm 10/13 Communications, established in 2009 espouses a different sentiment: “Our customer is the advertiser. Readers are our customers’ customers. [Therefore] we operate with a lean newsroom staff.”71 Today, Americans have access to more news than ever, available round-the-clock, delivered through the internet to smartphones and laptops and by cable and satellite to TV sets. Out of the digital deluge of news come up-close-and-personal videos of terrorist attacks, of violence by and to police officers, of full-length speeches by presidential candidates, as well as features on celebrities and how-to advice on every subject imaginable. And yet the digital deluge hardly spills out local news. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 40 Over the past decade, investment firms have acquired significantly more newspapers in rural areas or localities with high poverty rates. With regional news outlets — including metro papers and television stations — pulling back coverage from outlying areas, newspapers owned by investment entities are often the only source of local news in many communities. Because they spread risk across multiple products and geographic areas, investment groups can afford to let individual newspapers fail or pursue a harvesting strategy in which they “manage the decline” of the assets in their portfolio. If their newspapers fail, and viable alternatives do not arise, many communities across the country are in danger of becoming news deserts. 41 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS The large chain-owned papers are concentrated in the eastern half of the U.S. and along the Pacific Coast. Ten less-densely populated states in the Rocky Mountain and Western Great Plains region have fewer newspapers, most owned by smaller, regional private companies. The two largest companies have the biggest national footprint. New Media/GateHouse currently owns 432 local newspapers in 32 states, while Gannett has 258 papers in 34 states. The other large companies have much smaller footprints. Their newspapers tend to cluster in specific geographic regions of the country. Digital First, the third-largest company, owns 208 papers in only 15 states. Similarly, Advance, one of the largest privately owned chains, has 74 papers in 11 states. In 2016, the largest 25 companies — seven investment entities, three public companies and 15 private firms — collectively own newspapers in all 50 states. In all but a handful of states, they own the largest two or three dailies, as well as dozens of smaller dailies and weeklies. THE NATIONAL FOOTPRINT OF THE LARGEST 25 CHAINS WHERE NEWSPAPERS OWNED BY THE 25 LARGEST CHAINS ARE LOCATED: 2016 SOURCE: UNC Database See newspaperownership.com/map/ to see if one of the 25 largest companies owns the newspaper in your community. The largest 25 companies own newspapers in all 50 states. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 42 In total, the seven largest investment firms own 14 percent of all newspapers in the country. In a dozen or so states, they own between a fifth to as much as a third of all newspapers. Massachusetts ranks at the top of states with the most papers owned by the large investment entities — 141. After Massachusetts come California (112), Illinois (94), Texas (82), Ohio (74), Pennsylvania (61), New York (42), Florida (40), North Carolina (40) and Oklahoma (35). The large investment firms do not currently own local newspapers in eight states — Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. However, they do have a presence in several of these states since they also publish regional and statewide business journals and special-interest newspapers and magazines. See newspaperownership.com/additional- material/ for a state-by-state listing of the number of papers owned by largest investment firms. Over the past decade, the seven largest investment groups vastly extended their reach as they purchased financially troubled legacy companies that came on the market. In 2016, the largest investment firms owned papers in 42 states, up from 27 in 2004. THE VAST REACH OF INVESTMENT COMPANIES WHERE THE LARGEST INVESTMENT COMPANIES OWNED NEWSPAPERS: 2004 WHERE THE LARGEST INVESTMENT COMPANIES OWNED NEWSPAPERS: 2016 SOURCE: UNC Database SOURCE: UNC Database In 2004, the 3 largest investment companies owned 352 newspapers in 27 states. In 2016, the 7 largest investment companies owned 1,031 newspapers in 42 states. See newspaperownership.com/map/ to see where investment companies owned newspapers in 2004 and 2016. 43 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS SOURCE: UNC Database See newspaperownership.com/map/ to see where investment-owned newspapers are located. WHERE THE LARGEST INVESTMENT COMPANIES OWN NEWSPAPERS: 2016 In 2016, the seven largest investment companies owned 1,031 newspapers in 42 states. NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE DIGITAL FIRST CNHI TRONC/TRIBUNE CIvITAS BH MEDIA GROUP 10/13 COMMUNICATIONS Investment groups are most prevalent in New England, the Middle Atlantic, the South and the Pacific Coast regions. New England has experienced rapid growth in the number of papers owned by investment firms. In 2004, there were no investment firms in the region. By 2016, these firms owned 167, or 33 percent of all papers. Investment entities also had a significant presence in the Midwest, with 290 papers, and in the South, where they own 374 papers. WHERE INVESTMENT COMPANIES BOUGHT PAPERS PERCENTAGE OF PAPERS OWNED BY INVESTMENT COMPANIES IN EACH REGION: 2004 & 2016 2004 2016 Pacific: AK, CA, HI, OR, WA; Mountain: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WV; Midwest: IL, IN, MI, OH, WI, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD; Mid-Atlantic: NJ, NY, PA; South: DE, DC, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV, AL, KY, MS, TN, AR, LA, OK, TX; New England: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT SOURCE: UNC Database PACIFIC MOUNTAIN MIDWEST SOUTH MID-ATLANTIC NEW ENGLAND 1% 1% 17% 6% 6% 10% 5% 15% 3% 0% 13% 33% THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 44 Each investment company has a distinctive geographic profile. The largest two, New Media and Digital First, own papers throughout the country. Others, like 10/13 Communications, are more narrowly focused on a specific region of the country. Here is a rundown: New Media/GateHouse has a strong presence in New England, with 137 papers in Massachusetts, clustered in and around the greater Boston area, as well as in Illinois, with 36 papers, and in Ohio, with 30. For the most part, New Media has acquired papers in smaller markets not covered by regional television stations. The 125 daily papers owned by New Media/GateHouse have an average circulation of 14,500, and its nondaily papers have an average of 5,900. Digital First owns 87 papers in the Pacific region, 85 of which are in California, clustered around the Bay Area in the North and around Los Angeles in the South. It also has 47 papers in the Middle Atlantic states, with 38 located in Pennsylvania. Digital First tends to own papers in mid-sized markets located in or near metro areas. The average circulation of its dailies is just under 34,000 and its nondailies, 13,200. Community Newspaper Holdings (CNHI), the pension-fund entity, has 20 newspapers in Oklahoma, 17 in Indiana and 12 in Kentucky. It tends to focus on small markets outside major metro areas. Its dailies have an average circulation of about 10,000 and and its nondailies, 7,500. Civitas papers are clustered in the Midwest and South, including 41 papers in Ohio and 15 in North Carolina. As with CNHI, almost all of Civitas’ papers — whether daily or nondaily — are located in small, rural markets. Its dailies have an average circulation of 9,800 and its nondailies, 6,700. tronc/Tribune newspapers are located in eight major metro markets in seven states, including California, Illinois and Maryland. Tribune typically owns the major metro daily in each market and in recent years has focused on purchasing weeklies in nearby suburbs. It has 42 papers in Illinois — all in the greater Chicago metro area, 23 in Maryland in the Baltimore and Annapolis areas, and 15 in southern and central Florida, including Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. The average circulation of its 19 dailies is 108,000, and for its 85 weeklies it is 16,200. BH Media papers are clustered in mid-sized markets in the South, including 26 papers in south-central Virginia and 11 in adjacent counties in north-central North Carolina, as well as the Midwest. It has 14 in Nebraska, including Omaha, the flagship paper. Its 32 dailies have an average circulation of 28,700, while its nondailies average 7,900. 10/13 Communications, the newest investment firm, owns 42 weeklies and three dailies — all located in or around Dallas and Houston in Texas and Phoenix and Tucson in Arizona. The average circulation of its papers is 19,000. INVESTMENT-OWNED NEWSPAPERS BY REGION: 2016 Pacific Mountain Midwest South Mid- Atlantic New England New Media/ GateHouse 13 5 130 110 37 137 Digital First 87 20 21 13 47 20 CNHI 0 0 32 71 14 8 Civitas 0 0 44 41 5 44 tronc/Tribune 16 0 44 41 1 2 BH Media 0 0 19 58 3 0 10/13 Communications 0 5 0 40 0 0 SOURCE: UNC Database 45 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS From 2004 to 2016, the big seven acquired 1,004 newspapers — 303 dailies and 701 nondailies. Nearly half of the papers purchased by investment firms had print circulation under 5,000, including a fifth of the dailies. Investment firms acquired twice as many newspapers — 257 — in rural counties than either of large either public or private companies. This report uses the definition of rural in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural-Urban Continuum Codes. Almost 60 percent of the papers owned by Civitas and CNHI, and 30 percent of the papers owned by BH Media and New Media/GateHouse, serve rural areas. Forty percent — or 410 — of the newspapers purchased by investment firms are located in counties with poverty rates at least 1 percentage point higher than the national rate of 14.8 percent. As a comparison, 217 of the purchases made by the largest 15 private chains and 104 purchases by the three public firms were in economically distressed areas. Between a half and two-thirds of the 340 papers currently owned by BH Media, 10/13, Civitas and CNHI are in counties with above-average poverty rates. About a third of the 753 papers owned by the other three large investment firms are in economically distressed areas. Seventeen percent — or 86 — of the newspapers owned by investment firms in the UNC database appear to be the only newspapers in the county where they are located. This raises the possibility that the lone newspapers in those counties have a de facto monopoly on local advertising, with an ability to set rates and conditions for readers and advertisers. Additionally, they are most likely the prime — if not only — source of local news and information. Over the past decade, large investment entities acquired a large number of newspapers in rural communities and/or economically struggling regions of the country. WHAT INVESTMENT COMPANIES LOOK FOR TYPE OF NEWSPAPER ACQUIRED: 2004–2016 Daily Nondaily Total % in Impoverished Counties New Media/ GateHouse 130 313 443 39% Digital First 82 149 231 30% CNHI 11 9 20 35% Civitas 35 63 98 60% tronc/Tribune 8 58 66 39% BH Media 32 49 81 53% 10/13 Communications 3 44 47 62% SOURCE: UNC Database The investment firms tended to acquire small papers in impoverished areas. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 46 In inner cities and rural areas, the community newspaper historically has served as the prime source of reporting and commentary that could inform public policy decision-making. The legacy chains of the late 20th century tended to “buy and hold” properties, and the most civic- minded also invested in aggressive and costly public service journalism.72 The publishers and editors understood that the fortunes of the community and the newspaper were tightly linked. Publishers, even those hired by chain headquarters somewhere else, regularly took on civic engagement activities in the community of the newspaper they led. The largest investment companies bring a different philosophy and day-to-day operational strategy. While the websites of the investment- owned newspapers still stress their civic mission and their aspirations to provide reliable and meaningful information to their communities, the public statements by executives of the large investment firms emphasize business and return on investment. See newspaperownership.com/ additional-material/ for examples of public statements made by executives on why they purchase newspapers, their stated financial goals and their civic mission. The rapid expansion of investment firms as newspaper owners occurs at the very moment newspapers are struggling to adapt to the digital era, with survival at stake. Advertising revenues, which historically provided more than 80 percent of total revenue for most local newspapers, have fallen to unprecedented levels and continue to decline as local and regional merchants shift spending to digital outlets. When a mature industry is in decline, managers essentially have three options: grow, maintain the status quo or “manage the decline”: • To grow, newspaper owners need to invest in both the business and news operations so they attract digital advertisers and readers. This long-term strategy requires owners to have faith in the future, an abiding commitment to the overarching mission of the paper and patience with the inevitable monthly and yearly financial fluctuations that come with charting a new direction. • Newspaper owners can attempt to maintain current profit margins by cutting costs to keep pace with revenue declines while making minimal investments in digital products and services. This is a strategy of treading water, waiting for other newspapers to “crack the code” before committing to long-term investment.73 • Or newspaper owners can manage the decline, harvesting as much revenue as possible — usually by raising the rates charged advertisers and the subscription price to readers, and then either selling, trading or shutting down the newspaper as it becomes less profitable. The investment firms do not air their operational decision-making. The fateful choices they make in the day-to-day management of small papers do not get attention outside the affected communities. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify common trends and strategies from corporate press releases and statements, as well as news accounts published in recent years. Investment firms have tended to pursue strategies that attempt to maintain the status quo and current profit margins — or, alternatively, manage the decline before either selling or shuttering unprofitable papers. The strategies that investment companies pursue tend to focus on short-term financial progress, not the long-term civic needs of the communities where their papers are located. INVESTMENT STRATEGIES VS. COMMUNITY NEEDS 47 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Here are the major trends that have emerged: A willingness to sell or close underperforming newspapers. Investment firms are continually adjusting their portfolios to maximize financial return. Whenever possible, they attempt to sell or trade their underperforming newspapers to other chains or to local owners. Often the papers are purchased by other investment groups. For example, Heartland Publications, backed by Wachovia Capital Partners, was acquired in 2011 in bankruptcy proceedings by Versa Capital, owner of Civitas. More than 300 papers owned by the largest investment firms have been sold or traded since 2004, according to news accounts and analysis of the UNC database. Relatively few newspapers were sold in the years immediately after the recession of 2008–2009, but sales have picked up since 2013. New Media/GateHouse, CNHI and Digital First have been the most active sellers in recent years. In the first week of August 2016, New Media/GateHouse, for example, sold 12 of its Illinois papers to Paddock Publishing at the same time it purchased The Fayetteville (North Carolina) Observer. The turnover in staff that often occurs with the buying and flipping of properties erodes the connection of a local newspaper to the community. But at least there is still a newspaper. When no buyer can be found, investment entities are willing to close local newspapers. The largest investment firms have closed or merged at least 85 newspapers, including 22 dailies, in the UNC database since 2004. New Media/GateHouse has closed or merged at least 40 papers and CNHI, 24. Since 2011, when Digital First, Civitas and BH Media were formed, these three investment firms have closed or merged 22 of their newspapers, including six dailies. The closed and merged dailies have had circulations ranging from 8,000 — the Kansas City Kansan, owned by New Media/GateHouse — to about 100,000 — the four San Francisco-area newspapers owned by Digital First that were merged to form the East Bay Times and South Bay Times. Establishment of an annual target for profit margins. According to an Associated Press story, Warren Buffett said at the 2013 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting that he expects “10 percent returns from the newspapers owned by BH Media every year,” even though he also expects newspaper earnings to continue declining.74 While not revealing the profit margin of his small papers, Michael Bush, then CEO of Civitas, told an industry gathering in 2012, “The pessimism of others leads to understated valuations, which will improve over time as we prove the sustainability of current levels of profitability.” He attributed his company’s financial success to an emphasis on such short-term tactics as “increasing rate, as opposed to volume, on both advertising and circulation.”75 In a 2014 prospectus provided to potential buyers, Digital First listed its profit margin in the 10 to 12 percent range. When no purchaser stepped forward, Digital First pursued a new round of cost-cutting designed to raise the profit margin, possibly as high as 20 percent.76 A blurring of the line between the local newspaper’s responsibility to readers and advertisers. In May 2016, Tribune announced the combining of the jobs of publisher and editor at all its newspapers. Editors became publishers, responsible for the business operations as well as news gathering.77 A manager’s handbook, written by the CEO of 10/13 Communications, explicitly stated that the primary focus of its newspapers should be pleasing the advertisers, not the readers: “Our customer is the advertiser. Readers are our customers’ customers. [Therefore] we operate with a lean newsroom staff. … Sales are the lifeblood of the company...so it is clear that the top priority of all our newspapers is the sales department. Staffing should be as high as possible in sales and as low as possible in all other areas.”78 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 48 An increased willingness to declare bankruptcy. Four of the investment firms — New Media, Tribune, Civitas and Digital First — have filed for bankruptcy and financial restructuring over the past decade. All are either currently owned, or have been owned recently, by private equity or hedge funds, which still hold significant ownership stakes. A recent Columbia University study of private equity firms concluded, “If you’re a large private equity firm, you own a diverse portfolio of companies. You don’t need all of them to be successful...Because they [are] diversified, they’re willing to take more risk. A family will do as much as possible to save the company, but for a PE firm, it doesn’t matter as much. We find that private companies owned by PE firms tend to default more than similar public companies.”79 A lack of commitment to the communities their newspapers have historically served. Because they have large and diverse portfolios of businesses, as well as dozens of newspapers, investment firms can allow individual papers to fail and still profit from their total holdings. When announcing that New Media/GateHouse planned to close 10 community weeklies in the Boston area, CEO Kirk Davis told the Boston Globe, “Business conditions have become more challenging, and it’s more important to be selective about where you’re putting the greatest amount of resources. We’re going to shift resources to the highest potential markets that are most desirable to our advertisers.”80 Reliance on cost-cutting to achieve profit expectations, with diminished investment in the news operation. “A lot of these companies are... looking for underperforming assets,” says a media industry analyst for the research company Ibis World. “They’ll acquire the local newspapers and they’ll go in and slash operations to where these newspapers are profitable. It’s kind of like flipping houses.”81 While the websites of many newspapers owned by investment firms profess a commitment to “serving the community” through their journalism, their parent owners do not typically highlight this in their shareholder letters or public statements, instead emphasizing that they have moved quickly to “streamline” operations. Cost-cutting takes a variety of forms, including layoff of staff, wage freezes that extend for five or more years, unpaid furloughs and consolidation of news, advertising and circulation functions into regional centers that serve several papers. According to press accounts and various blogs, newspapers purchased by investment firms have experienced layoffs of between 10 and 40 percent of staff. In some cases, newspapers had already cut staff before the purchase by investment firms. • Civitas notes that it has achieved “significant cost synergies by streamlining and consolidating” the advertising, circulation and news functions of its papers into regional centers.82 • New Media/GateHouse established a center in Austin, Texas, in 2013, to handle the editing and design of 175 newspapers. The center also produces original syndicated and sponsored content.83 • As part of an effort to save $100 million in costs, Digital First closed Thunderdome, an all-digital national newsroom established in 2013 to produce content for its 75 daily newspapers. It laid off the 50 “digital” journalists working there. Since 2011, Digital First has moved to consolidate the news and business operations of its 10 newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area. The most recent consolidation in 2015 was expected to result in another 20 percent news- staff reduction.84 Less emphasis on expensive public service and accountability journalism. In newsrooms with diminished staffing and often low morale, editors have to make day-to-day judgments about how to deploy limited resources. Do reporters cover stories that will “trend” and “engage readers” — as executives at New Media, Digital First and Tribune expect — or spend time on complex, time-consuming reporting that may or may not bear fruit? Do newspapers publish stories that may result in lawsuits and legal fees that diminish profits? 49 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Even if they receive the green light from corporate headquarters, editors still must be selective about which stories their staffs ultimately pursue. With fewer reporters, these papers pursue fewer complicated stories. At the daily papers owned by Civitas, average circulation of 9,800, the one or two reporters only have time to focus on coverage of meetings and larger events in the community. When a major issue surfaces — typically at a city council or county commissioner meeting — there is rarely an editorial that advocates or takes a stand. In the space typically devoted to staff-written editorials, Civitas prints “letters to the editor,” including the weekly constituent letters from the district’s congressman. Lack of investment in the digital transformation: While New Media, Digital First and Tribune are pushing newsrooms and advertising staffs to go digital, Civitas, CNHI and BH Media are moving more slowly and continuing to stress the importance of the print edition. Given the rapid adoption of smart phones by all age groups — even in rural areas — this may ultimately spell the demise of the papers owned by these companies.85 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 50 An examination of the media landscapes in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Kentucky and West Virginia offers insight into where and how ownership of newspapers has shifted dramatically over the past decade. And these six state profiles suggest the potential for news deserts to emerge in hard-hit rural and low-income regions of the country. Each of these states has regions tied to declining manufacturing, mining and farming. SIX STATES: SIX CASE STUDIES Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina rank among the 10 most populous states. Still, more than half of their counties are classified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as rural, many of them dealing with above-average unemployment, above-average poverty rates, an aging population, as well as health care and education issues. Regions of Kentucky and West Virginia, especially where investment firms own most or all of the papers, have some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the country. Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio are also faced with mounting environmental and ecological issues. In Massachusetts, investment firms own two- thirds of all newspapers in the state. In the other five states, they now control at least a fifth of all papers. The communities in these states need their newspapers to provide the sort of public service journalism that can document and help identify solutions to their most pressing problems. 51 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS MASSACHUSETTS State Overview: Massachusetts is the 14th- most-populous state, with 6.7 million people. Seventy percent of the population is located in the state’s eastern half. While Massachusetts enjoys higher household income and relatively lower unemployment rates than the national average, it faces a number of looming issues, including outdated transportation infrastructure, drug abuse especially in low-income urban areas, funding shortages for public education and an aging population with health care needs.86 Additionally, in a recent analysis of the fiscal solvency of each of the 50 states, Massachusetts ranked 49th because of projected budget shortfalls related to underfunded state pension plans and imminent debt obligations.87 Newspaper Ownership: Of 226 papers in the state, 141 are owned by three investment entities, all purchased since 2004 and largely clustered in the greater Boston metro area and on Cape Cod. By far, the dominant player in this market is New Media/GateHouse, which owns 126 papers (nine dailies and 117 nondailies), or 56 percent of the papers in the entire state and more than two-thirds of the papers in the populous eastern region. Community Newspaper Holdings (CNHI) entered the state first by purchasing 10 papers in the northern Boston suburbs in 2005 from the privately held Eagle Tribune Publishing Co., headquartered in North Andover. In 2006, the New Media/GateHouse enterprise, which had just been acquired by Fortress Investment Group, bought 126 small nondaily papers in the Boston area from Community Newspaper Co. (not the same as CNHI) and rebranded these as WickedLocal. Digital First entered the state last in 2011 when it purchased the MediaNews chain in bankruptcy proceedings and acquired 11 newspapers in Massachusetts, including a daily in Lowell, northwest of Boston, and two other dailies in the middle of the state. SOURCE: UNC Database MASSACHUSETTS: 2016 NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE DIGITAL FIRSTCNHI THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 52 Since 2006, New Media/GateHouse has added to its Massachusetts empire by buying 13 newspapers from Enterprise News Media and five from the Dow Jones Local Media Group. Most recently, it acquired the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, with 68,000 circulation, the third-largest daily in the state behind The Boston Globe and Boston Herald. The Worcester paper has changed ownership four times since 2013, when The New York Times Co. sold it to John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, who then flipped it to Halifax Media. New Media then acquired the Halifax chain in 2015. New Media/GateHouse CEO Kirk Davis told The Boston Globe in 2013 that the company’s “history in Massachusetts is built around a mapping strategy in which covering a broad swath of the area’s geography was paramount...” because GateHouse “wanted to be able to offer that market in combination buys” to local advertisers.88 While New Media’s reach in the Boston metro area has extended significantly in recent years, the circulation of The Boston Globe has dropped. Since 2004, weekday circulation of The Globe, which The New York Times Co. in 2013 sold to John Henry, has declined to 230,000 in 2016, from 450,000. As a result, the combined 235,000 circulation of the nine dailies owned by New Media is comparable to that of the weekday Globe. And the total 629,000 circulation of all New Media papers — including 117 weeklies — is significantly more than the 365,000 Sunday circulation of The Globe. (See newspaperownership.com/additional- material/ for list of papers owned by the largest investment groups in Massachusetts.) Looking Ahead: The greater Boston market is now virtually divided between two newspaper companies. The Boston Globe owns the city and the greater metro area on a daily basis while New Media/ GateHouse owns the suburbs with its collection of weeklies. The Globe can cover the major news that affects the region and provide context and analysis on statewide issues. But it doesn’t have the reporting staff to cover the very local issues and concerns in each of its many suburbs. That responsibility falls to the editors of the weeklies owned by New Media/GateHouse. Yet the CEO of New Media has indicated the company’s “mapping strategy” prioritizes the needs of the advertisers, not readers. When New Media/GateHouse shut down 10 Boston area weeklies in 2013, CEO Davis noted that the company was “shifting resources” to communities that local advertisers wanted to reach.89 At the same time New Media continues to streamline and consolidate its news operations, leaving some of its communities to be covered by reporters from remote locations. In March 2016, GateHouse closed the Somerville newsroom, which was home to the Cambridge Chronicle and the Somerville Journal, and laid off the managing editor of the Boston-area newspapers. The 170-year-old Chronicle, the country’s oldest continually published weekly, is now run out of the Lexington office, 22 miles away.90 In a metro area as large and populated as Boston, the absence of reporters in the communities such as Cambridge suggests that many important stories will remain uncovered and unwritten. LARGEST NEWSPAPER OWNERS IN MASSACHUSETTS Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 New Media/ GateHouse 126 9 629 158 2 Turley Publications 10 0 74 0 3 Digital First Media 9 2 56 30 4 Independent Newspaper Group (MA) 8 0 62 0 5 CNHI 6 4 80 70 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Investment Private 53 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS State Overview: Illinois is the fifth-most-populous state, with 12.8 million people, yet, 62 of its 102 counties are classified as rural. Twenty-four of those counties have above-average rates of poverty. The state unemployment rate averaged 6.2 percent, compared with the national average of 4.9 in June 2016. Unemployment remains as high as 10 percent in some southern and western counties. Chicago’s Cook County, with a poverty rate of 17.1 percent, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country. Like Massachusetts, Illinois has projected short-term and long-term budget shortfalls, related to state pension and debt obligations. There are currently major political debates around proposals to raise property taxes in the wealthier Chicago suburbs and to open up more areas in the state for gambling and casinos. Newspaper Ownership: Investment firms own 83 of the 477 newspapers in the state and control circulation of 1.1 million, 25 percent of total print circulation in Illinois. Investment firms staked out a presence earlier in Illinois than in most other states. In 1998, Leonard Green & Partners LP, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, financed Liberty Publishing Group’s purchase of 160 small papers in the upper Midwest from Hollinger International, including 70 in Illinois. Based in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, Liberty Publishing rapidly added to its holdings, doubling in size before downsizing to 250 papers in 2005, when it was purchased for $527 million by the New York-based private equity company Fortress Investment Group.91 Fortress moved the headquarters to New York and renamed the company GateHouse. Since filing for bankruptcy reorganization in 2013, GateHouse is now known as New Media. Today, New Media, which owns more than 400 papers in 32 states, and Tribune Publishing, which was sold to a private equity firm in 2007, are the two dominant newspaper-owning investment firms in Illinois. In the past four years, a significant realignment of newspaper ownership has taken place in the greater Chicago metro area, with a population of 9.5 million. Four major owners — New Media, Tribune, Shaw Media and the Sun-Times — have either purchased or divested assets. In 2012, New Media retreated entirely from the Chicago market, selling all its suburban weeklies to the private, family-owned Shaw Media Co., founded in 1851. As a result, Shaw, which is based in the Chicago TRONC/TRIBUNE SOURCE: UNC Database ILLINOIS: 2016 NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE CNHI CIvITAS ILLINOIS LARGEST NEWSPAPER OWNERS IN ILLINOIS Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Shaw Media 80 7 425 77 2 tronc/Tribune 42 6 773 669 3 New Media/ GateHouse 34 13 298 167 4 Southwest Messenger Press 14 0 148 0 5 Lee Enterprises 12 5 201 78 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 54 suburb of Dixon and owns 80 newspapers, became the dominant media provider in the outer western suburbs, with a total circulation in the greater metro area of 436,000. Two years after Shaw purchased the suburban papers from New Media, the Tribune Publishing Co. acquired from the Chicago Sun-Times 36 papers — four dailies and 32 weeklies — located in four counties of the inner Chicago metro area: Cook, Lake, DuPage and Kane. In purchasing these suburban papers, the Tribune Co. positioned itself to provide print and digital marketing services to local and national advertisers who want to reach either the entire metro area or to target specific suburban communities. As a press release put it, the company’s footprint spans “from Waukegan [in the north] to northwest Indiana” in the south.92 The combined daily and weekly circulation of 773,000 of the Tribune papers is greater than any other publication in Illinois and dwarfs the Sun- Times’ circulation of 210,000. With the greater Chicago market split for the moment between Shaw and tronc/Tribune, New Media has focused its attention on its other newspapers, most of which are in rural southern and western Illinois. In August 2016, it sold 11 papers, including five dailies, in southern counties to the privately owned Paddock Publications. New Media now owns only 34 papers, including 13 dailies, most clustered in rural western and central Illinois. This includes the three largest dailies outside Chicago: the Peoria Journal Star, with circulation 58,500; the Rockford Register Star, with 53,500; and The State Journal-Register in Springfield, with 44,000. Most of the other 33 New Media papers are under 10,000 circulation. Seven of the 22 counties in which New Media now owns a paper — including the three where the large dailies are located — have above-average poverty and unemployment rates. In nine of the state’s counties, New Media owns all the papers, making it the sole provider of local news and advertising. (See newspaperownership.com/additional- material/ for list of papers owned by the largest investment groups in Illinois.) Looking Ahead: While New Media has a long history in Illinois, dating back to the founding of Liberty Publishing Co. in 1998, its future there is less certain. New Media has been willing to divest properties with sluggish revenue and profit, or those that do not align with the company’s regional advertising strategies. Since 2012, it has sold half of its Illinois papers — to Shaw and, most recently, to Paddock — raising the question of what the future holds for the remaining New Media newspapers and the communities where those papers are located. Similarly, the future of the Tribune-owned papers in the Chicago market is far from certain. The company has emerged from bankruptcy still saddled with significant debt. Numerous changes in management have occurred over the past decade as the company went through several financial restructurings and corporate reorganizations. Various strategies have been tried and discarded. The purchase of the suburban papers was orchestrated by the previous CEO, Jack Griffin, who was ousted in early 2016 by the principal investor, Michael Ferro, who is now fighting a hostile takeover bid from Gannett and pressure from the Tribune’s creditors to sell.93 55 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS State Overview: Ohio is the seventh-most- populous state, with 11.6 million people. Of its 143 counties, 84 are rural, and 39 have poverty rates above the national average. In recent times, it has been a bellwether “swing state” in presidential elections. Currently, the most animated debates on public policy in Ohio revolve around drug addiction and crime, the quality of public education, taxation as it relates to economic development, and fracking regulations and pollution of the Great Lakes.94 Ohio is also one of the older-population states, with a median age of almost 40. Newspaper Overview: Investment firms own 74 of the state’s 300 newspapers and control 22 percent of the 3.9 million total circulation. Two investment firms, New Media Investment Group and Civitas, own 71 papers between them. GateHouse, the predecessor of New Media, entered the market in 2007 with its purchase of five papers from Copley Press, the largest being the 55,000-circulation daily The Repository in Canton, south of Cleveland and Akron.95 Until recently, New Media has focused on purchasing papers in smaller markets. But since emerging from bankruptcy in 2013, the firm has opportunistically purchased papers in larger markets.96 New Media purchased the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal for $46 million in 2014, and in 2015, it paid $47 million cash and for the second-largest paper in Ohio, the family-owned Columbus Dispatch, with a circulation of 134,000.97 Press releases issued by New Media when it purchased the Columbus and Providence papers note that both cities are “capitals of government and commerce,” and, as such, are “attractive regional advertising markets.” With the addition of the Columbus daily and the 24 weeklies owned by the Dispatch Co., New Media has circulation of 472,000 in Ohio, compared with the 594,000 circulation of Advance Publications, which owns the state’s largest newspaper, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, as well as 12 other newspapers in the state. In central and eastern Ohio, New Media has a largely uncontested claim on an attractive regional advertising market that, for the most part, enjoys below-average rates of poverty and unemployment. OHIO SOURCE: UNC Database OHIO: 2016 NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE CNHI DIGITAL FIRST CIvITAS LARGEST NEWSPAPER OWNERS IN OHIO Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Civitas Media 41 16 327 156 2 New Media/ GateHouse 30 4 472 173 3 Gannett 27 11 327 157 4 Dix Communications 20 6 180 75 5 Advance Publications 13 1 594 312 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 56 Versa Capital Management, a Pennsylvania- based private equity firm, entered the Ohio market in 2011, purchasing 44 papers from Ohio Community Media, a holding company formed by creditors of Brown Publishing, a 90-year-old private, family-operated chain of small dailies and weeklies, based in Cincinnati, that had filed for bankruptcy.98 In 2012, Versa added to its Ohio holdings by purchasing The Lima News from Freedom Communications and acquired Heartland Publications, a bankrupt newspaper chain located in the Southern states. Versa merged its two newspaper groups to form Civitas. After selling three papers and closing four others in 2014, the Civitas group owns papers in 22 counties in Ohio, mostly clustered in the less populated counties in the west, northwest and southeast. Twenty-nine of its remaining 41 newspapers have circulation below 10,000. Only five are above 20,000, and only three are dailies. They include the Community Common in Portsmouth, with a circulation of 35,000. The Community Common is located in Scioto County, population 80,000, on the Ohio River border with Kentucky, and has a poverty rate of 24.8 percent. Thirteen of the papers owned by Civitas are in counties with unemployment and poverty rates considerably above both the state and national rates. Civitas owns the only newspapers serving four of those economically struggling counties. (See newspaperownership.com/additional- material/ for list of papers owned by the largest investment groups in Ohio.) Looking Ahead: Investment firms own a quarter of all newspapers in Ohio. Still, other large public (Gannett) and private (Advance) chains also have a significant presence. Most of the major markets in the state are relatively self-contained, with very little competition from other newspapers — Advance in the Cleveland metro area, Gannett in Cincinnati, and New Media in Columbus. But while newspaper ownership in the metro areas appears relatively stable for now, the future of the newspapers in rural Ohio is less certain. Since 2012, Civitas (aka Versa) has closed three “underperforming” weeklies and one daily in four Ohio communities that were struggling economically — and no other news organization has stepped in to fill the void. 57 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS NORTH CAROLINA State Overview: North Carolina, an increasingly important swing state in national elections, is the ninth-most-populous state, with 10 million people. Of its 100 counties, 56 are rural. While its major metro areas are generally thriving economically, 34 counties, mostly rural, have above-average rates of poverty and unemployment. The 2008–2009 recession cut sharply into textile and furniture manufacturing, depriving small towns of low-wage, but steady, employment. The state is facing several environmental issues, including the disposal of coal ash.99 Newspaper Overview: Investment firms own 40 of 185 papers and control 20 percent of the total circulation of 2.4 million. The two largest daily newspapers — The Charlotte Observer, with 107,000 circulation, and The News & Observer in Raleigh, with 94,000 circulation — are owned by McClatchy. The next four largest dailies in the state are owned by BH Media and New Media/ GateHouse. BH Media, a division of Berkshire Hathaway, owns the Winston-Salem Journal, with 60,000 circulation, and the News & Record in Greensboro, with 46,500 circulation, in the middle of the state. New Media/GateHouse owns The Fayetteville Observer, with 37,000 circulation, and the Star-News in Wilmington, with 36,000 circulation in the southeastern part of the state. BH Media, Civitas and New Media Investment Group each own 10 or more newspapers in the state. All are newcomers. Civitas and BH Media entered North Carolina in 2012 — Civitas by purchasing Heartland Publications in bankruptcy proceedings from another private equity firm and BH Media by purchasing the 10 newspapers in North Carolina owned by Media General, including the Winston-Salem Journal.100 The New Media Investment group entered in late NORTH CAROLINA: 2016 NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE BH MEDIA GROUP CNHICIvITAS SOURCE: UNC Database Counties that are shaded in gray have poverty rates above the national average. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 58 2014 when it purchased the private Halifax chain, composed of newspapers in North Carolina that had previously been owned by The New York Times Co. and Freedom Communications.101 In August 2016, New Media/Gatehouse purchased the oldest paper in the state, the 200-year-old, family-owned Fayetteville Observer, which covers Fort Bragg and nine rural — mostly poor — counties.102 These three investment firms have also acquired newspapers in counties with significantly above- average poverty rates. Civitas owns papers in nine of the poorest counties in the state, including three in the northwest and six along the U.S. 74 corridor in the southeast. In eight of those counties, Civitas is the sole newspaper proprietor. It has only two North Carolina newspapers with a circulation of more than 10,000: The Robesonian in Lumberton, with 10,800, and the Mount Airy News, with 10,620. Robeson County has a poverty rate of 33.1 percent, and Surry County, home of Mount Airy, has a poverty rate of 18.8 percent, both significantly above the 14.8 national average. BH Media’s 11 papers are in north-central North Carolina near Interstate 40. Eight are located in counties with above-average poverty rates, and in two of those counties, the firm owns all the area newspapers. New Media/GateHouse owns a collection of papers clustered mostly in the southeastern part of the state, stretching from Fayetteville to the coast, and along I-85 in the central part of the state. Nine of the 11 counties in which New Media owns papers have above- average poverty rates. (See http://newspaperownership.com/additional- material/ for list of papers owned by the largest investment groups in North Carolina.) Looking Ahead: Because they are relatively new to the state, it is too early to know whether BH Media, New Media/GateHouse and Civitas are “here to stay” in North Carolina or merely passing through. Warren Buffett has begun stepping back from day- to-day management of Berkshire Hathaway, and it is unknown whether his designated successors will match his interest in newspapers.103 Over the last decade, New Media has continually adjusted its portfolio as it seeks to build regional advertising markets around its newspapers. With its purchase of the Fayetteville paper, New Media appears to be solidifying its hold on the southeastern portion of state. The five small papers in the central part of the state may not align with their regional advertising strategy and therefore might end up shut down or traded, most likely to either BH Media or Civitas, which already own papers in that area. LARGEST NEWSPAPER OWNERS IN NORTH CAROLINA Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Civitas Media 15 5 113 60 2 McClatchy 12 2 697 202 3 New Media/ GateHouse 12 11 190 188 4 BH Media 11 6 167 137 5 Cooke Communications 11 3 81 40 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private 59 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS KENTUCKY AND WEST VIRGINIA State Overview: Kentucky and West Virginia are among the least-densely populated states in the eastern U.S. and have similar challenges. Both are relatively rural and impoverished. Kentucky ranks 26th among the states, with a population of 4.4 million; West Virginia, which has 1.8 million people, is 38th. In Kentucky, 85 of 119 counties are classified as rural, and a third have above-average poverty rates. In West Virginia, 34 of 55 counties are rural, and three-quarters of the counties are struggling economically. The poorest counties tend to be in the Appalachian areas of both states and along the Ohio River. The most serious issues confronting both states include high unemployment, low education levels, drug abuse, long-term environmental damage and lack of funding to support public education, health care for an aging population and transportation infrastructure.104 Newspaper Overview: The percentage of newspapers owned by investment entities in Kentucky is a relatively low 12 percent. However, in the eastern counties of Kentucky and the adjoining southwestern portion of West Virginia, investment firms own more than half of 44 papers in those counties, some of the poorest SOURCE: UNC Database KENTUCKY & WEST VIRGINIA: 2016 Counties that are shaded in gray have poverty rates above the national average. NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSEDIGITAL FIRSTCNHICIvITAS LARGEST NEWSPAPER OWNERS IN KENTUCKY Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Landmark Media Enterprises 19 1 111 11 2 CNHI 12 5 76 34 3 Gannett 10 2 166 95 4 Paxton Media Group 9 4 71 52 5 Civitas Media 6 2 32 11 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 60 in both states. In fact, all of the 35 papers in Kentucky and West Virginia owned by investment companies are located in counties with above-average poverty rates. Community Newspaper Holdings owns 18 papers in the two states — 12 in Kentucky, six in West Virginia. These were among the first papers acquired by CNHI when it was formed by the Retirement Systems of Alabama in the late 1990s. Only four of the papers owned by CNHI have circulation above 10,000 — the largest being The Register-Herald in Beckley, West Virginia, with just over 20,000 in circulation. Civitas acquired six papers in each state when it purchased the bankrupt Heartland Publications chain in 2012. All 12 papers owned by Civitas have circulation under 10,000. During the last decade, New Media/GateHouse also acquired four small West Virginia papers, all below 10,000 in circulation. The three major regional papers in the two states have little readership in the areas where Civitas and CNHI own papers. The circulation of the Gannett- owned Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal, the largest paper in either state, has dropped to 89,000 in 2016 from 207,000 in 2004. The McClatchy- owned Lexington Herald-Leader has dropped to 74,000 in circulation from 114,000. The Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail’s circulation of 46,000 is predominantly in the metro area. In 18 of the 25 rural counties in which they have a presence, Civitas and CNHI own all the newspapers. (See newspaperownership.com/additional- material/ for a list of papers owned by the largest investment groups in Kentucky and West Virginia.) Looking Ahead: Privately held Landmark Media Enterprises, which owns 19 community papers in Kentucky, is the largest newspaper owner in the state. Since 2008, Landmark has sold off its Greensboro (North Carolina) News & Record and Roanoke (Virginia) papers to BH Media and its Annapolis (Maryland) paper to Tribune. Landmark has indicated that it intends to sell all its newspapers. If Landmark’s Kentucky newspapers attract investment firms, the number of papers owned by investment firms would rise significantly. Conversely, CNHI, Civitas and New Media could decide to exit. Since 2012, those three firms have been among the most aggressive in shutting down and selling underperforming papers. In either scenario, the newspaper landscape in Kentucky and West Virginia likely will change dramatically in the near future — and the communities that will be most affected are the poorest. LARGEST NEWSPAPER OWNERS IN WEST VIRGINIA Rank Company Total Papers Daily Papers Total Circ. (000s) Daily Circ. (000s) 1 Ogden Newspapers 7 5 63 53 2 Civitas Media 6 3 32 22 3 CNHI 6 3 47 38 4 Moffitt Newspapers 6 1 38 4 5 New Media/ GateHouse 4 1 22 4 SOURCE: UNC Database Company Type: Public Investment Private 61 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS The futures of newspapers owned by investment firms and the communities that these papers serve are inextricably linked. Both newspapers and rural communities are struggling to adapt technologically and financially to macro-economic change and the digital era. If the local newspaper fails, no other medium, such as television or radio, is capable of providing these communities with the sort of public service journalism that lays out the issues and holds public servants accountable. DIMINISHED LOCAL NEWSPAPERS: AN UNFILLED VOID Extensive research has found that local newspapers, more than any other medium, have an important agenda-setting function. They have the ability to shed light on community needs, to determine the major issues debated by citizens and to help point a community toward decisions on public policies.105 By reporting important stories and giving prominence to them, editors and publishers of local papers set the agenda and contribute to the quality of life in their communities. Historically, many papers have also followed their reporting with editorials that argue for specific courses of action. According to some estimates, newspapers provide as much as 85 percent of “the news that feeds democracy” at the local, state and national levels.106 Without investment in journalism and digital technologies, the ability of local newspapers to survive as a credible voice for their communities in the 21st century is threatened. A 2011 Federal Communications Commission report found that, absent a strong local newspaper, no other medium is positioned to step in with public service journalism that sheds light on the major issues confronting communities, large and small.107 Regional or Metro Newspapers: Several Pulitzer Prizes won by large daily papers in the latter half of the 20th century focused on regional issues that affected rural residents. The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, received the Pulitzer Public Service award in 1996 for its series on industrial hog farming in eastern North Carolina. Since 2000, however, newsroom staffing across the country has dropped by almost 40 percent.108 Some papers, like The News & Observer, which is owned by the McClatchy Co., have retained a corps of investigative reporters, but there is ample documentation of a dramatic drop in coverage of city halls and statehouses. As advertising revenue plummeted, many metro papers pulled back distribution from outlying regions. Consequently, circulation of most large regional newspapers has declined 42 percent. With fewer reporters covering statewide or regional beats and fewer readers in outlying areas, metro papers give much less attention to issues uniquely affecting rural counties, many of which are struggling economically. Regional Television Stations: Even though TV stations have expanded the daily time allotted to local news in many markets, the preponderance of those newscasts revolves around “soft” features, crime, human interest stories, weather, sports and scheduled events. The FCC report found that only 10 percent of airtime — under two and a half minutes — on an evening news show is typically devoted to discussing statewide and regional issues such as health care and education.109 A 2009 study of a Los Angeles TV station found that, on average, only slightly more than one minute of a 30-minute evening broadcast covered local issues such as education, environment, health and transportation.110 Most television stations, unlike newspapers, do not have an editorial voice that commands community attention. With few exceptions, regional television stations have fewer reporters than the dominant newspaper in the market. As a result, coverage beyond the core metro market is usually limited to the weather forecast, tornadoes, hurricanes and major accidents. Radio: Fewer than 40 percent of U.S. residents live where they can receive all-news radio. While National Public Radio covers national, international and regional news, relatively few public radio THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 62 stations provide extensive local reporting in small and mid-sized markets. Only 60 percent of commercial radio stations have even 30 minutes of local news a day, and this “newscast” often consists of a listing of upcoming events, along with an interview with a local official or celebrity. More than a fifth of all commercial radio stations have no local news at all. Nonprofit News Organizations: Nonprofit news organizations have arisen as alternative sources of news that can potentially fill the gap created as local newspapers shrink. However, most nonprofit news organizations are located in metropolitan areas, and many are primarily online at a time when as many as half of residents in rural communities still lack reliable access to broadband or wireless services.111 Of 172 nonprofit news outlets surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2012, 101 focused on global, national or state news, and another 49 focused on metropolitan news.112 Of the 13 hyperlocal sites, all but two were in large cities. Start-up nonprofit organizations also face their own financial challenges. A 2015 Knight Foundation survey of 20 organizations concluded that only a handful were on solid financial footing. The average nonprofit relied on support from philanthropic foundations for almost 60 percent of its annual operating budget. Only 20 percent came from earned income, such as sponsorships or advertising. Only six of the nonprofits had an annual surplus that could be tapped for emergencies. SOURCE: Pew Research Center WHERE NONPROFIT NEWS ORGANIZATIONS WERE LOCATED: 2012 Number of Nonprofit News Sources 1 5 10 14 Most of the nonprofit organizations were located in metro areas. 63 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS The local newspaper has historically served as the primary, if not sole, source of credible news in many small and mid-sized communities. Without a local newspaper, a community loses its voice. The prospect of news deserts emerging in regions throughout the country would have long-term consequences for society. THE CHALLENGES FOR NEWSPAPERS AND COMMUNITIES A century ago, when Scripps and Hearst were assembling the first newspaper chains, more than nine out of 10 papers in the U.S. were independently owned and operated.113 By 2000, nine out of 10 papers were links in a media chain. Throughout the 20th century, media critics raised concerns about the fiduciary responsibility of nonresident newspaper owners to the communities where their papers were located. Now, the rapid rise in newspapers owned by large investment companies poses a special set of issues in the digital age. The late 20th century chain had to be attentive to shareholder needs and balance them against community needs. However, since most newspapers before 2008 sold for between 11 and 13 times yearly earnings, chain owners had a strong financial incentive to take a long-term view on investment and hold onto a paper for at least a decade and a half.114 Additionally, publicly held companies, such as McClatchy and Gannett, are required to file financial information with government agencies, guaranteeing a certain level of transparency about management’s decisions. Diligent shareholders can make informed investment decisions based on a newspaper management’s “guidance” on its journalistic priorities and earnings expectations. Unlike the publicly traded chains, investment groups can operate with almost no financial or management transparency. Nor do they automatically have a long-term commitment to a newspaper they have purchased. Investment firms have indicated they will sell or shut down underperforming or unprofitable papers without regard to the void left in the communities where the papers are located. As the number of papers they own balloons, they become more and more removed from the hundreds of communities in 42 states where they own papers. Taken together, these factors make it difficult for readers, advertisers and community leaders to hold the owners of their local paper accountable for the quality and quantity of news and information. Low-income and rural communities need strong newspapers to give voice to their interests and concerns, provide context and analysis around problems and solutions, and help set the agenda for debate and adoption of effective public policies. Television and radio offer little more than spotty coverage; their intermittent attention does not make them a reliable alternative news sources for people in rural and low-income areas. Without a local paper, there is a strong risk of news deserts emerging across vast regions in the country with communities that can least afford it — with political, economic and social consequences for society as a whole. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 64 SOURCE: UNC Database COUNTIES WITH INVESTMENT OWNED NEWSPAPERS: 2016 Investment owned newspapers are located in 514 of the country’s 3,142 counties. 65 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 66 FINDING SOLUTIONS: SAVING COMMUNITY JOURNALISM 67 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Walter Lippmann, one of American’s pre-eminent journalists and commentators in the 20th century, referred to a newspaper as “the bible of democracy, the book out of which a people determines its conduct.”115 Scholars have argued that strong local newspapers have the ability to “set the agenda” by determining the important public issues that a community debates and decides.116 Modern-day economists refer to the journalism produced by newspapers as a public good. In theory, the better informed a community’s citizens, the better they will be in making everyday decisions that could enhance their own and their neighbors’ quality of life. Over the past decade and a half, the newspaper industry has experienced unprecedented economic and technological disruption. Out of that caldron of instability, a new media baron has emerged — investment entities now own a growing number of newspapers across the country. There is no guarantee newspapers will survive, especially if their owners do not possess both journalism’s civic mission and the business savvy to discard old business models and create new ones. This is a classic moment, leaving all of us in society with challenging questions about the role of both newspapers and newspaper owners in the 21st century. In an age of disruption and consolidation, the future of newspapers and communities throughout the country is at stake. In addition to newspaper owners, individuals and institutions will need to make a committed and concerted effort to save community journalism. Earlier, this report documented the dramatic shift in newspaper ownership and the emerging threat of “news deserts” developing in regions across the country. The concluding chapter attempts to identify interested parties and some actions they can take now to ensure that community newspapers — whether on paper or digitally — continue to provide news that feeds democracy at the local level. Far from an exhaustive list, what follows is intended to start a conversation at national and local levels before it is too late. The most urgent challenge for newspaper owners is developing new sources of digital revenue so they can survive and continue producing the news that feeds democracy. The disruption in the newspaper industry over the past decade is a textbook example of “creative destruction” when old ways of doing business fade and new models are created. In other industries that have experienced such massive economic disruption, survivors transformed their business models by aggressively cutting costs associated with the legacy product while simultaneously adopting the new technology so they could attract new customers and new sources of revenue. FINDING SOLUTIONS: SAVING COMMUNITY JOURNALISM THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 68 Most newspapers have significantly cut costs related to their print edition, and many have invested in technology to reach readers anytime, anywhere. But the vast majority still remain almost totally dependent on rapidly declining print advertising revenue to pay the bills. Several recent industry studies have found that there is enough digital advertising and marketing revenue in many markets, whether large or small, to support a robust local news gathering function.117 However, community newspapers currently receive only a fraction of that revenue — many less than 5 percent. So even if local newspapers now owned by investment entities and other large legacy chains revert to local owners with a passion for civic journalism, these papers will most likely fail if the new owners do not develop new sources of revenue quickly. To survive and thrive in the digital age, community newspapers need to transform their advertising departments and develop revenue strategies that more closely align with the marketing needs of their local businesses. This involves moving beyond mere sales of advertising space in one of the paper’s print or digital editions and, instead, offering a full range of digital services, including search engine optimization, social media management, website design and video production. There will be much trial and error, as this is totally new territory for newspapers. What works in one market may not work in another, so strategies will need to be tailored to individual communities. Schools of journalism and communication have historically focused on training current and future journalists, as well as public relations and advertising professionals. Many major schools have recently begun teaching students concepts and skills around “innovation and entrepreneurship.” But while this focus may help them start their own businesses at some future date, it does not address the pressing business issues that community newspapers are currently experiencing. Newspaper owners — especially those in rural and low-income communities — need university faculty and students to produce applied research that assists them in developing and implementing new and sustainable business strategies, as well as tools for measuring progress against goals. UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media is one example of university outreach and collaboration with both newspapers and communities. A soon-to-be- published white paper, for example, examines the feasibility of small newspapers in low-income areas establishing profitable full-service digital marketing agencies that fulfill the marketing needs of small businesses in the community.118 Press associations have historically served as effective lobbyists, working at the state and national level to preserve newspaper revenue from government-required legal notices, for example, or postal discounts. They have also fought aggressively for open meetings and public records laws. But a new emphasis is required. Legal ads, printed inserts and national ads are going the way of classified advertising. Industry analysts expect these three 69 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS forms of print advertising to disappear from most community newspapers within the next five years.119 Press associations need to work now with news organizations in planning for the future. Their primary focus needs to move from preservation of the status quo — lobbying state legislators to protect legal ad revenue for yet another year — to working with universities and newspaper owners to support research and development of business models and revenue strategies that allow newspapers to survive in the digital age. Governmental media policies in the 20th century focused on keeping competitive newspapers “alive” through joint operating agreements, which ultimately didn’t work. Federal policy also sought to prevent the owners of a traditional news organization, whether TV, radio or newspaper, from holding a cross-media local “monopoly.” The measures the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice use for determining media “concentration” in local markets are 20th-century contrivances and do not acknowledge the competition from new media that threatens all traditional media. The major digital competitors in most markets are now Facebook and Google.120 What’s more, a 2011 FCC report detailed how IRS rules constrain nonprofit organizations in developing new sources of revenue by limiting how much they can get from advertising.121 IRS rules need to be revised so that nonprofit news organizations can also develop scalable and sustainable business models, instead of relying primarily on donations from individuals and foundations. Cutbacks in newsroom staffing have left many communities and regions in this country — especially those that are rural and less affluent — underserved by news media. Several hundred newspapers in the past decade have either ceased publishing or merged with other papers, leaving their communities without a media outlet. Too many newspapers still see other news organizations as competitors. In addition to developing new revenue strategies, newspapers also need to consider new models for reporting to ensure that underserved communities receive the news and information they need. Newspapers in small and low-income communities — where the majority of investment-owned publications are located — are so understaffed that many struggle to cover routine events, such as town council meetings. And large metros, which have endured multiple rounds of layoffs, are not able to produce either the number or range of enterprise and investigative series that they did in the past. Therefore, newspaper publishers and editors need to develop partnerships and networks with other news organizations that stress collaboration THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 70 instead of competition. These networks can take many forms, uniting metro dailies with smaller weeklies, independent and chain-owned papers, or nonprofits and for-profit dailies. Two recent journalistic endeavors by investment-owned newspapers illustrate that civic-minded editors — at both large and small papers — can rise to the challenge when they have the backing of corporate headquarters. Reporters at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, owned by New Media/Gatehouse, worked collaboratively for a year with journalists at the independently owned Tampa Bay Times, detailing the increase in violence and abuse at state-run mental facilities after major cuts in funding.122 The two papers shared the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. At the same time, Community News Holdings (CNHI), the oldest of the large newspaper investment groups, founded almost 20 years ago, has been upgrading its coverage of state and regional issues in seven states where it has the largest number of papers, most with circulation under 10,000. CNHI has designated one journalist in each of those states to produce both regional enterprise stories and cover statehouse news about policy issues that affect the communities where its papers are located.123 Unfortunately, these two notable collaborative journalistic efforts remain the exception in the industry as a whole, and especially among the investment-owned papers. While supporting the public service journalistic endeavors of some papers, both New Media/Gatehouse and CNHI have simultaneously closed unprofitable papers in small, low-income communities. That is the risk as the large chains grow even larger; they can selectively support some papers and not others — unless all papers are key links in a greater network. Similarly, locally owned independent news outlets, including newspapers, nonprofit online outlets and broadcasters, need to establish their own collaborative journalistic ventures and networks that allow them to both cover dig deeper into the many important public policy issues in their regions. Partnerships may also ultimately determine the ability of independent and nonprofit organizations to survive, since they are stronger together. As an example, public broadcasting stations in three states have banded together to form the Ohio River Network.124 Large community and journalism-related foundations have mostly funded nonprofit news organizations in major cities that have stepped in to fill the news and information gaps left by the decline of metropolitan newspapers. Though some attempt to report on education, health, environmental and economic issues of concern to distressed communities, most report on news that originates in metro areas. Now is the time for foundations to focus on areas that are in danger of becoming news deserts. They can make it imperative that those organizations that they do fund reach beyond “hyper-local coverage” in a specific metro area. And they can start funding 71 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS nonprofits that provide “regional” contextual/analytical reporting. Examples in North Carolina include North Carolina Health News and EducationNC. They can also encourage partnerships — between for-profit news organizations and nonprofits or between universities and nonprofits. Some universities are already partnering with local nonprofit startups to provide information to underserved communities. However, most of these partnerships focus their news coverage on communities located near the university. There is an opportunity for universities to teach students and to provide public service by reaching beyond their current geography to forestall news deserts in their states. They could, for example, set up statewide news bureaus that give budding reporters a chance to actually cover regional concerns. A model exists in the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago. From the time it was established in the late 19th century until it closed in 2005, it served as a cooperative effort among the city’s newspapers to cover breaking news while training new reporters. State governments often provide scholarships to future teachers and doctors to assure an adequate supply in regions of need. In potential news deserts, journalism has reached a point at which scholarships could be devised to supply interns and young reporters to local news organizations. Similarly, the federal government has in the past offered tax incentives for companies that hire people who are unemployed. States could also offer tax incentives for newspapers that hire journalists who cover important public policy issues. A dual need exists: to raise awareness in society about the vital role of community news organizations and to hold current newspaper owners accountable for delivering on their civic duty in the digital age. Educators, as well as many foundations, support media literacy programs. Indeed, the future of democracy depends on students, as emerging voters, comprehending and appreciating the vital role of news media. Some states and communities have had strong newspaper-in-education programs. Unfortunately, they have suffered financially as their sponsoring newspaper companies have cut back. Most of the media literacy programs are now aimed at college students. The fashioning of an informed citizenry depends on both high schools and colleges connecting their students to substantive journalism and teaching their students how to maneuver through the multiple channels of the internet to find comprehensive and credible journalism. The McCormick Foundation, among others, has identified media literacy at the secondary and college level as a major priority in the digital age when “a growing sector of the U.S. population does not distinguish between professional journalists, information spinners and citizen voices. The 24/7 news cycles and digital advances in disseminating information serve to further exacerbate this challenging situation.”125 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 72 Lawmakers and regulators in Washington have spent considerable time since the Great Recession of 2008–2009 debating the merits of the big banks and developing stress tests of their financial soundness. At the same time, under the radar, a complex, interrelated and very loosely regulated network of financial institutions has experienced explosive growth. These investment partnerships come in a variety of forms: Some are classic hedge funds or private equity funds. Ironically, anyone who has a pension fund has fueled the rise of these investment groups. Half of the money that has flowed into private equity partnerships has come from the many corporate and public pension fund managers in this country, seeking a higher return than the stock market or other traditional options.126 Some of the largest private equity funds are also publicly traded — such as Fortress Investment Group, which is the largest owner of newspapers in the country. Yet their publicly available financial statements and shareholder material offer scant transparency, even as these organizations oversee vast empires that provide services that enhance — or diminish — the quality of life in a community, including hospitals, transportation, emergency call centers, as well as newspapers. With little transparency, there is little way to hold these large corporations accountable, except to their majority investors interested in their own return. Considering the potential impact the financial practices of these investment partnerships could have on communities throughout the country, federal authorities need to turn their attention toward addressing the opaqueness of these organizations — at least as eagerly as they focus on big banks. In the end, though, activists and individuals at the community level may have the most important role to play. Large newspaper companies held by investment entities are even more removed from their communities than the sprawling chains of the late 20th century. Yet communities need strong newspapers. Even though a local newspaper is owned by an investment entity or corporation located somewhere else, it usually has publishers, editors and reporters in the city of publication. Activists and individuals in the community need to insist on coverage of important issues and to deliver criticism of coverage when warranted. In the digital age, person-to-person contact and building relationships continue to matter. Interviewed in 2013, Charles Broadwell, the fourth-generation family member to serve as publisher of The Fayetteville (North Carolina) Observer, emphasized his paper’s longstanding commitment to covering the news not only of Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, but also of all of the 10 counties that encompass the Cape Fear Region in southeastern North Carolina.127 Eight of the 10 counties are among the poorest and most rural in the state. Even as other newspapers and television stations in Raleigh and Wilmington pulled out in the 1990s, The Observer continued to provide comprehensive and contextual reporting on the major regional and local issues confronting those 73 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS communities. It was the paper’s civic responsibility, he said, to give voice to all the residents in the region, who were tied together socially, politically and, ultimately, economically. In August 2016, New Media/Gatehouse purchased the 200-year-old Observer from its family owners, who had spent an agonizing year debating this “difficult decision.” Commenting on the sale, Gatehouse CEO Kirk Davis noted, “We value the Observer’s heritage of delivering rich local content to the Fayetteville metropolitan area, including Fort Bragg.”128 What he did not address is whether the Observer would continue to provide coverage of major issues in the rural, economically struggling counties outside the metro area. In the coming years, investment entities may yet rise to the challenge and deploy their resources to reinvent local journalism, as well as local advertising. But it will require them to significantly reorient their financial priorities. Instead of a short-term earnings focus, they will need to make a long-term commitment and investment in the civic mission traditionally assumed by newspaper publishers. One thing is certain: Time is running out. No one interested party — whether individual, institution or newspaper owner — can alone save community journalism. It will take a collaborative effort by many interested parties to meet the challenges posed by changing media ownership during a time of great economic and technological disruption. The fate of local newspapers and communities hangs in the balance. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 74 SOURCE CITATIONS 75 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS 1 Alex S. 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Apollo’s acquisition of Digital First Media,” Politico, March 17, 2015, http:// www.politico.com/media/story/2015/03/what-are-they-thinking-apollos-acquisition-of-digital-first-media-003573. 46 Michael Wursthorn, “Newly-Formed Newspaper Company Now ‘Less Leveraged’ After Consolidation,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2012, http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2012/09/14/newly-formed-newspaper- company-now-less-leveraged-after-consolidation/. 47 “Versa Capital Finalizes Acquisition of The Wet Seal Retail Operations,” Business Wire, April 15, 2015, http://www. businesswire.com/news/home/20150415006789/en/Versa-Capital-Finalizes-Acquisition-Wet-Seal-Retail. 48 “About Versa Capital Management,” Accessed August 06, 2016, https://www.linkedin.com/company/versa- capital-management. 49 “Target Criteria,” Versa Capital Management LLC, Accessed August 06, 2016, http://www.versa.com/target_criteria. php. 50 Michael Oneal and Steve Mills, “Part One: Zell’s Big Gamble,” January 13, 2013, http://articles.chicagotribune. com/2013-01-13/business/ct-biz-trib-series-1-20130113_1_sam-zell-randy-michaels-big-gamble 51 “Tribune files for bankruptcy,” NY Times Dealbook, December 08, 2008, http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/ tribune-files-for-bankruptcy/. 52 Robert Channick, “Dold named Chicago Tribune publisher, Ferro donates Sun-Times stake to charitable trust,” Chicago Tribune, March 02, 2016, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-tribune-publishing-changes-0303- biz-20160302-story.html. 53 “Tribune Publishing Receives $70.5 Million Growth Capital Investment from Nant Capital,” Business Wire, May 23, 2016, http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160523005650/en/Tribune-Publishing-Receives-70.5-Million-Growth- Capital. 54 “BRK/A: New York stock quote - Berkshire Hathaway Inc.,” July 12, 2016, http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BRK/ A:US. 55 Julie Moos, “Media General to sell most of its newspapers to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway,” Poynter, May 17, 77 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS 2012, http://www.poynter.org/2012/media-general-to-sell-most-of-its-newspapers-to-warren-buffetts-group/174282/. 56 Anupreeta Das, “At Papers, Berkshire Rewrites Its Script,” Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2014, http://www.wsj. com/articles/SB10001424052702304361604579292721064856870. 57 Rem Rieder,“ Newspapers haven’t ‘cracked code,’ Buffett says,” USA Today, May 28, 2016, http://www. usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/rieder/2016/05/25/rieder-newspapers-havent-cracked-code-buffett- says/84902818/. 58 Howard Stutz, “Review-Journal, parent Stephens media to be sold to New Media,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 19, 2015, http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/economy/review-journal-parent-stephens-media-be-sold-new- media. 59 “Gannett Board Approves Completion of Spin-off Transaction,” Business Wire, June 08, 2015, http://www. businesswire.com/news/home/20150608005985/en/Gannett-Board-Approves-Completion-Spin-off-Transaction. 60 Ibid. 61 “Gannett acquires 11 media organizations from Digital First Media,” Gannett, June 01, 2015, http://www.gannett. com/news/press-releases/2015/6/1/gannett-acquires-11-media-organizations-digital-first-media/. 62 Lisa Beilfuss, “Gannett Buys Assets from North Jersey Media Group,” Wall Street Journal, July 06, 2016, http:// www.wsj.com/articles/gannett-buys-assets-from-north-jersey-media-group-1467836611. 63 Jonathan Lansner, “Digital First closes deal to buy The Orange County Register,” Orange County Register, March 31, 2016, http://www.ocregister.com/articles/digital-710434-first-register.html. 64 “Digital First Media to Sell the Salt Lake Tribune to Paul Huntsman,” Business Wire, April 20, 2016, http://www. businesswire.com/news/home/20160420005948/en/Digital-Media-Sell-Salt-Lake-Tribune-Paul. 65 Gerry Smith, “Newspapers Gobble Each Other Up to Survive Digital Apocalypse,” Bloomberg Technology, March 29, 2016, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-29/newspapers-gobble-each-other-up-to-survive-digital- apocalypse. 66 Andrea Chang, “Tribune Publishing completes purchase of U-T San Diego,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2015, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tribune-san-diego-20150522-story.html. 67 Matthew Ingram, “Tribune Rebuffs Gannett Again, Gets Sued, Changes Name to Tronc,” Fortune, June 2, 2016 http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/tribune-gannett-tronc/. 68 “Flurry of end of year sales caps off a very active market in 2015 for newspaper transactions,” Inland Press Association, December 29, 2015, http://www.inlandpress.org/industry/article_f036dc5e-ae4e-11e5-8764- 07f17e9e00d1.html. 69 Beau Yarbrough, “Judge halts sale of Register, Press-Enterprise to Tribune Publishing,” Los Angeles Daily News, March 18, 2016, http://www.dailynews.com/business/20160318/judge-halts-sale-of-register-press-enterprise-to-tribune- publishing. 70 Edmonds, “Print Advertising Slump.” 71 “Thirteenth Street Media Managers’ Guide,” Scribd, 2007, https://www.scribd.com/document/221322085/ Thirteenth-Street-Media-manager-s-guide. 72 James T. Hamilton, “Subsidizing the Watchdog: What would it Cost to Support Investigative Journalism at a Large Metropolitan Daily Newspaper?” Duke Conference on Nonprofit Media, May 4-5, 2009, http://www2.sanford.duke. edu/nonprofitmedia/documents/dwchamiltonfinal.pdf. 73 Rieder, “Rieder: Newspapers haven’t ‘cracked code.’ ” 74 Andrew Beaujon, “Warren Buffett expects his papers to deliver 10 percent returns,” Poynter, May 06, 2013, http://www.poynter.org/2013/buffett-expects-10-percent-return-from-newspapers/212599/. 75 Michael Bush, Gene Hall, Bruce Buchanan, Jeff Brown and Pat Talamantes, “Executive roundtable: Building value in changing times,” Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, December 31, 2012, http://www.dirksvanessen.com/articles/ view/190/executive-roundtable--building-value-in-changing-times/. 76 Ken Doctor, “Newsonomics: Digital First Media’s upcoming sale is producing some surprises,” Nieman Lab, January 15, 2015, http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/01/newsonomics-digital-first-medias-upcoming-sale-is-producing-some- surprises/. 77 James Warren, “Tribune Publishing Combines Editor and Publisher Jobs in Major Shakeup,” Poynter, March 2, 2016, http://www.poynter.org/2016/tribune-publishing-combines-editor-and-publisher-jobs-in-major- shakeup/399500/. 78 “Thirteenth Street Media Managers’ Guide,” Scribd, 2007, https://www.scribd.com/document/221322085/ Thirteenth-Street-Media-manager-s-guide. 79 Brad Badertscher, Dan Givoly, Sharon Katz and Hanna Lee, “Private Ownership and the Cost of Debt: Evidence from the Bond Market,” Columbia Business School, January 15, 2015, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_ THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 78 id=2550300. 80 Jon Chesto, “GateHouse Media’s growth bucks the trend,” Boston Globe, March 11, 2015, https://www. bostonglobe.com/business/2015/03/10/meet-newspaper-industry-biggest-deal-maker/vV6D7uqAo7ssLPaIPk58oL/ story.html. 81 Tanzina Vega, “Online Ambitions, and a Dash of Real Estate, Drive Newspaper Deals,” The New York Times, January 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/business/media/online-ambitions-fuel-newspaper-deals.html?_ r=0. 82 “Civitas Media CEO Announces He is Stepping down,” Business Wire, October 9, 2014, http://www.businesswire. com/news/home/20141009006229/en/Civitas-Media-CEO-Announces-Stepping. 83 “Our Core Values,” Center for News and Design, http://www.centerfornewsanddesign.com/about-us/. 84 Kristen Hare, “1 year after Project Thunderdome closed, most former staff have pretty great jobs. Here’s why,” Poynter, April 17, 2015, http://www.poynter.org/2015/1-year-after-project-thunderdome-closed-most-former- staff-have-pretty-great-jobs-heres-why/329805/. 85 Michael Barthel, “Newspapers: Fact Sheet,” Pew Research Center, June 15, 2016, http://www.journalism. org/2016/06/15/newspapers-fact-sheet/. 86 “The 50 State Project,” CQ Roll Call, July 28, 2015, http://info.cqrollcall.com/rs/764-XAC-282/images/50_State_ Project_2E_FNL2.pdf. 87 Eileen Norcross and Olivia Gonzalez. “Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition,” Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, March 2015, http://mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings. 88 Chesto, “GateHouse Media’s growth.” 89 ibid. 90 David Harris, “Gatehouse shakeup forces Boston-area newsroom closure, cuts,” Boston Business Journal, March 17, 2016, http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2016/03/17/gatehouse-shakeup-forces-boston-area-newsroom. html. 91 Dennis Berman, “Fortress Capital Will Buy Publisher Liberty Group,” Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2005, http:// www.wsj.com/articles/SB111577592873230054. 92 Robert Channick, “Tribune Publishing completes purchase of Sun-Times suburban properties,” Chicago Tribune, October 31, 2014, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-tribune-sun-times-papers-1101-biz-20141030-story. html. 93 Ibid. 94 “The 50 State Project.” 95 “GateHouse Completes $380 Million Purchase of Copley Midwest Papers,” Editor & Publisher, April 11, 2007, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/news/gatehouse-completes-380-million-purchase-of-copley-midwest- papers/. 96 “GateHouse Media officially done with bankruptcy,” Democrat & Chronicle, November 26, 2013, http://www. democratandchronicle.com/story/money/business/2013/11/26/gatehouse-media-officially-done-with- bankruptcy/3758479/. 97 Tom Knox, “Columbus Dispatch sale finalized; sold for $1 million more than Providence Journal,” Columbus Business First, June 15, 2015, http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/06/15/columbus-dispatch-sale- finalized-sold-for-1m-more.html. 98 “Brown becomes Ohio Community Media,” Dirks, Van Essen, & Murray, September 30, 2010, http://www. dirksvanessen.com/articles/view/99/brown-becomes-ohio-community-media/. 99 “The 50 State Project.” 100 “Media General Announces Agreements with Berkshire Hathaway for Purchase of Newspapers and New Financing,” Media General, May 17, 2012, http://www.mediageneral.com/press/2012/may17_12.html. 101 “Halifax Media Group, owner of StarNews, acquired by New Media,” Star News Online, November 20, 2014, http:// www.starnewsonline.com/news/20141120/halifax-media-group-owner-of-starnews-acquired-by-new-media. 102 “The Fayetteville Observer announces sale.” 103 Anupreeta Das, “A Potential Warren Buffett Successor Gets More Duties at Berkshire,” Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/gen-re-ceo-tad-montross-to-retire-by-year-end-1460475844. 104 “The 50 State Project.” 105 Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media,” Public Opinion Quarterly 36(2) (1972) 176–187. 106 Jones, Losing the News, 4. 107 Steven Waldman, “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age,” 79 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Federal Communications Commission, July 2011, https://transition.fcc.gov/osp/inc-report/The_Information_ Needs_of_Communities.pdf. 108 Barthel, “Newspapers: Fact Sheet.” 109 Waldman, “The Information Needs of Communities.” 110 Martin Kaplan and Matthew Hale, “Local TV News in the Los Angeles Media Market: Are Stations Serving the Public Interest?” The Norman Lear Center, University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, March 11, 2010, https://learcenter.org/pdf/LANews2010.pdf. 111 “2015 Broadband Progress Report,” Federal Communications Commission, February 04, 2015, https://www.fcc. gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2015-broadband-progress-report. 112 Amy Mitchell, Mark Jurkowitz, Jesse Holcomb, Jodi Enda and Monica Anderson, “Nonprofit journalism: A Growing but Fragile Part of the U.S. News System,” Pew Research Center, June 10, 2013, http://www.journalism. org/2013/06/10/nonprofit-journalism/. 113 David Demers, The Menace of the Corporate Newspaper: Fact or Fiction (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996), 46. 114 Ken Doctor, “The great devaluation of the American daily newspaper,” Politico, May 19, 2015, http://www. politico.com/media/story/2015/05/the-great-devaluation-of-the-american-daily-newspaper-003784. 115 Walter Lippmann, Liberty and the News (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), 46-7. 116 McCombs and Shaw, “The Agenda-Setting Function.” 117 For examples, see research from Borrell Associates, https://www.borrellassociates.com/about and Steve Gray, http://snpa.static2.adqic.com/static/2015Summit-Gray.pdf. 118 JoAnn Sciarrino, John Prudente, David Bockino, In-house Digital Agencies in Community Newspapers: An Adaptive Approach to a Changing Business Environment, Manuscript submitted for publication, 2016. 119 Steve Gray, “Thought experiments can put us ahead of the media disruption curve,” MediaReset, June 8, 2016, https://mediareset.com/2016/06/08/thought-experiments-can-put-us-ahead-of-the-media-disruption-curve/. 120 Mary Meeker, “Internet Trends 2016,” 2016, via KPCB Code Conference. http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends 121 Waldman, “The Information Needs of Communities. 122 Emily Le Coz, “Herald-Tribune wins Pulitzer Prize,” Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, Florida, April 18, 2016, http://www. heraldtribune.com/article/20160418/NEWS/160419628. 123 Susannah Nesmith, “State coverage gets a boost from local-focused media company,” Columbia Journalism Review, December 09, 2015, http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/state_coverage_gets_boost_from_local- focused_media_company.php. 124 Anna Clark, “How a new reporting collaborative is building a newsroom that crosses state lines,” Columbia Journalism Review, March 16, 2016, http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/ohio_river_network.php 125 “News Literacy,” McCormick Foundation, accessed August 29, 2016, http://mccormickfoundation.org/democracy/ news-literacy. 126 Danielle Ivory, Ben Protess and Kitty Bennett, “When you Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers,” NY Times, June 25, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/business/dealbook/when-you-dial-911-and-wall-street-answers.html. 127 Penelope Muse Abernathy, Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2014), 30, 82. 128 “The Fayetteville Observer announces sale.” THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 80 METHODOLOGY 81 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS This report analyzes data on more than 9,500 daily and weekly papers in the U.S. at three intervals between 2004 and 2016. It draws on statistics in the 2004 and 2014 Editor & Publisher Newspaper Data Book and 2016 E&P data accessed online, in addition to information shared by the consulting firm BIA/ Kelsey. Faculty and researchers in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism supplemented the information in these databases with extensive reporting and research. They conducted interviews with industry analysts and professionals, and analyzed U.S. Census data, as well as the financial records and press releases issued by newspaper owners. This report relied initially on analysis of proprietary media statistics compiled by BIA/Kelsey. This was cross-referenced with and supplemented by data from the E&P’s 2004 and 2014 Newspaper Data Book, as well as online data accessed June 30, 2016, and merged into the UNC database. This data was then cleaned and updated to reflect recent changes in status for the newspapers in the database. Both of the large databases we analyzed and used to build the UNC database have the type of reporting errors that are inherent in any survey. Both relied on the accurate feedback of respondents. BIA/Kelsey conducted a telephone survey of newspaper executives and managers while Editor & Publisher employed a digital and mail survey of senior executives at individual papers. When we spotted errors, we corrected them in our database and will continue to update our analysis as new information becomes available. If you detect an error, please fill out and submit the “corrections” form available on our website newspaperownership.com/. BUILDING THE DATABASE Industry representatives and analysts estimate there are 11,000 newspapers in the country. Because the focus of this report is on local news organizations that produce and publish journalism oriented toward a specific geographic region or community, or ethnic group, we excluded the following newspapers and publications from the UNC database and analysis of trends: • National newspapers: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. • Shoppers or similar free advertisement-based works that do not contain local reporting produced by journalists employed by the paper. • Topic-specific publications such as business journals and lifestyle magazines. • Newspapers published less than once a week. As a result of these adjustments, our numbers may differ from those listed on the websites of some companies or in other databases. In UNC’s 2004 database, there are 8,591 local newspapers — 6,114 from BIA/Kelsey and 2,477 additional ones from the E&P Newspaper Data Book or firsthand research and reporting. In UNC’s 2014 database, there are 7,927 newspapers — 6,849 from BIA Kelsey and 1,078 from E&P. In UNC’s 2016 database, updated to reflect E&P statistics accessed on June 30, 2016, there are 7,863 newspapers. Each newspaper entry in the three databases has the following variables: year, name, frequency (daily/weekly), number of days published per week, city, state, parent company and total circulation, as audited by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) or reported in other official databases. Each newspaper was then assigned a latitude and longitude, which was used to identify the county where each newspaper was physically located. To be able to identify whether newspapers were located in a rural or an urban area, each was assigned to a corresponding group from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) based on the county in which they were located. Additionally, poverty data from each county was merged into the dataset. The circulation statistics in our database are primarily print-based, an admittedly imperfect measure since they do not count the increasing number of people that access local news online. However, there is currently no widely used and easily accessible tracking system (similar to AAM) UNC DATABASE E&P BIA/KELSEY 2004 2014 2004 2014 2004 2014 Daily 1,469 1,332 1,456 1,395 1,375 1,321 Weekly 7,122 6,595 6,704 5,710 4,749 5,571 Total 8,591 7,927 8,160 7,105 6,124 6,892 THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 82 that reports online readership data for the wide range of newspapers in this study, especially the thousands of local papers in small and mid-sized markets. Therefore, print circulation is used as a proxy for measuring the decline in both reach and influence of traditional newspapers. More than a third of the newspapers in our proprietary database changed ownership during the past decade. Increasingly, many dailies are also purchasing small weeklies in adjacent communities. Whenever possible, we attempted to determine parent company for every newspaper — whether corporate or family-owned. MEDIA GROUPINGS Because of the size and complexity of our database, our in-depth analysis of trends focused on the 25 largest companies (in terms of papers owned) in 2004, 2014 and 2016. Between 2004 and 2014, there was extensive turnover in the list of the largest companies. UNC researchers tracked mergers and acquisitions in the newspaper industry from 2004 to 2016 and assessed corporate strategies by identifying and examining: • Public corporate documents, including quarterly and annual reports released by the individual companies and by Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, the leading merger and acquisition firm in the U.S. newspaper industry. • Numerous news articles about individual purchases and business decisions. • Statements made by executives that were in press releases, news articles or industry presentations. • Analytical reports and interviews with industry representatives and analysts. After extensive reporting and research, each of the largest 25 companies in 2004, 2014 and 2016 was categorized in one of three ways: • Private Companies: This group includes large companies, such as Hearst Corp., which owns a portfolio of media properties, including cable networks and digital enterprises. It also includes the smaller self-described “independent, family- owned companies,” such as Boone Newspapers, which owns 74 publications in small and mid- sized communities throughout the South. • Public Companies: These publicly traded entities arose in the latter part of the 20th century and, until recently, were among the largest, in terms of circulation. They include Gannett, Knight Ridder, Lee Enterprises and McClatchy. Most of these companies went public with the stated purpose of raising funds so they could buy other newspapers in attractive high-growth markets. • Investment Companies: This category has arisen in the past decade and has a different ownership philosophy and financial structure from the traditional newspaper owners. It includes privately held entities, such as Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., owned and operated by the Retirement Systems of Alabama, and publicly traded ones, such as New Media/Gatehouse. Companies were classified in this category if they met at least five of the eight characteristics: CHARACTERISTICS NewMedia/ GateHouse Digital First CNHI Civitas tronc/ Tribune BH Media 10/13 Communications The stated emphasis of the parent company is to maximize shareholder return on investment X X X X X X X Many properties were acquired as a group from other media companies through either purchase of entire companies or divisions. X X X X X X X Majority financial and/or operational control of the firm is held by a small number of institutional shareholders, such as lenders, private equity firms or investment fund managers. X X X X X X X The company was formed or incorporated within the past two decades and is a relative newcomer to newspaper ownership. X X X X X X The newspaper holdings are part of a portfolio of non-newspaper companies. X X X X X X There has been much movement of individual newspapers within portfolios. X X X X X There have been two or more financial restructurings, including bankruptcy reorganization, a rebranding after selling the company or flips between public and private ownership. X X X X A private equity company, a hedge fund or penion fund has at some point during the past decade owned all or a significant portion of the enterprise. X X X X X X HOW INVESTMENT COMPANIES DIFFER FROM TRADITIONAL NEWSPAPER CHAINS See http://newspaperownership.com/additional-material/ for details on the characteristics of each of the seven largest investment groups. 83 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS MAPPING The maps in the report provide insights into the rapid growth in the number of investment-owned newspapers and consolidation in the industry. It also suggests areas that may be at risk of losing their prime source of local news — most often the local newspapers — and thus becoming a news desert. UNC researchers used the data to map the locations of the newspapers as accurately as possible. Both the BIA/Kelsey and E&P 2014 databases incorrectly listed the parent company or city location for many newspapers, especially the smaller ones. UNC researchers attempted to review and correct errors, and then assign the newspaper to the city where it was actually located. There are no street addresses in the UNC database. About the BIA/Kelsey Database BIA/Kelsey, a research and advisory company focused on local advertising and marketing, began tracking newspaper ownership in the United States in 2004. The organization employs a telemarketing team that calls individual newspapers and collects information from employee respondents. The data on local newspapers provided to UNC by BIA/Kelsey included the following: frequency of publication (daily/weekly), number of days published, newspaper name, city and state where newspaper is located, local owner of newspapers, parent company of owner, circulation (daily), circulation (Sunday), circulation (free) and circulation (paid). About the Editor & Publisher Database Editor & Publisher began publishing an annual Newspaper Data Book in 1921. The Data Book has information on more than 25,000 companies and more than 160 data fields. Data is collected through mail and email surveys and supplemented by telephone research. Up-to-date data can be accessed online. UNC researchers used E&P to supplement and correct incomplete or inaccurate 2004 and 2014 data from BIA/Kelsey. Most recently, E&P’s 2016 data, accessed online June 30, 2016, was used to update the information on the individual newspapers in UNC’s database. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 84 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 85 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS Additional information and resources are available at http://newspaperownership.com/additional-material/, including the following: 1. Map locating daily newspapers that were closed or merged, or shifted to weekly publication. 2. List of closed and merged daily newspapers, 2004–2016. 3. List of newspaper owned by the largest 25 companies in 2004, 2014, 2016. 4. Year-by-year timeline of the acquisitions and divestures of the seven largest investment entities. 5. Financial and operational characteristics shared by the seven largest investment entities. 6. Sample of statements made by the executives of the seven largest investment entities. 7. Map locating where the largest 25 companies own newspapers. 8. Map locating where the largest seven investment entities own newspapers. 9. Number of newspapers owned by investment groups in each state. 10. Type of newspapers owned by the largest investment groups (daily and weeklies) and where they are located (rural or metro areas). 11. A list of papers owned by the largest investment groups in these states: Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Kentucky and West Virginia. THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS | 86 CONTRIBUTORS 87 | THE RISE OF A NEW MEDIA BARON AND THE EMERGING THREAT OF NEWS DESERTS The Rise of a New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts is produced by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. About the Author Penelope Muse Abernathy, formerly an executive with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, is Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics. She is the author of Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability (UNC Press: 2014). About the Center UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media supports existing and start-up news organizations through its dissemination of applied research and the development of digital tools and solutions. The Center supports the economic and business research of UNC’s Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics and the Knight Chair in Digital Advertising and Marketing. In addition, it supports professors and students associated with the Reese News Lab, which designs, tests and adapts digital tools for use in small and midsized newsrooms. The Center is funded by grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and UNC. Researchers • Patrick Sims, Senior Research Associate • Paula Seligson, Research Assistant, 2014–2016 • Cody Allen, Research Specialist Student Researchers include: Sara Greer (MA ’16), Tatiana Quiroga (MA ’17), Pressley Baird (MA ’16), Justin Blankenship (PhD ’16), Laura Marshall (PhD ’16), Elise Stevens (PhD ’16), Carolina Peterson (BA ’14), Jennifer Jordan (BA ’15), Andrew Wood (BA ’16) Other Significant Contributors • Craig Anderson, Project Director, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media • Ferrel Guillory, Professor of the Practice and Co-Founder, EducationNC • George W. Cloud, Associate Professor of Journalism (Ret.) • Pamela Evans, Project and Event Coordinator, Center for Innovation and Sustainability • Joseph Cabosky, Assistant Professor, Public Relations (PhD ’15) • Carol Wolf, Hussman Visiting Lecturer, Business Journalism • Jiang (John) Gao, Senior Research Associate (2014) • Allegra L. Jordan, Gold Gable Advisors • Bruce Kyse, Publisher, Calaveras Enterprise/ Sierra Lodestar UNC School of Media and Journalism www.mj.unc.edu Susan R. King, Dean UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media www.cislm.org, www.reesenewslab.org Professors: • Penelope Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics • JoAnn Sciarrino, Knight Chair in Digital Advertising and Marketing • Ryan Thornburg, Reese Felts Distinguished Professor and Director of the Master’s Program • Steven King, Assistant Professor and Interim Director of the Reese News Lab UNC Center for Media Law and Policy www.medialaw.unc.edu • Cathy Packer, W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor and Co-Director • David Ardia, Assistant Professor, UNC School of Law, Co-Director For more information on this project, including interactive maps, visit www.newspaperownership.com. To read more about the work of the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media visit www.cislm.org. Published by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press www.uncpress.org Cover photo: © iStockphoto.com/Borislav Bajkic 
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paulineroseclance-com-3213	----	_There are individuals who consistently demonstrate a high level of success, but who fail to incorporate their competency into their identity. In spite of very real achievements, these persons experience an inordinate fear of failure and perpetually enga Clance IP Scale For each question, please circle the number that best indicates how true the statement is of you. It is best to give the first response that enters your mind rather than dwelling on each statement and thinking about it over and over. 1. I have often succeeded on a test or task even though I was afraid that I would not do well before I undertook the task. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 2.    I  can  give  the  impression  that  I’m  more  competent  than  I  really  am. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 3. I avoid evaluations if possible and have a dread of others evaluating me. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 4.    When  people  praise  me  for  something  I’ve  accomplished,  I’m  afraid  I  won’t  be able to live up to their expectations of me in the future. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 5. I sometimes think I obtained my present position or gained my present success because I happened to be in the right place at the right time or knew the right people. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 6.    I’m  afraid  people  important  to  me  may  find  out  that  I’m  not  as  capable  as  they  think  I  am. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 7. I tend to remember the incidents in which I have not done my best more than those times I have done my best. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 8.    I  rarely  do  a  project  or  task  as  well  as  I’d  like  to  do  it. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 9. Sometimes I feel or believe that my success in my life or in my job has been the result of some kind of error. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 10.    It’s  hard  for  me  to  accept  compliments  or  praise  about  my  intelligence  or  accomplishments. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) Note. From The Impostor Phenomenon: When Success Makes You Feel Like A Fake (pp. 20-22), by P.R. Clance, 1985, Toronto: Bantam Books. Copyright 1985 by Pauline Rose Clance, Ph.D., ABPP. Reprinted by permission. Do not reproduce without permission from Pauline Rose Clance, drpaulinerose@comcast.net, www.paulineroseclance.com. mailto:drpaulinerose@comcast.net http://www.paulineroseclance.com/ 11. At times, I feel my success has been due to some kind of luck. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 12.    I’m  disappointed  at  times  in  my  present  accomplishments  and  think  I should have accomplished much more. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 13.    Sometimes  I’m  afraid  others  will  discover  how  much  knowledge  or  ability  I  really  lack. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 14.    I’m  often  afraid  that  I  may  fail  at  a  new  assignment  or  undertaking  even  though  I  generally  do  well  at  what  I   attempt. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 15.    When  I’ve  succeeded  at  something  and  received  recognition  for  my  accomplishments,  I  have  doubts  that I can keep repeating that success. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 16.    If  I  receive  a  great  deal  of  praise  and  recognition  for  something  I’ve  accomplished,  I  tend  to  discount  the  importance   of  what  I’ve  done. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 17. I often compare my ability to those around me and think they may be more intelligent than I am. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 18. I often worry about not succeeding with a project or examination, even though others around me have considerable confidence that I will do well. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 19.    If  I’m  going  to  receive  a  promotion  or  gain  recognition  of  some  kind,  I  hesitate  to  tell  others  until  it  is  an   accomplished fact. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) 20.    I  feel  bad  and  discouraged  if  I’m  not  “the  best”  or  at  least  “very  special”  in  situations  that  involve  achievement. 1 2 3 4 5 (not at all true) (rarely) (sometimes) (often) (very true) Note. From The Impostor Phenomenon: When Success Makes You Feel Like A Fake (pp. 20-22), by P.R. Clance, 1985, Toronto: Bantam Books. Copyright 1985 by Pauline Rose Clance, Ph.D., ABPP. Reprinted by permission. Do not reproduce without permission from Pauline Rose Clance, drpaulinerose@comcast.net, www.paulineroseclance.com. mailto:drpaulinerose@comcast.net http://www.paulineroseclance.com/ Scoring the Impostor Test The Impostor Test was developed to help individuals determine whether or not they have IP characteristics and, if so, to what extent they are suffering. After taking the Impostor Test, add together the numbers of the responses to each statement. If the total score is 40 or less, the respondent has few Impostor characteristics; if the score is between 41 and 60, the respondent has moderate IP experiences; a score between 61 and 80 means the respondent frequently has Impostor feelings; and a score higher than 80 means the respondent often has intense IP experiences. The higher the score, the more frequently and seriously the Impostor Phenomenon interferes  in  a  person’s  life. Note. From The Impostor Phenomenon: When Success Makes You Feel Like A Fake (pp. 20-22), by P.R. Clance, 1985, Toronto: Bantam Books. Copyright 1985 by Pauline Rose Clance, Ph.D., ABPP. Reprinted by permission. Do not reproduce without permission from Pauline Rose Clance, drpaulinerose@comcast.net, www.paulineroseclance.com. mailto:drpaulinerose@comcast.net http://www.paulineroseclance.com/ 
pete-walker-com-7548	----	Pete Walker, M.A. Psychotherapy Home COMPLEX PTSD ARTICLES Emotional Flashback Management Flashback Management Codependency/Fawn Response Shrinking the Inner Critic Shrinking the Outer Critic Abandonment Depression Emotional Neglect Grieving and Complex PTSD The FourF's: A Trauma Typology 13 Steps Flashbacks Management Bibliotherapy FAQs About Complex PTSD ARTICLES FOR THERAPISTS Using Vulnerable Self-Disclosure to Treat Arrested Relational-Development in CPTSD Therapist Heal Thyself Relational Healing BOOK EXCERPTS:  The Tao of Fully Feeling Recovering Emotional Nature Recovery and Self-Pity Forgiveness: Begin With Self Intentions for Recovery Human Bill of Rights Lovingly Resolving Conflict Homesteading in the Calm Eye of the Storm: Navigating CPTSD My Top 10 Practices BUY PETE'S BOOKS: Buy Now: [Paperback, e-book or audio book] The Tao Of Fully Feeling: Harvesting Forgiveness Out of Blame Buy Now: [Paperback, e-book or audio book] Complex PTSD: From Surviving To Thriving Buy Now: [Paperback or e-book] Homesteading in the Calm Eye of the Storm Finding a Therapist Co-Counseling Email Pete Pete Walker, M.A. 925-283-4575 2920 Domingo Ave, Suite 204 A Berkeley, CA 94705 - 2400 The 4Fs: A Trauma Typology in Complex PTSD By Pete Walker This paper describes a trauma typology for differentially diagnosing and treating Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This model elaborates four basic defensive structures that develop out of our instinctive Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn responses to severe abandonment and trauma (heretofore referred to as the 4Fs). Variances in the childhood abuse/neglect pattern, birth order, and genetic predispositions result in individuals "choosing" and specializing in narcissistic (fight), obsessive/compulsive (flight), dissociative (freeze) or codependent (fawn) defenses. Many of my clients have reported that psychoeducation in this model has been motivational, deshaming and pragmatically helpful in guiding their recovery. Individuals who experience "good enough parenting" in childhood arrive in adulthood with a healthy and flexible response repertoire to danger. In the face of real danger, they have appropriate access to all of their 4F choices. Easy access to the fight response insures good boundaries, healthy assertiveness and aggressive self-protectiveness if necessary. Untraumatized individuals also easily and appropriately access their flight instinct and disengage and retreat when confrontation would exacerbate their danger. They also freeze appropriately and give up and quit struggling when further activity or resistance is futile or counterproductive. And finally they also fawn in a liquid, "play-space" manner and are able to listen, help, and compromise as readily as they assert and express themselves and their needs, rights and points of view. Those who are repetitively traumatized in childhood however, often learn to survive by over-relying on the use of one or two of the 4F Reponses. Fixation in any one 4F response not only delimits the ability to access all the others, but also severely impairs the individual's ability to relax into an undefended state, circumscribing him in a very narrow, impoverished experience of life. Over time a habitual 4F defense also "serves" to distract the individual from the accumulating unbearable feelings of her current alienation and unresolved past trauma. Complex PTSD as an Attachment Disorder Polarization to a fight, flight, freeze or fawn response is not only the developing child's unconscious attempt to obviate danger, but also a strategy to purchase some illusion or modicum of attachment. All 4F types are commonly ambivalent about real intimacy because deep relating so easily triggers them into painful emotional flashbacks (see my article in The East Bay Therapist (Sept/Oct 05): "Flashback Management in the Treatment of Complex PTSD". Emotional Flashbacks are instant and sometimes prolonged regressions into the intense, overwhelming feeling states of childhood abuse and neglect: fear, shame, alienation, rage, grief and/or depression. Habituated 4F defenses offer protection against further re-abandonment hurts by precluding the type of vulnerable relating that is prone to re-invoke childhood feelings of being attacked, unseen, and unappreciated. Fight types avoid real intimacy by unconsciously alienating others with their angry and controlling demands for the unmet childhood need of unconditional love; flight types stay perpetually busy and industrious to avoid potentially triggering interactions; freeze types hide away in their rooms and reveries; and fawn types avoid emotional investment and potential disappointment by barely showing themselves - by hiding behind their helpful personas, over-listening, over-eliciting or overdoing for the other - by giving service but never risking real self-exposure and the possibility of deeper level rejection. Here then, are further descriptions of the 4F defenses with specific recommendations for treatment. All types additionally need and benefit greatly from the multidimensional treatment approach described in the article above, and in my East Bay Therapist article (Sept/Oct06): "Shrinking The Inner Critic in Complex PTSD", which describes thirteen toxic superegoic processes of perfectionism and endangerment that dominate the psyches of all 4F types in varying ways. The Fight Type and the Narcissistic Defense Fight types are unconsciously driven by the belief that power and control can create safety, assuage abandonment and secure love. Children who are spoiled and given insufficient limits (a uniquely painful type of abandonment) and children who are allowed to imitate the bullying of a narcissistic parent may develop a fixated fight response to being triggered. These types learn to respond to their feelings of abandonment with anger and subsequently use contempt, a toxic amalgam of narcissistic rage and disgust, to intimidate and shame others into mirroring them and into acting as extensions of themselves. The entitled fight type commonly uses others as an audience for his incessant monologizing, and may treat a "captured" freeze or fawn type as a slave or prisoner in a dominance-submission relationship. Especially devolved fight types may become sociopathic, ranging along a continuum that stretches between corrupt politician and vicious criminal. TX: Treatable fight types benefit from being psychoeducated about the prodigious price they pay for controlling others with intimidation. Less injured types are able to see how potential intimates become so afraid and/or resentful of them that they cannot manifest the warmth or real liking the fight type so desperately desires. I have helped a number of fight types understand the following downward spiral of power and alienation: excessive use of power triggers a fearful emotional withdrawal in the other, which makes the fight type feel even more abandoned and, in turn, more outraged and contemptuous, which then further distances the "intimate", which in turn increases their rage and disgust, which creates increasing distance and withholding of warmth, ad infinitem. Fight types need to learn to notice and renounce their habit of instantly morphing abandonment feelings into rage and disgust. As they become more conscious of their abandonment feelings, they can focus on and feel their abandonment fear and shame without transmuting it into rage or disgust - and without letting grandiose overcompensations turn it into demandingness. Unlike the other 4Fs, fight types assess themselves as perfect and project the inner critic's perfectionistic processes onto others, guaranteeing themselves an endless supply of justifications to rage. Fight types need to see how their condescending, moral-high-ground position alienates others and perpetuates their present time abandonment. Learning to take self-initiated timeouts at the first sign of triggering is an invaluable tool for them to acquire. Timeouts can be used to accurately redirect the lion's share of their hurt feelings into grieving and working through their original abandonment, rather than displacing it destructively onto current intimates. Furthermore, like all 4F fixations, fight types need to become more flexible and adaptable in using the other 4F responses to perceived danger, especially the polar opposite and complementary fawn response described below. They can learn the empathy response of the fawn position - imagining how it feels to be the other, and in the beginning "fake it until they make it." Without real consideration for the other, without reciprocity and dialogicality, the real intimacy they crave will remain unavailable to them. The Flight Type and the Obsessive-Compulsive Defense Flight types appear as if their starter button is stuck in the "on" position. They are obsessively and compulsively driven by the unconscious belief that perfection will make them safe and loveable. As children, flight types respond to their family trauma somewhere along a hyperactive continuum that stretches between the extremes of the driven "A" student and the ADHD dropout running amok. They relentlessly flee the inner pain of their abandonment and lack of attachment with the symbolic flight of constant busyness. When the obsessive/compulsive flight type is not doing, she is worrying and planning about doing. Flight types are prone to becoming addicted to their own adrenalization, and many recklessly and regularly pursue risky and dangerous activities to keep their adrenalin-high going. These types are also as susceptible to stimulating substance addictions, as they are to their favorite process addictions: workaholism and busyholism. Severely traumatized flight types may devolve into severe anxiety and panic disorders. TX: Many flight types are so busy trying to stay one step ahead of their pain that introspecting out loud in the therapy hour is the only time they find to take themselves seriously. While psychoeducation is important and essential to all the types, flight types particularly benefit from it. Nowhere is this truer than in the work of learning to deconstruct their overidentification with the perfectionistic demands of their inner critic. Gently and repetitively confronting denial and minimization about the costs of perfectionism is essential, especially with workaholics who often admit their addiction to work but secretly hold onto it as a badge of pride and superiority. Deeper work with flight types - as with all types -gradually opens them to grieving their original abandonment and all its concomitant losses. Egosyntonic crying is an unparalleled tool for shrinking the obsessive perseverations of the critic and for ameliorating the habit of compulsive rushing. As recovery progresses, flight types can acquire a "gearbox" that allows them to engage life at a variety of speeds, including neutral. Flight types also benefit from using mini-minute meditations to help them identify and deconstruct their habitual "running". I teach such clients to sit comfortably, systemically relax, breathe deeply and diaphragmatically, and ask themselves questions such as: "What is my most important priority right now?", or when more time is available: "What hurt am I running from right now? Can I open my heart to the idea and image of soothing myself in my pain?" Finally, there are numerous flight types who exhibit symptoms that may be misperceived as cyclothymic bipolar disorder; I address this issue at length in my article: "Managing Abandonment Depression in Complex PTSD". The Freeze Type and the Dissociative Defense Many freeze types unconsciously believe that people and danger are synonymous, and that safety lies in solitude. Outside of fantasy, many give up entirely on the possibility of love. The freeze response, also known as the camouflage response, often triggers the individual into hiding, isolating and eschewing human contact as much as possible. This type can be so frozen in retreat mode that it seems as if their starter button is stuck in the "off" position. It is usually the most profoundly abandoned child - "the lost child" - who is forced to "choose" and habituate to the freeze response (the most primitive of the 4Fs). Unable to successfully employ fight, flight or fawn responses, the freeze type's defenses develop around classical dissociation, which allows him to disconnect from experiencing his abandonment pain, and protects him from risky social interactions - any of which might trigger feelings of being reabandoned. Freeze types often present as ADD; they seek refuge and comfort in prolonged bouts of sleep, daydreaming, wishing and right brain-dominant activities like TV, computer and video games. They master the art of changing the internal channel whenever inner experience becomes uncomfortable. When they are especially traumatized or triggered, they may exhibit a schizoid-like detachment from ordinary reality. TX: There are at least three reasons why freeze types are the most difficult 4F defense to treat. First, their positive relational experiences are few if any, and they are therefore extremely reluctant to enter the relationship of therapy; moreover, those who manage to overcome this reluctance often spook easily and quickly terminate. Second, they are harder to psychoeducate about the trauma basis of their complaints because, like many fight types, they are unconscious of their fear and their torturous inner critic. Also, like the fight type, the freeze type tends to project the perfectionistic demands of the critic onto others rather than the self, and uses the imperfections of others as justification for isolation. The critic's processes of perfectionism and endangerment, extremely unconscious in freeze types, must be made conscious and deconstructed as described in detail in my aforementioned article on shrinking the inner critic. Third, even more than workaholic flight types, freeze types are in denial about the life narrowing consequences of their singular adaptation. Because the freeze response is on a continuum that ends with the collapse response (the extreme abandonment of consciousness seen in prey animals about to be killed), many appear to be able to self-medicate by releasing the internal opioids that the animal brain is programmed to release when danger is so great that death seems immanent. The opioid production of the collapse or extreme freeze response can only take the individual so far however, and these types are therefore prone to sedating substance addictions. Many self-medicating types are often drawn to marijuana and narcotics, while others may gravitate toward ever escalating regimes of anti-depressants and anxiolytics. Moreover, when they are especially unremediated and unattached, they can devolve into increasing depression and, in worst case scenarios, into the kind of mental illness described in the book, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. The Fawn Type and the Codependent Defense Fawn types seek safety by merging with the wishes, needs and demands of others. They act as if they unconsciously believe that the price of admission to any relationship is the forfeiture of all their needs, rights, preferences and boundaries. They often begin life like the precocious children described in Alice Miler's The Drama Of The Gifted Child, who learn that a modicum of safety and attachment can be gained by becoming the helpful and compliant servants of their parents. They are usually the children of at least one narcissistic parent who uses contempt to press them into service, scaring and shaming them out of developing a healthy sense of self: an egoic locus of self-protection, self-care and self-compassion. This dynamic is explored at length in my East Bay Therapist article (Jan/Feb2003): "Codependency, Trauma and The Fawn Response" (see www.pete-walker.com). TX. Fawn types typically respond well to being psychoeducated in this model. This is especially true when the therapist persists in helping them recognize and renounce the repetition compulsion that draws them to narcissistic types who exploit them. Therapy also naturally helps them to shrink their characteristic listening defense as they are guided to widen and deepen their self-expression. I have seen numerous inveterate codependents finally progress in their assertiveness and boundary-making work, when they finally got that even the thought of expressing a preference or need triggers an emotional flashback of such intensity that they completely dissociate from their knowledge of and ability to express what they want. Role-playing assertiveness in session and attending to the stultifying inner critic processes it triggers helps the codependent build a healthy ego. This is especially true when the therapist interprets, witnesses and validates how the individual as a child was forced to put to death so much of her individual self. Grieving these losses further potentiates the developing ego. Trauma Hybrids There are, of course, few pure types. Most trauma survivors are hybrids of the 4F's. There are for instance, three subsets of the fawn type: the fawn-fight (the smothering-mother type) who coercively or manipulatively takes care of others, who smother loves them into conforming with her view of who they should be; the fawn-flight type who workaholically makes herself useful to others (the "model" secretary) in the vein of her favorite role model Mother Theresa; and the fawn-freeze type who numbingly surrenders herself to scapegoating or to a narcissist's need to have a target for his rageaholic releases (the "classic" domestic violence victim).Space in this article only allows for the description of two other common hybrids: the Fight/Fawn and the Flight/Freeze. The Fight/Fawn, perhaps the most relational hybrid and most susceptible to love addiction, combines two opposite but magnetically attracting polarities of relational style - narcissism and codependence. This defense is sometimes misdiagnosed as borderline because the individual's flashbacks trigger a panicky sense of abandonment and a desperation for love that causes her to dramatically split back and forth between fighting and clawing for love and cunningly or flatteringly groveling for it. This type is different than the fawn/fight in that the narcissistic defense is typically more in ascendancy. The fight/fawn hybrid is also distinct from a more common condition where an individual acts like a fight type in one relationship while fawning in another (the archetypal henpecked husband who is a tyrant at work), and from the many "nice" mildly codependent people who have critical masses where they will eventually get fed up and blow up about injustice and exploitation. The borderline-like fight/fawn type however may dramatically vacillate back and forth between these two styles many times in a single interaction. The Flight/Freeze type is the least relational and most schizoid hybrid. This type avoids his feelings and potential relationship retraumatization with an obsessive-compulsive/ dissociative "two-step" that severely narrows his existence. The flight/freeze cul-de-sac is more common among men, especially those traumatized for being vulnerable in childhood, and those who subsequently learned to seek safety in isolation or "intimacy-lite" relationships. Many non-alpha type males gravitate to the combination of flight and freeze defensiveness stereotypical of the information technology nerd - the computer addict who workaholically focuses for long periods of time and then drifts off dissociatively into computer games. Many sex addicts also combine flight and freeze in a compulsive pursuit of a sexual pseudo-intimacy. When in flight mode, they obsessively scheme to "get" sex and/or compulsively pursue and/or engage in it; when in freeze mode, they drift off into a right brain sexual fantasy world that is often fueled by an addictive use of pornography; and even during real time sexual interaction, they often engage more with their idealized fantasy partners than with their actual partner. Self-Assessment. Readers may find it informative to self-assess their own hierarchical use of the 4F responses. They can try to determine their dominant type and hybrid, and think about what percentage of their time is spent in each type of 4F activity. Finally, all 4Fs progressively recover from the multidimensional wounding of complex ptsd as mindfulness of learned trauma dynamics increases, as the critic shrinks, as dissociation decreases, as childhood losses are effectively grieved, as the healthy ego matures into a user-friendly manager of the psyche, as the life narrative becomes more egosyntonic, as emotional vulnerability creates authentic experiences of intimacy, and as "good enough" safe attachments are attained. Furthermore, it is also important to emphasize that recovery is not an all-or-none phenomenon, but rather a gradual one marked by decreasing frequency, intensity and duration of flashbacks. 
publiclibrariesonline-org-324	----	ESL Programs Position Libraries as Welcoming Places » Public Libraries Online ☰ Menu Home News & Opinion Books & More Interviews Indie and Self-Published E-book Reviews PLOnline E-Newsletter Archive Magazine March/April 2018 January/February 2018 November/December 2017 September/October 2017 July/August 2017 May/June 2017 March/April 2017 January/February 2017 November/December 2016 September/October 2016 July/August 2016 May/June 2016 March/April 2016 January/February 2016 November/December 2015 September/October 2015 July/August 2015 May/June 2015 March/April 2015 January/February 2015 November/December 2014 September/October 2014 July/August 2014 May/June 2014 March/April 2014 January/February 2014 Media Podcast Video About The Store A Publication of the Public Library Association Public Libraries Online News & Opinion ESL Programs Position Libraries as Welcoming Places by Marvin McCrary on June 16, 2017 Ashok Kumar Aryal is an immigrant from Nepal who is currently waiting to become an American citizen. “My wife is already a citizen,” he said, when we sat down for a brief chat in one of the study rooms at the local library branch. “But for me, the process is taking much longer.” Ashok has been in the United States for 5 years. Prior to taking the citizenship test, Ashok attended classes at the library. When asked why he chose the library as opposed to night classes through an adult education program, Ashok’s reasoning was clear. “I know that there are other programs that are available, but I have always seen the library as a welcoming place for the community.” The communities libraries serve are becoming more diverse. In seeking to move beyond the tired label of being “just about books,” libraries must engage with these communities through outreach and engagement. One way is the implementation of an English as a Second Language (ESL) or civic program which would help immigrant communities better adjust and assimilate to life in the United States. But in today’s volatile political climate with tenuous funding for public programs and social services, the question remains as to how cost-effective would such efforts be to libraries in the long term? As a former teacher who has taught both elementary and adult education, Melanie Brown offered her perspective from her experience in working as a volunteer with the San Jose Public Library, the largest public library system between San Francisco and Los Angeles. “I think any ESL program would be really beneficial,” said Brown, who has been with the library for more than year. “Programs like that provide for greater sociability, and foster a sense of community amongst people from different backgrounds.” Conversational classes are a helpful way for English Language Learners (ELLs) to gain skills in the everyday usage of English. Libraries with tighter budgets may want to look into conversational classes as an alternative to the classroom-based model, as it can be facilitated by dedicated volunteers. However Brown said there is a downside to this model of instruction—such as students are not given a structured environment in which they may gain progress. “I find that while it is more relaxed, and people do not feel so nervous when they come for the first time, not having the same people each day and not knowing where the group is as a whole, makes it difficult.” Our global community is becoming smaller, and libraries can potentially play a key role by further embracing their roles as community hubs, and centers of education and free information access. Tags: community engagement, community outreach, English classes, ESL, service to immigrants Leave a comment Name required Email required Website Click here to cancel reply. Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Join our mailing list Review ALA’s personal data notification (PDN) before proceeding. 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rave-ohiolink-edu-5967	----	OhioLINK ETD: Barger, Becky Marie OhioLINK Electronic Theses & Dissertations Center Home Frequently Asked QuestionsSubmit your Thesis or DissertationStart a New Search Search ETDs: Keyword Search Search Advanced Search School Logo TitleFaculty Experiences and Satisfaction with Academic Freedom Author InfoBarger, Becky Marie Social Media View Available File(s) Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1279123430 Year and Degree 2010, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Higher Education. Abstract An original questionnaire concerning academic freedom policies and practices was created and mailed to 1,264 faculty members from 316 private baccalaureate colleges and universities. There is a lack of empirical research on faculty satisfaction with academic freedom policies and practices. The variables under investigation included faculty members’ demographics, work attributes, experiences with academic freedom, and institutional characteristics, as well as policies and practices with regard to academic freedom. A total of 331 faculty members completed and submitted the questionnaire. Out of the 56 variables studied, a total of 17 variables emerged as significant predictors of faculty satisfaction with academic freedom. Committee Ronald Opp, Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Penny Poplin-Gosetti, Ph.D. (Committee Member) David Meabon, Ph.D. (Committee Member) Bin Ning, Ph.D. (Committee Member) Pages 167 p. Subject Headings Educational Evaluation; Higher Education Keywords Academic freedom; faculty satisfaction Recommended CitationsRefworks RIS Mendeley APA Citation Barger, B. (2010). Faculty Experiences and Satisfaction with Academic Freedom. (Electronic Thesis or Dissertation). Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ MLA Citation Barger, Becky. "Faculty Experiences and Satisfaction with Academic Freedom." Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. University of Toledo, 2010. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. 28 Nov 2020. Chicago Citation Barger, Becky "Faculty Experiences and Satisfaction with Academic Freedom." Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. University of Toledo, 2010. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ Files toledo1279123430.pdf (1.57 MB) View|Download Document number: toledo1279123430 Download Count: 1,170 Copyright Info© 2010, all rights reserved. This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.   Ohio Department of Higher Education 25 South Front Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 State Government Links Mike DeWine, Governor Ohio.gov Privacy Notice Education Links OH-TECH OSC eStudent Services OhioLINK OARnet OACC IUC OTTA ODE If you have a disability and experience difficulty accessing this content, please contact the OH-TECH Digital Accessibility Team at accessibility@oh-tech.org. release 2.4.3 
res-cloudinary-com-4550	----	https://fairygodboss.com/ https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362#t=articleResults https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss https://fairygodboss.com/company-reviews https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss https://fairygodboss.com/articles https://fairygodboss.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fairygodboss/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/6407278/ https://twitter.com/fairygodboss The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_CoverPage The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_Contents The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_intro (1) The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_P3 The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_P4 The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_P5 The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_P6 The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_P7 The Grim Reality of Being a Female Job Seeker_WP_P8 
s4-goeshow-com-2525	----	When your internal narrative makes it hard to lead: Addressing Impostor Phenomenon of library leadership Friday, April 12, 2019 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM Room: Room 26B What do you do when you know you can lead, but your internal narrative tells you otherwise? This is not a unique occurrence among emerging leaders in academia, in fact it has a name, Impostor Phenomenon (IP). IP has been identified in leadership of higher education although rarely address in academic libraries. This paper will focus on sharing survey results of current library leaders and how they identify and change their internal narrative to become confident and competent leaders. Session Format Contributed Paper Primary Tag Administration/Management/Leadership Learning outcomes Objective 1: Identify Impostor Phenomenon and how it impacts emerging leaders Objective 2: Get useful tips on change your internal narrative, or flip the script, by focusing on strengths Objective 3: Adopt a positive leader outlook and leadership style Type of audience People brand new to the topic. People with some experience in the topic, but looking to grow. Speakers: Elizabeth Martin Mies Martin 
scholarcommons-sc-edu-1057	----	"Starting off on the Right Foot" by James Williams III Home Search Browse Collections My Account About Digital Commons Network™ Skip to main content My Account FAQ About Home South Carolina Libraries     Home > SCL Journal > Vol. 1 > Iss. 2 (2015)   Article Title Starting off on the Right Foot: A Library New Student Employee Orientation Authors James Williams III, College of CharlestonFollow Disciplines Business | Leadership Studies | Library and Information Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences Document Type Peer-Reviewed Article Abstract This article is for administrators, department heads, supervisors and anyone who employs students to assist with the day to day operation of their organization and want to maximize the experience and benefit for both the student and the organization. As service is the heart of the librarianship, it is critical that anyone working in the library start with a good foundation of training, tools and expectations in order to provide high quality service regardless of what area they are employed in. This is particularly important for student employees hired by the library many of which have never held a job let alone worked in a library. A good student employee orientation provides that foundation and leads to the development of good work ethics, a more positive work experience, collegiality and a habit of incorporating learning experiences as part of the job. Recommended Citation Williams, James III (2015) "Starting off on the Right Foot: A Library New Student Employee Orientation," South Carolina Libraries: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/scl_journal/vol1/iss2/7 Download DOWNLOADS Since June 15, 2015 Included in Business Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Library and Information Science Commons Share COinS       Journal Home About This Journal Aims & Scope Editorial Board Policies SCL Special Issues Archive Submit Article Most Popular Papers Receive Email Notices or RSS Select an issue: All Issues Vol. 4, Iss. 2 Vol. 4, Iss. 1 Vol. 3, Iss. 2 Vol. 3, Iss. 1 Vol. 2, Iss. 2 Vol. 2, Iss. 1 Vol. 1, Iss. 2 Vol. 1, Iss. 1 Vol. 0, Iss. 150 Vol. 0, Iss. 149 Vol. 0, Iss. 148 Vol. 0, Iss. 147 Vol. 0, Iss. 146 Vol. 0, Iss. 145 Vol. 0, Iss. 143 Vol. 0, Iss. 142 Vol. 0, Iss. 141 Vol. 0, Iss. 140 Vol. 0, Iss. 139 Vol. 0, Iss. 138 Vol. 0, Iss. 137 Vol. 0, Iss. 136 Vol. 0, Iss. 135 Vol. 0, Iss. 134 Vol. 0, Iss. 133 Vol. 0, Iss. 132 Vol. 0, Iss. 131 Vol. 0, Iss. 130 Vol. 0, Iss. 129 Vol. 0, Iss. 128 Vol. 0, Iss. 127 Vol. 0, Iss. 126 Vol. 0, Iss. 125 Vol. 0, Iss. 124 Vol. 0, Iss. 123 Vol. 0, Iss. 122 Vol. 0, Iss. 121 Vol. 0, Iss. 120 Vol. 0, Iss. 119 Vol. 0, Iss. 118 Vol. 0, Iss. 117 Vol. 0, Iss. 116 Vol. 0, Iss. 115 Vol. 0, Iss. 114 Vol. 0, Iss. 113 Vol. 0, Iss. 112 Vol. 0, Iss. 111 Vol. 0, Iss. 110 Vol. 0, Iss. 109 Vol. 0, Iss. 108 Vol. 0, Iss. 107 Vol. 0, Iss. 106 Vol. 0, Iss. 105 Vol. 0, Iss. 104 Vol. 0, Iss. 103 Vol. 0, Iss. 102 Vol. 0, Iss. 101 Vol. 0, Iss. 100 Vol. 0, Iss. 99 Vol. 0, Iss. 98 Vol. 0, Iss. 97 Vol. 0, Iss. 96 Vol. 0, Iss. 95 Vol. 0, Iss. 94 Vol. 0, Iss. 93 Vol. 0, Iss. 92 Vol. 0, Iss. 91 Vol. 0, Iss. 90 Vol. 0, Iss. 89 Vol. 0, Iss. 88 Vol. 0, Iss. 87 Vol. 0, Iss. 86 Vol. 0, Iss. 85 Vol. 0, Iss. 84 Vol. 0, Iss. 83 Vol. 0, Iss. 82 Vol. 0, Iss. 81 Vol. 0, Iss. 80 Vol. 0, Iss. 79 Vol. 0, Iss. 78 Vol. 0, Iss. 77 Vol. 0, Iss. 76 Vol. 0, Iss. 75 Vol. 0, Iss. 74 Vol. 0, Iss. 73 Vol. 0, Iss. 72 Vol. 0, Iss. 71 Vol. 0, Iss. 70 Vol. 0, Iss. 69 Vol. 0, Iss. 68 Vol. 0, Iss. 67 Vol. 0, Iss. 66 Vol. 0, Iss. 65 Vol. 0, Iss. 64 Vol. 0, Iss. 63 Vol. 0, Iss. 62 Vol. 0, Iss. 61 Vol. 0, Iss. 60 Vol. 0, Iss. 59 Vol. 0, Iss. 58 Vol. 0, Iss. 57 Vol. 0, Iss. 56 Vol. 0, Iss. 55 Vol. 0, Iss. 54 Vol. 0, Iss. 53 Vol. 0, Iss. 52 Vol. 0, Iss. 51 Vol. 0, Iss. 50 Vol. 0, Iss. 49 Vol. 0, Iss. 48 Vol. 0, Iss. 47 Vol. 0, Iss. 46 Vol. 0, Iss. 45 Vol. 0, Iss. 44 Vol. 0, Iss. 43 Vol. 0, Iss. 42 Vol. 0, Iss. 41 Vol. 0, Iss. 40 Vol. 0, Iss. 39 Vol. 0, Iss. 38 Vol. 0, Iss. 37 Vol. 0, Iss. 36 Vol. 0, Iss. 35 Vol. 0, Iss. 34 Vol. 0, Iss. 33 Vol. 0, Iss. 32 Vol. 0, Iss. 31 Vol. 0, Iss. 30 Vol. 0, Iss. 29 Vol. 0, Iss. 28 Vol. 0, Iss. 27 Vol. 0, Iss. 26 Vol. 0, Iss. 25 Vol. 0, Iss. 24 Vol. 0, Iss. 23 Vol. 0, Iss. 22 Vol. 0, Iss. 21 Vol. 0, Iss. 20 Vol. 0, Iss. 19 Vol. 0, Iss. 18 Vol. 0, Iss. 17 Vol. 0, Iss. 15 Vol. 0, Iss. 14 Vol. 0, Iss. 13 Vol. 0, Iss. 12 Vol. 0, Iss. 11 Vol. 0, Iss. 10 Vol. 0, Iss. 9 Vol. 0, Iss. 8 Vol. 0, Iss. 7 Vol. 0, Iss. 6 Vol. 0, Iss. 5 Vol. 0, Iss. 4 Vol. 0, Iss. 3 Vol. 0, Iss. 2 Vol. 0, Iss. 1   Search Enter search terms: Select context to search: in this journal in this repository across all repositories Advanced Search ISSN: 2379-3570     Digital Commons Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement Privacy Copyright 
scholarcommons-sc-edu-93	----	"Causes Of Satisfaction And Disatisfaction For Diversity Resident Libra" by Jason Kelly Alston Home Search Browse Collections My Account About Digital Commons Network™ Skip to main content Home About FAQ My Account < Previous Next >   Home > Theses and Dissertations > 4080 Theses and Dissertations Title Causes Of Satisfaction And Disatisfaction For Diversity Resident Librarians – A Mixed Methods Study Using Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory Author Jason Kelly Alston, University of South Carolina Date of Award 2017 Document Type Open Access Dissertation Department School of Library and information Science Sub-Department College of Information and Communications First Advisor Paul Solomon Abstract Diversity residency librarian programs are post-MLIS programs aimed at providing recently graduated professionals with real work experience, with the expressed goal of recruiting and retaining a more-diverse workforce in professional librarianship. This mixed-method study is one of the first empirical studies examining diversity residencies, which – at the time of this writing – have existed for more than 30 years. The study identifies concerns raised in the mostly anecdotal literature about diversity residencies, and 102 individuals identified as current or former diversity resident librarians participated in the quantitative portion of the study. In the quantitative portion of this study, there were four factors derived from the literature that correlated positively and significantly with the residents’ overall views of their residency experiences. Those four factors were: 1. Quality of effort as perceived by the resident that administration and/or residency coordinators dedicated to garnering support for the residency from library faculty and staff. 2. Perceived quality of assessment practices of the residency program. 3. Level of professionalism of job duties expected of the diversity resident. 4. Perceived effectiveness of the residency in preparing the diversity resident for his or her next professional appointment. In the qualitative portion of this study, 11 current or former diversity residents were interviewed and six emergent themes arose wherein diversity residents encountered satisfaction or dissatisfaction when certain elements were present in the residency experience. The six emergent themes were: 1. Knowledge of who the residents are, what the residency is, and why it was established combats institutional hostilities and confusion, reducing resident dissatisfaction. 2. Diversity residents can avoid dissatisfaction with appropriate guidance and support from coordinators, supervisors, and administrators. 3. Opportunities to perform meaningful, challenging, and innovative work can generate satisfaction in diversity residents. 4. Job dissatisfaction occurs with lack of assessment, unpreparedness, and failure to communicate residency intent to residents. 5. Satisfaction emerges when a resident achieves growth and “advancement” during the term that appears to improve future job outlook. 6. Effective mentorship practices can remove job dissatisfaction during the residency appointment. Recommended Citation Alston, J. K.(2017). Causes Of Satisfaction And Disatisfaction For Diversity Resident Librarians – A Mixed Methods Study Using Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4080 Download DOWNLOADS Since September 06, 2017 Included in Library and Information Science Commons Share COinS       Search Enter search terms: Select context to search: in this series in this repository across all repositories Advanced Search Notify me via email or RSS Browse Collections Disciplines Authors Faculty Expert Gallery Submissions Author FAQ Links University Libraries Access, Use and Removal Policy   Digital Commons Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement Privacy Copyright 
slate-com-7517	----	Is impostor syndrome real, and does it affect women more than men? Skip to the content Climate Change Michael Flynn Clifford Canon Phoebe Bridgers Diego Maradona Digestifs Executions Subscribe Sign In Account Profile Slate Plus Sign out News & Politics Culture Technology Business Human Interest Podcasts Menu Climate Change Michael Flynn Clifford Canon Phoebe Bridgers Diego Maradona Digestifs Executions News & Politics Culture Technology Business Human Interest Podcasts Search Follow us Subscribe Sign in Profile Slate Plus Sign out Profile Subscribe Talks You Into Following It Down the Rabbit Hole Follow Us The Ladder Feeling Like an Impostor Is Not a Syndrome It’s a totally normal part of experiencing success. By L.V. Anderson April 12, 20166:25 PM Tweet Share Comment So many imposters. BartekSzewczyk/Thinkstock In the 1970s, psychology professor Pauline Rose Clance noticed that many of the accomplished female students who sought counseling at Oberlin College, where she worked part time, had a curious mental habit. Despite strong track records, these women felt that they didn’t deserve their success. They attributed their achievements to luck and felt sure that they would be “found out” and kicked out of school. “I saw these people who had gone to the best schools, often private schools, had highly educated parents and excellent standardized test scores, grades, and letters of recommendation,” Clance later recalled. “But here they were, saying things like, ‘I’m afraid I’m going to flunk this exam.’ ‘Somehow the admissions committee made an error.’ … ‘I’m an Oberlin mistake.’ ” These feelings were familiar to Clance herself, who had had similar thoughts during grad school. So she and her colleague Suzanne Imes began interviewing these women and eventually wrote up their findings in a paper called “The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women.” They theorized that women were uniquely predisposed to the impostor phenomenon, “since success for women is contraindicated by societal expectations and their own internalized self-evaluations.” Clance later devised a scale to help identify people with impostorism, which asked participants how much they agreed with statements such as “It’s hard for me to accept compliments or praise about my intelligence or accomplishments,” “At times, I feel my success has been due to some kind of luck,” and “I often compare my ability to those around me and think they may be more intelligent than I am.” You’ve probably heard of impostor phenomenon—or, as it’s more commonly called, impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome has been rediscovered and named “the workplace anxiety du jour” for women. In the internet age, it’s launched 1,000 trend pieces and personal essays. And it has been embraced by feminists who see it as a partial explanation for women’s failure to achieve workplace parity with men. Perhaps because it’s commonly called a “syndrome,” impostorism is often referred to as something you “have” or “suffer from,” as though it’s a diagnosable and treatable condition like schizophrenia or a cold. (See, for instance, an Entrepreneur essay called “Easily Diagnose and Treat Impostor Syndrome.”) In truth, impostor syndrome doesn’t fit the clinical criteria for a psychological syndrome, which is defined as a cluster of symptoms that causes intense distress or interferes with a person’s ability to function. “I’m not sure when it began to be called a syndrome, but I do think that somehow that’s just easier for people to think about than phenomenon,” Clance told me. “They’re not quite sure what phenomenon means.” For the recent book Presence, Clance told Harvard social psychologist Amy Cuddy, “If I could do it all over again, I would call it the impostor experience, because it’s not a syndrome or a complex or a mental illness, it’s something almost everyone experiences.” And the popular understanding of impostor syndrome as a form of internalized sexism is a few decades behind the research. Clance and Imes originally theorized that impostorism was a gendered phenomenon, but subsequent studies found no difference in self-reported impostor feelings among male and female college students, professors, and professionals. In 1993, Clance conceded that her original theory of impostor syndrome as a uniquely female problem had been incorrect, since “males in these populations are just as likely as females to have low expectations of success and to make attributions to non-ability related factors.” Additional studies have belied the notion that impostor syndrome is a rare or debilitating condition, because, as Clance told Cuddy, it turns out almost everyone has it. “Researchers have found impostorism in dozens of demographic groups,” writes Cuddy in Presence: … including but not limited to teachers, accountants, physicians, physician assistants, nurses, engineering students, dental students, medical students, nursing students, pharmacy students, undergraduate entrepreneurs, high school students, people new to the Internet, African Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Canadians, disturbed adolescents, “normal” adolescents, preadolescents, adult children of high achieves, people with eating disorders, people without eating disorders, people who have recently experienced failure, people who have recently experienced success … and so on. That “and so on” includes case studies from virtually every field and every background. Under “People who have reportedly experienced the syndrome,” Wikipedia lists Neil Gaiman, Sheryl Sandberg, Sonia Sotomayor, Emma Watson, and Albert Einstein. It’s possible some of those high achievers were just being self-deprecating—when an interviewer asks if you’ve ever felt like a fraud, it might come across as cocky to say, “Nope, I’ve always felt I totally deserved my success.” But some of them seem to have had it pretty bad. Gaiman, for instance, says he used to have elaborate fantasies of someone knocking on his door to make him stop writing and get a real job, and Jodie Foster similarly thought she’d be forced to give back her Oscar. Sometimes it seems that everyone who’s accomplished anything has felt like he or she didn’t deserve it. So why do we still talk about impostor syndrome as a women’s issue? Cuddy suggests that men are less likely to talk about feelings of impostorism than women are because of “stereotype backlash,” or social punishment for failing to conform to stereotypes (in this case, the stereotype that men are assertive and confident). Clance agrees. “I think women are more likely to say some of their doubts and fears, and there’s more cultural pressure on men not to do so,” she said. Impostorism also seems more political and potentially consequential when women experience it. We know that women don’t reach the upper echelons of management in the same numbers as men, but we don’t always agree on why—and women’s insecurity is an appealingly simple explanation that takes the blame off employers. The author of a 2011 book called The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer From the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It acknowledged in an interview that men and women experience impostor syndrome in equal numbers but said she decided to aim her book at women because “80 percent of my speaking engagements come at the request of women for their female employees or students. More importantly, I aimed the book at women … because chronic self-doubt tends to hold them back more.” Whether women are more held back by chronic self-doubt than by discrimination and systemic obstacles is open to debate. Impostor phenomenon may be much more common than the psychologists who coined the term originally thought, but that doesn’t make it meaningless. The scale Clance developed to identify impostorism has been shown to distinguish feelings of being an impostor from other issues like depression, anxiety, and self-esteem, which makes it useful for identifying feelings of fraudulence that have gotten out of hand. And Clance and Imes have done the world a service by identifying and describing impostorism: Simply learning that impostor syndrome is a thing, and that lots of people experience it, can be helpful in lessening impostorism’s intensity (for most people). “Many people can live with it, and it changes as they get experience in a job,” says Clance. “Often knowing that a lot of other people experience it is helpful.” The actress Maisie Williams recently garnered headlines for saying, “We should stop calling feminists ‘feminists’ and just start calling people who aren’t feminist ‘sexist.’ ” Similarly, maybe we should stop calling people who experience impostor syndrome “people who experience impostor syndrome” and start calling people who don’t experience impostor syndrome “overconfident weirdos.” The truth is everyone who’s successful owes some of their success to luck. Most people have a hard time accepting compliments. And there’s an even chance that most of the people around you really are more intelligent than you are—and a better than even chance that they know more than you do about certain topics. Of course you should seek help if feelings of fraudulence are interfering with your life, or accompany symptoms of depression or anxiety, but moderate impostorism might just be a sign that you’re a normal, mildly insecure, conscientious person. Clance thinks there may even be advantages to experiencing the impostor phenomenon. “Most high-IP people that I have worked with are liked and respected and they’re competent,” she said. “The humility that IP people have can be appealing.” Plus, wouldn’t you rather underestimate your abilities than the other way around? Need career advice? Got a problem at work? Email theladder@slate.com. Tweet Share Comment Subscribe to Continue Reading You’ve run out of free articles. Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. You can cancel anytime. Start Free Trial Now Already a member? Sign in here. You’re almost out of free articles. Subscribe to get unlimited access. Start Free Trial Now Already a member? Sign in here. Reprints Advertise: Site / Podcasts Commenting Podcast FAQs Contact / Feedback Pitch guidelines Corrections About us Work with us Send us tips User agreement Privacy policy AdChoices Slate Shop Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell My Personal Information Follow Us Facebook Twitter Instagram RSS Feed Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. All contents © 2020 The Slate Group LLC. All rights reserved. We Need to Talk About Your Ad Blocker Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. If you value our work, please disable your ad blocker. Enable Ads on Slate Want to Block Ads But Still Support Slate? 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summit-sfu-ca-9135	----	Do Languages Represent?: A Pilot Study on Linguistic Diversity and Library Staff | Summit Simon Fraser University SFU.ca Burnaby | Surrey | Vancouver | SFU Search SFU Online | A-Z Links About Summit What is Summit? Submitting your material Author pages Contact SFU Library Users Log in (SFU users) Log in (non-SFU users) Searching tips Do Languages Represent?: A Pilot Study on Linguistic Diversity and Library Staff Library Staff Papers and Publications Author:  Henninger, Ean Peer reviewed:  Yes, item is peer reviewed. Scholarly level:  Faculty/Staff Final version published as:  Henninger, E. (2018). Do languages represent?: A pilot study on linguistic diversity and library staff. PNLA Quarterly 82(3/4), 73-92. Retrieved from https://arc.lib.montana.edu/ojs/index.php/pnla/article/view/1342 Date created:  2018-11-19 Keywords:  Multilingualism Linguistic diversity Library employees Public libraries Abstract:  This paper aims to add to conversations on access, diversity, and representation in libraries by addressing the importance of language as a factor in library service and providing some of the first data on library workers’ language skills. Much of the literature on language in libraries focuses on issues of multilingual access and collection development, and there is less emphasis on the roles of staff and language skills in providing and mediating access. As well, while US librarians are less diverse than US library workers and the wider population in terms of gender and race, it has not been shown whether the same holds true in terms of language. A pilot study of staff from three US public libraries sought to address these gaps in knowledge about staff language skills and representation and to generate further lines of inquiry. Responses were compared with US Census data to determine linguistic representation relative to the service population. The results indicated that while staff surveyed were more likely than the wider population to know another language besides English, they were not likely to use that language on the job, and those who did use a language besides English often reported low fluency. Responses also showed differences in language knowledge and use between staff with and without MLIS degrees. The results highlight the differences between language knowledge, fluency, and usage, offer implications for library service and professional values, and suggest many future directions for research. Language:  English Document type:  Article File(s):  Full text Statistics:  Display Statistics Login to post comments Search our collections Search this site: This work is licensed under a Attribution Non-commercial Creative Commons license Browse our collections (Re)Claiming the New Westminster Waterfront ABC Copyright Conference 2018 About the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) Project ACTION for Health Action for Health Cross Thematic Materials more Recent items Mathematics professors' views on written and oral assessment in mathematics Encoded knowledge in oral traditions: Skwxwú7mesh transformer sites and their relationship with landscape perception and use Prejudice, discrimination, and immunology paradigm: A critical discourse analysis of the New York Times' reports on the respective responses to COVID-19 by China and Italy Zones of violence: Serb women inside the siege of Sarajevo Colouring complexes of planar triangulations and the line graphs of cubic graphs more 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 | Terms / Privacy | Contact SFU | SiteMap | Road Conditions | © Simon Fraser University 
tandem-ubc-ca-9818	----	About Search The University of British Columbia UBC - A Place of Mind The University of British Columbia Vancouver campus UBC Search UBC Search UBC tandem Program Home About About UBC tandem Principles Session Times Program Coordinators FAQs Statistics Registration Application Status Language Proficiency Index Resources At UBC In Vancouver Online Volunteer Gallery Current Research & News Research News Around the World Affiliations Calendar Contact Us Home / About About Due to COVID and respecting physical distancing rules, we have transitioned our program to a virtual platform. All in-person, on campus, sessions have been suspended until further notice. To register for our virtual program please use link below. The UBC tandem Language Learning Program is a free initiative, in which participants that wish to improve their conversational fluency in a language are matched with a partner who speaks this language fluently, and at the same time wants to improve in the language the first person speaks. It is a program designed to build community through additional language acquisition, foster intercultural communication, and enhance cross-cultural understanding on campus. You can register here. The program runs for 9 weeks each semester, and pairs are expected to meet once a week for 1.5 hours in order to teach each other their mother tongue (or a language in which they are highly proficient). Participants can choose to meet i) during weekly, on-campus, facilitated sessions, which take place at the Global Lounge, or ii) they can choose to meet independently. In both cases, participants are supported with suggested activities and Conversation Guides from the Facilitator Guidebook. More information can be found under the Session Times tab. UBC tandem was created in 2011 by then-graduate student Mary Leighton. The pilot project had approximately 115 applicants, and about 60 were matched. Since then, the program has grown and evolved in multiple ways, and in the fall 2016 semester, over 960 UBC students, faculty, and staff applied to the program. It is founded on three main principles: i. Autonomy We—coordinators, facilitators, and volunteers—create a community where people can access and engage in activities in different languages, but at the same time, participants understand that they are the ones responsible for learning. ii. Reciprocity We expect partners to give and take equally. Likewise, we—coordinators, facilitators, and volunteers—expect to give and take equally with each other and all participants. iii. Everyone’s Language is Valuable At tandem, we believe everyone’s language has the same value. No matter what you look like, where you come from, how your accent sounds, you can still enrich someone’s language learning experience. We are all responsible for creating a community of respect, and this means valuing and celebrating diversity!   UBC tandem Language Learning Program Vancouver Campus Simon KY Lee Global Lounge 2205 Lower Mall Vancouver, BC Canada   Email: tandem.program@ubc.ca Find us on    Back to top The University of British Columbia Emergency Procedures | Terms of Use | Copyright | Accessibility 
thetech-com-9409	----	MIT Libraries support staff vote to unionize | The Tech The Tech Subscribe to our newsletter Newsletter MIT Libraries support staff vote to unionize Home News Opinion Arts Sports Campus Life Science About Us Past Issues Photos Policies Advertising Donate Our Staff Join The Tech Contact Us Facebook Twitter News MIT Libraries support staff vote to unionize By Kristina Chen Nov. 13, 2019 Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Print MIT Libraries support staff voted Nov. 6. to unionize and to certify the American Federation of State Council and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) to represent them. Library administrative staff voted to not unionize. The support staff’s movement to unionize began in early October, with library workers submitting a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and creating a website to campaign for “A Better MIT.” Sixty members of the support staff voted in favor, while four voted against. Not all eligible members of the support staff voted. Of the 35 voting members of the administrative staff, 24 voted against being represented by the AFSCME, and 27 voted against a mixed unit to represent them. The results of the election are not final until they are certified by the regional NLRB, according to an email to The Tech from Chris Bourg, director of MIT Libraries. Bourg added, “Library staff have made their voices heard, and the administration will honor the results of the election. We will continue to prioritize the concerns of our staff and remain committed to working productively together to ensure the health and wellbeing of all library employees.” Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. The Tech 84 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 483 Cambridge, MA 02139-4300 617.253.1541 Home News Opinion Arts Sports Campus Life Science About Us Past Issues Policies Advertising Donate Our Staff Join The Tech Contact Us Facebook Twitter       © 2020 The Tech 
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ucaftlibrarians-org-2613	----	UC Administration: “Academic Freedom is not a good fit for your unit.” – UC-AFT Librarians Blog Skip to content UC-AFT Librarians Blog Featuring bargaining news for UC-AFT Librarians Primary Menu Home About Bargaining Tentative Agreement FAQ Donate to the Strike Fund UC-AFT Proposals Overview Current MOU Your Bargaining Team Bargaining Timeline Glossary Media Press Releases In the News Social Media T-Shirts & Buttons Member Profiles Sign the Petition Contact UC Administration: “Academic Freedom is not a good fit for your unit.” (Editors note: If you disagree with UC administration on this, sign our petition today!) On July 26th, The UC bargaining team responded with a flat NO to our proposal that Academic Freedom rights be included in our new contract. They decided not to put their response in writing, so we are left with only their verbal explanations at the bargaining table. This post is an attempt to capture their professed logic behind that denial. When speaking about the UC’s position on Academic Freedom (AF), they included these revelations: AF is tied to faculty and students alone; more specifically, Instructors of Record and students are granted AF, to enable free expression in the classroom and related research.  They further asserted that AF arises only from this classroom need. Librarians only have AF when they are granted Instructor of Record status (which does occasionally happen). At all other times, they do not. They further clarified that no one involved in teaching has AF unless they have Instructor of Record status.  They clarified that Teaching Assistants, for example, only have AF as the result of their status as students. When we asked UC who they had consulted to come to this conclusion, they claimed to have consulted the University Librarians, the Academic Senate, and other executive academic leaders. Further to this outright rejection of our right to academic freedom, the University rejected our proposal to add academic freedom to Article 1 – Recognition.  Here is the exact language that UC rejected (underlined): “The University recognizes librarians as academic employees, and further recognizes that they possess specialized expertise and independent, professional judgment, and employ both in service to the mission of the University. The University recognizes that all librarians are entitled to academic freedom, as their primary responsibility to their institution and profession is to seek, state, and act according to the truth as they see it.” At the next bargaining session (8/8 at UC Berkeley), UC-AFT presented an initial rebuttal to this rejection, beginning with the UC definition of Academic Freedom found in APM-010: As the Regents assert in Regents Policy 7401, The University of California relies upon Section 10 of the Academic Personnel Manual (APM-010) to define Academic Freedom and the conditions that require it for its academic employees.  It begins [emphasis added]: “The University of California is committed to upholding and preserving principles of academic freedom. These principles reflect the University’s fundamental mission, which is to discover knowledge and to disseminate it to its students and to society at large. The principles of academic freedom protect freedom of inquiry and research, freedom of teaching, and freedom of expression and publication. These freedoms enable the University to advance knowledge and to transmit it effectively to its students and to the public.” APM-010 continues detailing how Academic Freedom applies to faculty, pointing to APM-015, the Faculty Code of Conduct, for more specifics.  It also mentions this right as necessary to students, and points to APM-010 Appendix B, “Statement of Principles: Student Freedom of Scholarly Inquiry,” for more details on the scope of academic freedom as applies to students.  It does not address other academic titles. However, while these sections address the rights of faculty, that focus is not meant to imply exclusivity.  As it states clearly in APM-010 Appendix A, “Although this new policy applies to the University’s faculty, its issuance does nothing to diminish the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by other academic appointees.” So, there is nothing in the policy that binds these rights exclusively to faculty and students; in fact, it specifies the exact opposite. We then began asking clarifying questions of the UC table team, starting with: There is no mention in any of these policies that Instructor of Record status has anything to do with who is granted AF, and who is not. So – can you clarify where this response from last time, that AF is tied to Instructor of Record Status, comes from? (see responses below) We prefaced our next set of questions with the following: The Faculty Code of Conduct in APM-015 goes into further detail in regards to the professional duties.   “It is the intent of the Faculty Code of Conduct to protect academic freedom, to help preserve the highest standards of teaching and scholarship, and to advance the mission of the University as an institution of higher learning. Part I of this Code sets forth the responsibility of the University to maintain conditions and rights supportive of the faculty’s pursuit of the University’s central functions.” We have proposed that LAUC should determine a Code of Conduct for Academic Librarians, and we expect such a Code will fundamentally mirror APM-015 in form and function.  Working without such a code, as Librarians currently do, we have questions related to the articulated Professional Rights of Faculty. We offered some clarifying questions as we went through this section… Excerpt from APM-015 Part 1- Professional Rights of Faculty Our questions: In support of the University’s central functions as an institution of higher learning, a major responsibility of the administration is to protect and encourage the faculty in its teaching, learning, research and public service Does the University have a similar obligation to its librarians? Does the University have a similar obligation to any other academic appointees? Such conditions, as they relate to faculty, include, for example: 1. free inquiry, and exchange of ideas; Is it the UC position that this isn’t necessary for librarians? 2. the right to present controversial material relevant to a course of instruction; The UC has already acknowledged this right at table last time as applying to librarians only when they are instructors of record.  Why doesn’t it apply when they are guest instructors in a classroom? Or teaching in a context outside of credit courses? 4. freedom to address any matter of institutional policy or action when acting as a member of the faculty whether or not as a member of an agency of institutional governance; Are UC Librarians currently free to address any matter of institutional policy?  If not, who determines when and where a librarian may speak on an issue? As we went through these questions, and several follow-up points that arose in conversation, the UC administration clarified their views: AF is a professional standard established by faculty, for faculty.  It is a community principle, and that community is the faculty. The university does not set this standard, the faculty does. They say this position is consistent with AAUP’s stance on AF. They steadfastly claim that AAUP says that AF is explicitly tied to faculty status, even after we’ve shown them policy statements from the AAUP stating that academic librarians, regardless of faculty status, require to protections of academic freedom to do their work. They clarified that while they still believe that AF “started with the classroom dynamic,” they accept that freedom of teaching is no more important a concept than it is in freedom of inquiry and research, and freedom of expression and publication. If a librarian’s teaching is challenged while they are Instructor of Record, the challenge would be weighed against the protections provided through AF by the Academic Senate.  In other instances, the challenge and any necessary discipline would be handled by library administration; by their own admission, there is “currently no policy on that situation.” They were never able to point to any UC policy that specifies that only those with Instructor of Record status are granted AF,  but they stood by that assertion repeatedly. They explained that Faculty research and publication requires rigorous peer review, and faculty have professional standards.  They seemed oblivious to the fact that librarians’ research and publication similarly requires rigorous peer review, and that librarians have professional standards. Because AF is a faculty construct, if librarians had AF, then a faculty committee would need to review librarian research to determine if they meet the professional standards of faculty.  (Currently, peer review of librarians is performed by the Librarian Association of the UC (LAUC). Faculty have a responsibility for shared governance through a Standing Order of the Regents, which is therefore a different shared governance than the rest of the University.  Librarians must rely on “free speech” – in other words, first amendment protections – if they choose to speak out in their shared governance context.  UC administration repeatedly conflates the exercise of AF as the need to conform to professional faculty standards, in the classroom and in peer review.  There seems to be little grasp that AF is still challenged even when teaching and research is up to standards. They claim that Intellectual Freedom is an individual right, and Academic Freedom is a community/ group standard.  They said they would entertain some kind of policy under a different name than AF – with specific, enumerated rights contained within such an individual right. Among all the word salad above, they literally said: “Academic Freedom is not a good fit for your unit.” They even volunteered to “carry the message” to those who can make decisions and weigh in on our right to academic freedom, clearly indicating that UC’s table team is not empowered to make decisions on this topic. We have addressed some of their arguments in a separate post, and will be responding to all of the above with time; this conversation at the bargaining table is far from over.  There is little that our bargaining team feels is appropriate, or even respectful, in their response above.  For now, we feel the entire university should know the stance that UC administration is taking on this matter.   Share this: Twitter Facebook Like this: Like Loading... Related Posted on August 13, 2018August 21, 2018 by Martin BrennanPosted in 2018 Bargaining, Academic Freedom, Uncategorized Post navigation Previous Previous post: Bargaining Update #5 Next Next post: Academic Freedom and UC Librarians: It’s a perfect fit. 5 thoughts on “UC Administration: “Academic Freedom is not a good fit for your unit.”” Pingback: Where is your place? Keynote for Social Science Librarians Boot Camp–RVA | Donna Lanclos Pingback: Academic Freedom and UC Librarians: It’s a perfect fit. – UC-AFT Librarians Blog Pingback: Letter to University of California Senate Chairs re Granting Librarians the Right to Academic Freedom « California Scholars for Academic Freedom Pingback: In Solidarity with UC System Librarians | OAnarchy Pingback: New Year Bargaining Roundup – UC-AFT Librarians Blog Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Support Librarians’ Academic Freedom rights The Petition is now closed – thank you for your support! Berkeley Loves Librarians This slideshow requires JavaScript. UCLA Loves Librarians MORE This slideshow requires JavaScript. Follow Us Facebook Twitter Follow UC-AFT Librarians Blog on WordPress.com Follow Blog via Email Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address: Follow UC AFT Local 2023 and UAW 2865 tabling on opening day of librarian contract bargaining on April 17. T-shirt Thursday- June 7, 2018 UC Davis librarians gathered today at Robert Arneson’s iconic Bookhead in front of Shields Library to display solidarity during librarian contract bargaining. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Post to Cancel Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy %d bloggers like this: 
uspirg-org-7017	----	Fixing the Broken Textbook Market | U.S. PIRG Stay in touch Like Us Follow Us RSS Contact The Federation of State PIRGs You are here Home > Report: Make Higher Education Affordable Fixing the Broken Textbook Market Released by: U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Student PIRGs Release date: Monday, January 27, 2014 > Download Report (PDF) The cost of college textbooks has skyrocketed in recent years. To students and families already struggling to afford high tuition and fees, an additional $1,200 per year on books and supplies can be the breaking point. As publishers keep costs high by pumping out new editions and selling books bundled with software, students are forced to forgo book purchases or otherwise undermine their academic progress. 1. High textbook costs continue to deter students from purchasing their assigned materials despite concern for their grades. 65% of students said that they had decided against buying a textbook because it was too expensive. The survey also found that 94% of students who had foregone purchasing a textbook were concerned that doing so would hurt their grade in a course. More than half of the students felt significant concern for their grade. 2. High textbook costs can have a ripple effect on students’ other academic decisions. Nearly half of all students surveyed said that the cost of textbooks impacted how many/which classes they took each semester. Students attend college seeking job preparation and/or degree attainment. Careful course selection is often necessary in order to yield the results that a student is seeking within the timeframe they are prepared to study. It is especially concerning that this process may be being undermined by high textbook costs. 3. Students want alternatives, expressing support for textbooks that are available free online and buying a hard copy is optional. 82% of students felt they would do significantly better in a course if the textbook was available free online and buying a hard copy was optional. This is exactly how open textbooks are designed. Not only is the open textbook an ideal alternative to a traditional textbook from a student point of view, but it is the only product in the marketplace that can directly challenge the high prices that publishers charge for new editions. These high prices, which outpace inflation, underpin the entire textbook marketplace, and drive market conditions for other alternatives such as the used book and rental markets. Overall, this study demonstrates that despite recent steps forward in the marketplace, high textbook costs will continue to be a problem for students unless the cost of high-priced, new editions of college textbooks comes down. Search form Search About About Us Our staff Our Work COVID-19 OUR RESPONSE Together Against COVID Test More, Save Lives PROTECT HEALTH CARE WORKERS Consumer Tips Healthy Living Stop the Overuse Of Antibiotics Hold the Antibiotics: Wendy's Get The Lead Out Healthy Farms, Healthy Families End the Nicotine Trap New Economy Right To Repair Work for Wellbeing Zero Hunger Transform Transportation Electric Buses for America Stop Highway Boondoggles Democracy For The People Big Money Out Modernizing The Vote The New Voters Project Zero Out Toxics Ban Roundup Ban Bee-Killing Pesticides Make It Toxic-Free Zero Waste Beyond Plastic Right To Repair PIRG Consumer Watchdog Protect Your Credit Product Safety Defend Net Neutrality Food Safety Consumer Tips Consumer Defense Defend the Consumer Bureau Make Higher Education Affordable High Value Health Care Blog Donate Jobs Newsroom Resources Reports Get our RSS feed Archives Blog Media Hits News Releases Reports Resources Donate Join Us Support Us Your donation supports U.S. PIRG’s work to stand up for consumers on the issues that matter, especially when powerful interests are blocking progress. donate today Consumer Alerts Join our network and stay up to date on our campaigns, get important consumer updates and take action on critical issues. Optional Member Code HOMEPAGE ABOUT US STAFF CONTACT US NEWS REPORTS DONATE PRIVACY POLICY ACTION CENTER MEDIA RESOURCES UNITED STATES PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP FEDERAL ADVOCACY OFFICE: 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Ste. 400, Washington, DC 20003 | (202) 546-9707 MAIN OFFICE: 1543 Wazee Street, Suite 460, Denver, CO 80202 | (303) 801-0582 Member questions or requests: 1-800-838-6554 Visit the website of U.S. PIRG Education Fund, our sister 501(c)(3) organization. Like Us Follow Us RSS Contact U.S. PIRG is part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change. 
uspirg-org-8554	----	Microsoft Word - National - COVERING THE COST.docx           COVERING THE COST: WHY WE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO IGNORE HIGH TEXTBOOK PRICES ETHAN SENACK ROBERT DONOGHUE THE STUDENT PIRGS FEBRUARY 2016     ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The authors would first like to thank the students and staff at CALPIRG, ConnPIRG, Maryland PIRG, MASSPIRG, NCPIRG, NJPIRG, OSPIRG, and WashPIRG, for their work to collect and database the surveys used in this report. They are the both the inspiration for, and the principal drivers of, the Student PIRGs campaign to Make Textbooks Affordable. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Nicole Allen of SPARC, Lindsey Tepe of New America, Cable Green of Creative Commons, Sarah Cohen of the Open Textbook Network, and finally, Marilyn Billings and Jeremy Smith of UMass Amherst for their feedback and help reviewing this report. Last, but certainly not least, the authors would like to thank the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation for their continued financial support for this campaign. To attribute this work, please credit the Student PIRGs and provide a link to www.studentpirgs.org/textbooks. © 2016 by Student Organizing, Inc. Covering the Cost. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Cover photo credit:  Johannes  Jansson/norden.org,  CC  BY. The Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student PIRGs) are independent statewide student organizations that work on issues like environmental protection, consumer protection, and hunger and homelessness. For nearly 40 years, our students and staff have been making a real difference in people's lives and winning concrete changes to build a better world. AUTHORS: Ethan Senack Robert Donoghue 218 D St, SE Washington, DC 20003 202-546-9707 x321 @HigherEdPIRG     EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Over the last decade, the cost of college textbooks has soared. Since 2006, the cost of a college textbook increased by 73%i - over four t imes the rate of inflation. Today, individual textbooks often cost over $200, sometimes as high as $400. Textbook prices have increased unabatedly because the textbook market lacks two major economic forces. Normal Market Textbook Market  Competition in the market forces prices down  Consumer choice rewards companies that compete on price and quality  Five major publishers control 80% of the market, locking out competitors  The student – the consumer – has no choice in which textbook they’re assigned For nearly 30 straight years, textbook publishers have exploited their unchecked power in the market through a variety of tactics designed to drive up the cost of new books, and undermine cheaper market alternatives like used textbook programs. However: since textbook sticker prices appear small in comparison with the larger costs of tuition or room and board, they are often overlooked, and addressing this problem is often deprioritized. At the same time, no research to date — including our own — has attempted to investigate the degree at which prices actually affect student’s financial standing and behavior. As a result, the case for prioritizing action around textbook prices has lacked urgency and potency. The result of a nationwide survey of nearly 5,000 students, this report introduces a new dimension to our understanding of the problem: that high textbook prices are serious cause for concern about our students’ financial well-being. SURVEY FINDINGS FINDING 1: A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF STUDENTS TURN TO FINANCIAL AID TO PURCHASE THEIR REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS. Nearly one-third (29.7%) of students replied that they had used financial aid to pay for their textbooks. This is a startlingly large result, considering that student aid is typically applied to direct expenses such as tuition, room and board before being used for textbooks and other expenses. If applied to the enrolled undergraduate population in the United States, this finding means that over 5.2 million students use financial aid to purchase their textbooks.ii FINDING 2: FOR THE STUDENTS THAT USE FINANCIAL AID ON BOOKS, IT’S USED TO COVER A MAJOR PORTION OF THE TOTAL EXPENSE. For those that used financial aid, the amount of financial aid dollars they put toward purchasing textbooks was more than $300 on average per semester. FINDING 3: HIGH TEXTBOOK PRICES HAVE A DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT ON STUDENTS AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE. When broken down by type of college, our data show that a greater percentage of community college students use financial aid to purchase textbooks:  28% at 4-year public colleges  22% at 4-year private institutions  50% at 2-year & community colleges     ANALYSIS TEXTBOOK PRICES ADD UNNECESSARY FINANCIAL HARDSHIP: Of the students using financial aid for textbooks, the average amount used is more than $300 per semester. That adds to $2,400 over the course of a four-year program, and $1,200 for two years at community college. That’s nearly the cost of adding an entire extra semester for a community college student. The ultimate cost is even higher for a student who uses loans to cover that cost: a $2,400 and $1,200 student loan translates into $555.55 and $277.73 worth of interest respectively.iii Put another way, a student using loans would pay an additional $34.72 for a $150 textbook. While a student with the ability to buy books outright pays sticker price, a student using financial may actually end up paying a higher price for course materials. TEXTBOOK PRICES PLAY AN NEGATIVE ROLE IN STUDENT CHOICE POINTS: In comparison with the tens of thousands of dollars spent on tuition or board, a few hundred dollars for textbooks is often overlooked, and written off as negligible. However, research shows that comparatively small amounts of money can have a disproportionate impact: at Morgan State University, a study showed that 10% of students dropping out for financial reasons owed the University less than $1000.iv That’s less than the amount the College Board recommends students budget for textbooks and course supplies for a single year. HIGH TEXTBOOK PRICES HAVE OPPORTUNITY COST: These numbers suggest that students are spending around $1.575 billion a semester, or $3.15 billion a year, in financial aid on textbooks. Therefore, alleviating high textbook costs could free $3.15 billion in state, federal, and local funding for use in reducing other higher education costs. CONCLUSION This new data demonstrates that, in the broader context of increasing debt, high textbook prices are impactful enough to merit urgent, demonstrative action from policymakers on all levels to support alternatives to the traditional system of publishing. With today’s technology, we know it is possible to share information more easily and efficiently than ever before. A burgeoning movement toward openly licensed educational materials – in particular, open textbooks – is turning the traditional publishing model on its head. In direct contrast to traditional publishers, who strictly control every facet of access and use of their textbooks and materials, open textbooks are available for free online, are free to download, and are affordable in print. Last year, the Student PIRGs released a report showing that open textbooks have the potential to save students more than $1 billion per year.v However, environmental and policy barriers have slowed the development and adoption of open educational resources. To realize the potential of openly licensed materials , these barriers and inhibitors must be overcome. These barriers include…. 1. A centralized system of textbook production that relies on major publishers to cultivate content 2. Skewed perceptions about learning materials that value frills over efficacy 3. Reliance on a legacy system of publishing that is less time consuming but also less effective To solve the problem of high textbook prices, the higher education community must actively work to transition the environment in higher education. This report offers detailed recommendations on how institutions, policymakers, faculty, and students can do so.     TABLE OF CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 PURPOSE OF SURVEY..................................................................................................... 4 SURVEY FINDINGS......................................................................................................... 5 ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................... 7 A POWERFUL SOLUTION................................................................................................ 10 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................. 13 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................... 14 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 16     1   INTRODUCTION: A HISTORY OF RESEARCH Since 2004, the Student PIRGs have published more than a dozen research reports investigating the college textbook industry, documenting the disturbing trends in pricing, exposing publisher tactics to keep prices high, and revealing the impact of high prices on students. Over the years, we’ve surveyed nearly 10,000 students, interviewed almost 500 faculty members, and tracked the prices of hundreds of books.vi DOCUMENTING THE PROBLEM: PRICES Over the last decade, the cost of course materials – textbooks, specifically – has soared. Since 2006, the cost of a college textbook increased by 73%vii - over four times the rate of inflation. Overall, since 1977, the cost of textbooks has increased 1041%.viii Today, individual textbooks often cost over $200, sometimes as high as $400.ix At the same time, the cost of higher education has increased significantly over the past decade. In 2013, 7 in 10 seniors at public and private nonprofit colleges graduated with student loan debt. Among those borrowers, the average debt was nearly $29,000.x As a nation, Americans hold over $1.2 trillion in student loan debt.xi THE FORCES BEHIND HIGH PRICES Textbook prices have increased unabatedly because the textbook market lacks two major economic forces. • Competition: In a free market, companies are forced to compete with each other on price, quality, and features in order to accumulate consumers. This competition helps drive innovation and ultimately benefits the consumer. In the textbook market, however, five major publishers control over 80% of the market.xii These publishers tend to avoid publishing books in subject areas where their competitors have found success, instead focusing in on their own particular subject or issue areas. In a 2013 study, just three publishers were responsible for 74% of the top textbooks sold.xiii This tactic, and the size     2   of their controlled market share, gives these publishers near market monopoly and allows them to effectively lock out competition that could undercut their prices. • Consumer Choice: The other market factor that regulates prices is consumer choice. In a normal market, the consumer is free to shop around, to weigh options, and to choose products that are the most suited to them in terms of price, quality, and features. In the textbook market, however, the student does not choose the book; the professor does. And while professors are slowly becoming more price sensitive, the student – the actual consumer – has no say in the book they’re assigned, meaning the publisher is free to raise prices without fear of market repercussion. These fundamental flaws in the textbook market have allowed publishers to disproportionately raise prices for nearly thirty straight years. DOCUMENTING THE PROBLEM: TACTICS For years, textbook publishers have exploited their unchecked power in the market through a variety of tactics designed to drive up the cost of new books, and undermine cheaper market alternatives like used textbook programs. Bundling: Congress banned the practice of bundling in 2008, but publishers today exploit a loophole in the law through access codes – individual, single-use passwords that grant a purchaser access to online homework assignments or supplementary material. This new manifestation of bundling is pervasive in the market: in a 2013 survey by the Student PIRGs, over 80% of students replied that they had been required to buy an online access code for at least one of their courses. Modern bundling of access codes and activation keys also serves to undermine used and rental book markets. Most access codes are single-use, and are often not sold separately from the book, meaning bookstores can’t buyback or resell the book and students are forced to purchase a new version every time. New Editions: To perpetuate the illusion of increased quality or features, and, in turn, higher prices, publishers release updated editions of popular textbooks every 2 – 4 years. Like modern bundling, new editions also undermine used book and rental markets. As new editions become available, many bookstores are obliged to stop buying back old editions, and professors are pressured to adopt the new edition, which has a slightly varied order or different page numbers, making it difficult for students to follow along in older editions. Customized Editions: Publishing companies today market “custom editions” to faculty, which allow a professor to arrange sections of content into a textbook. These editions are marketed as more affordable and are often published without binding, or in black and white. While these books may offer slight savings compared to standard editions, they are also designed to undermine the used book market. Since they are specialized to a particular instructor and class, they can only be resold and reused if the same professor at the same college wants to teach the same class in the exact same way they did the semester before.     3   Hidden Prices: In a 2007 survey by the Student PIRGs, less than half of professors reported being able to easily find prices for particular books on publishers’ websites. In 2008, Congress required publishers to include detailed price and revision information when marketing their products, colleges to post book prices in advance of classes, and in 2013, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of the changes found that faculty reported being more aware of affordability issues and cost considerations than they were previously.xiv Digital Books: In recent years, publishers have made public pleas for faculty and students to shift to digital textbooks, citing lower costs, more features, and greater accessibility. For publishers, the shift to digital represents an opportunity to drop the significant burden of printing and shipping costs and increase profit margins. For students who opt to go digital, however, the reality is much different than the expectation. Publisher’s digital textbooks have been poorly received by students, primarily because they continue many of the restrictive practices from the print market. In the review of an eTextbook pilot program at the University of Wisconsin, students actually ranked eTextbooks below print versions on a variety of factors.xv Despite the potential to leverage technology in a constructive way, it is clear that publishers are only willing to use it selectively for their own sake, rather than the sake of the learner. DOCUMENTING THE PROBLEM: IMPACT PIRG’s 2014 report, Fixing the Broken Textbooks Market, investigated the impact of high prices on students’ academic decisions. The report found that two-thirds of students skipped buying or renting some of their required textbooks due to cost. Of those students, 94% recognized that skipping the book would impact their grade in a course, but chose to do so anyway.xvi The report also found that high prices impact a student’s ability to enroll in the classes that they need. Nearly 50% of students said that textbook prices had impacted which courses and how many courses they were able to take.xvii That finding has been corroborated by external research, including a study by the Florida Distance Learning Consortium finding that 25% of students hadn’t registered for a particular course because of the textbook cost.xviii Research by external groups has validated these concerns about the impact of high prices, but this is merely one angle of a problem that has multi-faceted impacts. And while it does not take a great logical leap to understand the general implications of high textbook prices, little research exists yet to understand the depth and breadth of these impacts.   Yes,   Somewhat   Concerned;   38.6%   Yes,   Significantly   Concerned;   55%         Not  Concerned   6.4%   Student   Concern  of   Impact  on   Grades       4   PURPOSE OF SURVEY: Over the last decade, the Student PIRGs have demonstrated that increasing textbook costs are a multi-dimensional problem. We have explored at length the rapid inflation of traditional textbook prices, the publisher tactics that have allowed prices to soar, and more recently, how prices impact student academic decisions. We have reported on the merits of open textbooks, showcasing their benefits in accessibility, affordability, and student success, but have yet to see widespread commitment to support that transition. We recognize that, while the problem of high textbook prices is clear, the necessity for action is not as overt. Since textbook sticker prices appear small in comparison with the larger costs of tuition or room and board, they are often overlooked, and addressing this problem is deprioritized. In our 2014 report, Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, we highlighted the ways that textbook costs impact student academic decisions, including the large proportion of students who skip buying textbooks due to the high cost. However, while such findings are extremely consequential, they elucidate only one angle of the problem. At the same time, no research to date — including our own — has attempted to investigate the degree at which prices actually affect student’s financial standing and behavior. As a result, the case for prioritizing action around textbook prices has lacked urgency and potency. This report aims to rectify that gap. The result of a nationwide survey of nearly 5,000 students, this report introduces a new dimension to our understanding of the problem: that high textbook prices are serious cause for concern about our students’ financial well being.     5   SURVEY FINDINGS: Over the course of the Fall 2015 semester, the Student PIRGs conducted a survey of students around textbook affordability and financial aid. This report aggregates the results of 4,704 student responses from 132 unique institutions in 25 states. FINDING 1: A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF STUDENTS TURN TO FINANCIAL AID TO PURCHASE THEIR REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS. The survey asked student respondents if they had used financial aid to pay for their textbooks. In the question, financial aid was defined as “grants, scholarships, or loans (not including money from parents or family)”. Nearly one-third (29.7%) of students replied that they had used financial aid to pay for their textbooks. This is a startlingly large result, considering that student aid is typically applied to direct expenses such as tuition, room and board before becoming available for use on textbooks and other expenses. If applied to the enrolled undergraduate population in the United States, this finding means that over 5.2 million students use financial aid to purchase their textbooks.xix FINDING 2: FOR THE STUDENTS THAT USE FINANCIAL AID ON BOOKS, IT’S USED TO COVER A MAJOR PORTION OF THE EXPENSE. With nearly one in three students using financial aid to afford their textbooks, it is important to understand the depth at which students are using financial aid. To further investigate, students were asked to quantify how much of their textbook expenses they covered with financial aid, both in terms of dollars spent and as a percentage of the total textbook expense per semester. For students using financial aid, 70% of their total textbook expenses were covered by financial aid on average. The same respondents reported that, for those that used financial aid, the amount of financial aid dollars they put toward purchasing textbooks was more than $300 on average per semester. Students Using Financial Aid on Textbooks     6   For perspective, that is roughly equal to the total amount a student spends on textbooks each semester based on the National Association of College Stores’ measurement,xx and roughly half the College Board’s recommended semester budget for textbooks and supplies.xxi Each of these statistics has their merits and flaws, but can serve as boundaries by which these findings are evaluated. F INDING 3: HIGH TEXTBOOK PRICES HAVE A DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT ON STUDENTS AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE. When broken down by type of college, our data show that a greater percentage of community college students use financial aid to purchase textbooks: At the same time, community college students use financial aid for textbooks at higher percentages than students at 4-year institutions. Of community college students using financial aid, 65% said that they used financial aid to cover their entire textbook expense, compared to just 50% at 4-year schools. And, on average, community college students who used financial aid used $347 of financial aid for textbook expenses, compared to an average of $290 at 4-year state schools. Average Financial Aid Dollars Spent on Textbooks Purchase 28% of students use financial aid for textbooks at 4-year public colleges…   …Compared to 50% at 2-year and community colleges.         7   ANALYSIS: Despite increased access to alternatives, student spending on textbooks has been relatively stagnant in recent years. But with other costs rising and more students feeling the pinch, maintaining the status quo is not enough. TEXTBOOK PRICES ADD UNNECESSARY FINANCIAL HARDSHIP: Before presenting the implications of our findings, there are a few important notes. First, that our survey grouped scholarships, grants, and loans in the definition of financial aid. This means we cannot accurately generalize the amount of debt textbooks are responsible for. However, we can model the total debt accumulation for a hypothetical student who does not have financial aid in the form of a grant or scholarship. Most commonly, financial aid is applied to tuition and room and board before other costs. Grants and scholarship money is applied first, leaving loans to cover the balance of those costs. If a student expects to have trouble covering other costs – like textbooks – they may request additional financial aid, but may end up paying out of pocket. Given the previously stated context of increasing student debt, and knowing that a likely scenario is one in which student respondents are using loans to purchase textbooks, our findings should be of serious concern. Approximately 30% of the 5,000 surveyed students indicated that they used, either in full or in part, financial aid—which includes loans—to pay for their textbooks. Of the 30% of students using financial aid for textbooks, the average amount used is more than $300 per semester. That adds up to $2,400 over the course of a four-year program, and $1,200 for two years at community college. The ultimate cost is even higher for students who borrow that money: a $2,400 and $1,200 student loan translates into $555.55 and $277.73 worth of interest payments respectively.xxii Put another way, a student using loans would pay an additional $46.39 for a $200 textbook. While a student with the ability to buy books outright pays sticker price, a student using financial may actually end up paying a higher price for books.   Similarly, to purchase a single, $200 textbook, a student would need to work nearly 28 hours in a minimum wage job. If a student were to buy only $600 worth of textbooks every year, that would amount to an additional 2 hours of work per week for the entire year. In context, to afford yearly in-state tuition at a public school, a student would need to work nearly 991 hours at a federal minimum-wage job.xxiii That’s a 40-hour a week, full-time job for half the year. Add the average cost of room and board at a 4-year public institution, and even a Cost  of   Textbook   Bought   Outright     Cost  of   Textbook   bought   with  loans   28  hours   per  $200   book       8   year-round full-time job would leave that student in a financial deficit. High textbook prices unnecessarily pile on top of that deficit. For many students, particularly those who rely on financial aid, the high cost of textbooks necessitates a lose-lose choice: purchase the necessary textbook and add to their financial hardship, take time away from studying to work extra hours, or go without the book and accept the impact on their ability to learn and perform well. TEXTBOOK PRICES PLAY AN NEGATIVE ROLE IN STUDENT CHOICE POINTS: Between 2003 and 2013, average tuition and fees increased more than 30%. Average cost of room and board increased over 20%.xxiv This increase in cost means that the average college-seeker today faces significant financial barriers to attaining a degree. These financial barriers create discouraging choice points throughout a degree-seeking, or potential degree- seeking student’s career. On their own, the sticker shock of tuition and room and board causes many students to opt out of enrolling entirely. In a recent study of non-college going students by the McKinsey Center for Government, 48% cited an inability to pay as the reason they weren’t attending school, and 16% cited their need to spend time working.xxv High textbook prices only serve to aggravate this problem. In comparison with the tens of thousands of dollars spent on tuition or board, a few hundred dollars for textbooks is often overlooked, and written off as negligible. However, research shows that seemingly small amounts of money can have a disproportionate impact: at Morgan State University, a study showed that 10% of students dropping out for financial reasons owed the University less than $1000.xxvi That’s less than the amount the College Board recommends full-time students budget for textbooks and course supplies for a single year. To add further perspective, at a community college, the cost of textbooks can be nearly as large a barrier as the cost of enrolling in a course itself. The tuition and fees for a 3 credit hour Principles of Microeconomics course at the Virginia Community College system would be $436.xxvii The price of the most popular Microeconomics textbookxxviii is $225.66 new, $100.06 on Amazon. In this instance, the book would cost between 52% and 23% of the cost of enrollment. In the current environment, it’s clear today’s textbook prices are no longer just an inconvenience – they are high enough to be a significant barrier to college enrollment. HIGH TEXTBOOK PRICES HAVE OPPORTUNITY COST: Beyond the immediate burden on students, high textbook prices also create an opportunity cost in terms of available funding.     9   Survey results show that 30% of students use financial aid for textbooks, at an average of $300 per semester. Further, there are an estimated 17.5 million enrolled undergraduate students in the United States.xxix These numbers suggest that students are spending around $1.575 billion a semester, or $3.15 billion a year, in financial aid on textbooks. Therefore, alleviating high textbook costs could free $3.15 billion in state, federal, and local funding for use in reducing other higher education costs. AN UNSUSTAINABLE TREND: One thing is clear – the current state of the textbook market is unsustainable. Unnecessarily high textbook prices contribute to student economic hardship, and are a drag on enrollment, completion, and student success. This new data demonstrates that, in the broader context of increasing debt, high textbook prices are impactful enough to merit urgent, demonstrative action from policymakers on all levels to support alternatives to the traditional system of publishing.     10   A POWERFUL SOLUTION With today’s technology, we know it is possible to share information more easily and efficiently than ever before. Capitalizing on these advances, an alternative with the potential to challenge traditional textbook publishing has emerged: openly licensed educational resources. Open licenses, the most common of which are the Creative Commons Licenses,xxx allow for intellectual property – like educational materials – to be accessed, used, copied, and even adapted for free by the public. A burgeoning movement toward openly licensed educational materials – in particular, textbooks – is turning the traditional publishing model on its head. In direct contrast to traditional publishers, who strictly control every facet of access and use of their textbooks and materials, open textbooks are available for free online, are free to download, and are affordable in print. This difference may seem small, but by their nature, open textbooks have the potential to alleviate the ill consequences of an uncompetitive market on students, making them a serious challenge to publishers’ status quo business models. COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING Price: A 2015 report by the Student PIRGs found that if every undergraduate student in the U.S. had just one of their traditional textbooks displaced by an open textbook, it would save students over $1 billion per year. On average, students save more than $100 per course, per semester when assigned an open textbook in place of a traditional one.xxxi Competit ion: Open textbooks have the potential to reintroduce competition into the textbook industry because they are produced and published in new and innovative ways, separate from the traditional system. Instead of concentrating market power in the hands of publishers, the decentralized aspect of open textbooks gives more power to students and faculty, which will refocus competition on important characteristics like efficacy and clarity. Flexibi l ity in Access: Open textbooks alleviate issues of access to course materials because they offer students flexibility and choice. Open licensing allows a student, if they prefer to read online or can’t afford to purchase a hard copy, to legally access the textbook online at no cost. Additionally, open licensing allows a student that prefers reading on a physical copy to print a chapter, or the entire book, for a few dollars at the local library. Finally, if the student prefers a hard-copy, bound book, most stores can arrange to have the book in stock or available through a print-on-demand service for a cost of $20-60 – still 80% cheaper than the average cost of most traditional books.xxxii Vs Rentals: Once a book is openly licensed, it remains open and free forever. Unlike a rental book, a student that downloads an open textbook can legally keep that copy forever.     11   Vs Used Books: Open textbooks would eliminate most of the need for used books. While there may be some market for the print copies of open textbooks, for the most part, students would be able to afford the textbooks they need without having to sell back their books. Additionally, while used books in subjects such as medicine or history have only a short shelf life before becoming outdated, digital openly licensed materials can be updated quickly to include advancements in science, changes in history, and correct errors. Vs eTextbooks: In their current manifestation, eTextbooks are digital textbooks made to act like traditional textbooks. Open textbooks, on the other hand, are demonstrative of ways to leverage technology that benefit the learner, rather than the publisher. Unlike eTextbooks, open textbooks have no printing caps, limits on the number of devices on which a student can access their book, or other restrictive characteristics that make students see traditional eTextbooks more hassle than they are worth. Open textbooks are free online, can be retained forever, and can be made accessible in many formats at low cost to the student. TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL, YET UNTAPPED Open textbooks, and openly licensed resources in general, are growing in both volume and use, but, despite their merits, they have yet to fully disrupt and upend the traditional market. However, environmental and policy barriers have slowed the development and adoption of open educational resources. Before the potential of openly licensed materials can be realized, these barriers and inhibitors must be overcome. A CENTRALIZED SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION While there are no costs associated with adopting open textbooks for students, there are “work costs” in the production and development of open materials. Producing a textbook takes a significant time investment, and although many dedicated professors have opted to do so without compensation, greater access to development funding would stimulate supply. Right now, nearly all infrastructure for creation and design of educational materials is centralized in a few major publishing companies. As a result, higher education is dominated by closed-license, high cost, rigid materials. To produce high-quality educational content, faculty members need time, energy, and resources. To produce high quality content that is scalable, they need access to supportive infrastructure. At the local level, however, neither the support infrastructure, nor the resources are available. Major publishers control access to content developers, editors, and designers through the traditional publishing model. Similarly, local funding for the development of openly licensed educational materials is sporadic at best, and many professors are unaware that funding exists at all.     12   While their has been some progress toward supporting localized content development and to create support systems for faculty interested in publishing openly, it hasn’t been enough to overcome challenges in production and turn the cultural lethargy in education on its head. SKEWED PERCEPTIONS ABOUT LEARNING MATERIALS Years of dominance by profit-maximizing publishers have created a value system around false measures of quality. Traditional textbooks face no standardized test of efficacy, or student success – instead, publishers rely on fancy covers, high profile authors, and cultivated systems of reviewers to make their case. At the same time, open textbooks face higher levels of scrutiny and are often misjudged, because the formatting is not as tidy or the pictures as high resolution. In a multi- institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post- secondary students, researchers found that students using openly licensed resources did the same, or better, as students using traditional textbooks. These findings have been backed up by nearly a dozen other studies.xxxiii CONTINUED RELIANCE ON LEGACY SYSTEMS While traditional textbooks prices have dramatically changed over time, industry practices have not. Simply put, higher education – like most societal systems or institutions – is relatively change-averse. As such, many systems within higher education actually serve to maintain the status quo. For example, the higher education community – including publishers – has employed the same model of textbook selection for decades. The process for textbook selection heavily favors large companies that have the resources to deliver their book directly to faculty and to provide supplementary materials along with it. As materials today come typically to professors, the search, and therefore the opportunity to experience or engage with open content, is often missed. At the same time, with research requirements and heavy course loads, many time-strapped faculty struggle to dedicate time toward changing curriculum and turn towards the least time consuming options. On the departmental level, there are often tenuous processes for selecting new books and initiating reviews of existing resources, causing a tendency to remain with particular books and lag behind most recent developments in the market. Many campuses enter into exclusivity agreements or partnerships with particular stores or publishers, which restrict the ability of alternatives to take root. In all, this reliance on traditional systems means that new, innovative alternatives like open textbooks are often not given the opportunity to showcase their effectiveness and benefits. This report highlights the necessity of changing these systems to allow open textbooks the opportunity to reach their full market potential.     13   CONCLUSION: The case for action on high textbook prices is clear: even in the context of a broader increase in college costs, textbook prices can have an outsized negative impact on students’ financial well being. Open textbooks represent the best possible solution. Open textbooks have the ability to lower costs, improve market competition, and increase student access, but so far, environmental and policy barriers have prevented full market transition. With students facing more and more of a financial pinch, we can no longer afford to accept the publishing status quo. Therefore, if we are ever to solve the threat of high textbook prices, we must fully realize the potential of open licensing to revolutionize educational content, and invest accordingly. Some actors in the community have already taken steps to help increase access to openly licensed educational materials, but there must be a far broader commitment to transitioning the environment in higher education. The following recommendations offer steps forward toward that end.     14   RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INSTITUTIONS: Institutions are both perfectly suited, and well equipped to take ownership over solving high textbook prices. Through their libraries and support staff, institutions have the infrastructure and personnel to provide training and professional development opportunities for their faculty around open textbooks, and have the resources to support faculty interested in developing, adapting or creating their own openly licensed course materials. 1. Convene faculty, students, librarians, and other support staff to examine opportunities to expand open textbook use on campus 2. Pass policies that demonstrate administrative acceptance and encouragement of, but do not mandate, open textbooks as a viable choice for course materials 3. Launch programs that provide training and coaching around open textbook adoption, adaptation, and development 4. Provide faculty with release time or stipends to explore open materials and incorporate them into their classes 5. Identify or task a specific individual or body with the coordination of these efforts FOR FACULTY: Faculty members are the key decision-makers when it comes to textbook options. While respecting academic freedom and the right of faculty to choose whatever course materials they think best; faculty should consider cost and accessibility along with effectiveness. Faculty could: 1. Explore existing open textbooks through the Open Textbook Library (open.umn.edu/opentextbooks) or OpenStax (openstaxcollege.org), among other examples 2. Incorporate other, unpackaged openly-licensed content into course materials 3. Consider publishing materials you develop under an open license 4. Contribute to, or author, an open textbook 5. Advocate for and support professional development around openly licensed materials for your peers to campus administrators 6. Promote OER to fellow faculty and encourage them to pilot it in their courses FOR POLICYMAKERS AND LEGISLATORS: Policymakers can use their unique positions of leadership to encourage higher education stakeholders in their states or districts to take action on high textbook prices and launch programs that encourage the adoption of open textbooks. Policymakers can also support     15   efforts to create a balanced marketplace by investing funds in programmatic support for faculty or institutions that are switching to open textbooks. 1. Publicly support educators that are interested in publishing, adapting, and adopting openly licensed textbooks and open educational resources more broadly 2. Enact policies that support institutions that are working to provide faculty with professional development and training around open textbooks and open licensing 3. Look beyond tuition and room & board when considering free community college plans or changes to financial aid, and include steps to cover the cost of course materials FOR STUDENTS: Be a textbook affordability advocate on your campus. Student leaders have inspired some of the most successful open textbook and textbook affordability programs in the nation. As a student, you are the consumer – the one paying for textbooks, and that gives you a powerful platform to advocate for change. Students can: 1. Join or form an organization to advocate for smart textbook affordability solutions 2. Ask student government leaders to engage campus administrators about policies support open textbooks and open educational resources on campus 3. Meet with your professor about open textbooks and direct them to resources like the Open Textbook Library (open.umn.edu/opentextbooks) or OpenStax (openstaxcollege.org), among other examples 4. Engage librarians and support staff as sources of knowledge and open licensing champions FOR PUBLISHERS: With their sizeable infrastructure and experience in educational content management, textbook publishers could capitalize tremendously on the greater availability of open textbooks and openly licensed course materials. Publishers could use the available content to provide real consumer-friendly, cost effective materials to students, instead of using their market share to maintain a captive market. Publishers should: 1. Support greater development of openly licensed course materials, and use that content to deliver low-cost or free textbooks to students 2. Address student and consumer frustrations around bundling, access code, and other unmerited use restrictions 3. Partner with open textbook providers to provide low-cost supplementary materials and services like homework help and study materials around open textbooks.     16   METHODOLOGY Student Survey This report uses data collected through a survey conducted during September and October of 2015. The survey was anonymous, using multiple choice and open-ended response questions. The poll consisted of 3 demographic questions (name of school, type of school, number of courses enrolled) and 14 issue-based questions. 4,704 responses were collected from 132 unique schools in 26 states. This large sample was used to create a general snapshot of student opinions. Of the sample, 86.7% of respondents identified as attending a 4-year public institution, 9.1% attending a 2-year or community college, and 3.1% attending a 4-year private institution. The remainder identified as “other”. Collection Survey responses were collected through two primary methods that emphasized a large number of responses from a range of institutions. Students and staff used the mall-intercept method at busy locations on college campuses to collect nearly 4,000 of the responses, employing a standard script during interactions to avoid biasing responses. To diversify results, outreach was conducted via email to students at additional campuses. While these methods did not yield a truly random sample that would support more rigorous scientific analysis, the sample represents a large and diverse snapshot of the student population from which we can draw meaningful conclusions. Calculations Outliers created by data entry errors and mathematical improbabilities were removed from the data set post collection. Only respondents who answered a particular question are included in the statistical analysis presented here. It is important to note that the data collected by this survey is non-scientific but because of its size, it is a relatively accurate estimate. The authors note that the findings are slightly skewed toward 4-year students, because they represent a disproportionately large percentage of the respondents. As a result, the estimate of the number of students using financial aid is conservative, since community college students show higher rates of financial aid use but are underrepresented here. Using averages by type of institution, this data was extrapolated to apply to a proportional student population, and found that the number of students using financial aid for textbooks increased slightly to 34%, up from 30%. Calculations regarding inflation and change in costs over time were made using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. Calculations regarding broader impact on student populations were made using total undergraduate student enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics. This was the most appropriate population because the survey was administered to enrolled students, notwithstanding their financial aid or full- time status.     17   ENDNOTES                                                                                                                 i Consumer Price Index. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ ii Based on data from the National Center of Education Statistics (2013). http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cha.asp iii Calculated with FinAid Online Calculator at a 4.29% interest rate, the rate for a federal subsidized Stafford loan in 2015. http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml iv Dropout Rate for College Students Driven by Income Inequality. NonProfit Quarterly (2014). https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/10/23/dropout-rate-for-college-students- driven-by-inequality/ v Open Textbooks: The Billion-Dollar Solution. Student PIRGs (2015). vi Available at http://www.studentpirgs.org/sp/our-textbooks-research vii Consumer Price Index. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ viii Consumer Price Index. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ ix The new era of the $400 college textbook, which is part of the unsustainable higher education bubble. Mark J Perry, American Enterprise Institute (2015). https://www.aei.org/publication/the-new-era-of-the-400-college-textbook-which-is-part-of- the-unsustainable-higher-education-bubble/ x Student Debt and the Class of 2014. The Institute For College Access and Success (2015) http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2014.pdf xi National student loan debt reaches a bonkers $1.2 trillion. Nicholas Rayfield, USA Today (2015). http://college.usatoday.com/2015/04/08/national-student-loan-debt-reaches-a- bonkers-1-2-trillion/ xii $8M in Funding and a Lawsuit to Boot? Game On. Ariel Diaz, Boundless (2012). http://blog.boundless.com/2012/04/8m-in-funding-and-a-lawsuit-to-boot-game- on/?utm_source=boundless-blog&utm_medium=intext-link&utm_campaign=red-boundless- blog xiii A Textbook Price Study: 90% Ownership and Average Prices. Textbook Equity, LLC (2013). http://textbookequity.org/textbookpricestudy/ xiv College Textbooks: Students Have Greater Access to Textbook Information. General Accountability Office. (2013). http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-368 xv eText Spring 2012 Pilot UW-Madison Final Project Report. Office of the Chief Information Officer (2012). https://www.cio.wisc.edu/etext-pilot-part-iv/etext-spring-2012-pilot-uw- madison-final-project-report/ xvi Fixing the Broken Textbook Market. Student PIRGs (2014) xvii Ibid. xviii 2010 Florida Student Textbook Survey. Florida Distance Learning Consortium (2011). http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/pdf/2012_Florida_Student_Textbook_survey.pdf xix Based on data from the National Center of Education Statistics (2013). http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cha.asp xx Higher Education Retail Market Facts & Figures. National Association of College Stores (2015). https://www.nacs.org/research/industrystatistics/higheredfactsfigures.aspx     18                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         xxi Trends in College Pricing, Average Undergraduate Budget. The College Board (2015). http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated- undergraduate-budgets-2015-16 xxii Calculated with FinAid Online Calculator at a 4.29% interest rate, the rate for a federal subsidized Stafford loan in 2015. http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml xxiii The Myth of Working Your Way Through College. Svati Kirsten Narula, The Atlantic (2014). http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/the-myth-of-working-your-way- through-college/359735/ xxiv Digest of Education Statistics. National Center for Education Statistics (2014) http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_330.10.asp xxv Designing a System that Works. McKinsey (2012). http://dl.njit.edu/mnj/Education-to- Employment_FINAL.pdf xxvi Dropout Rate for College Students Driven by Income Inequality. NonProfit Quarterly (2014). https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/10/23/dropout-rate-for-college-students- driven-by-inequality/ xxvii Tuition and Fees. Virginia’s Community Colleges (2015). http://www.vccs.edu/students/tuition-and-fees/ xxviii Top 100 Textbooks - Spring 2012. Amazon.com (2012). https://images-na.ssl-images- amazon.com/images/G/01/rainier/help/US_Top100_Textbooks_Spring2012.html xxix Ibid. xxx Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ xxxi Open Textbooks: The Billion-Dollar Solution. Student PIRGs (2015). xxxii A Cover to Cover Solution. Student PIRGs (2010). xxxiii A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Lane Fischer, John Hilton III, T. Jared Robinson, David A. Wiley (2015). http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12528-015-9101-x 
vtechworks-lib-vt-edu-8723	----	OAwhitepaper 3 The Serials Crisis and Open Access A White Paper for the Virginia Tech Commission on Research Philip Young University Libraries Virginia Tech December 2, 2009 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. 1 Introduction This white paper offers an introduction to open access as well as a look at its current development. The open access movement is an attempt to free scholarly communication from restrictions on access, control, and cost, and to enable benefits such as data mining and increased citations. Open access has gained significant momentum through mandates from research funders and universities. While open access can be provided in parallel with traditional publishing, it is increasingly available as a publishing option. While open access is approached here from the problem of subscription inflation, it is important to recognize that open access is not merely a library issue, but affects the availability of research to current and future students and scholars. The Serials Crisis The phrase “serials crisis” has been in use for more than a decade as shorthand for the rise in costs for academic journals and the inability of libraries to bring these costs under control. Price inflation for academic journals significantly exceeds the consumer price index (see graph, next page). The most recent data show that journal prices increased at an average rate of 8% in 2007.1 Because journal subscriptions are a large part of the collections budget at academic libraries, any reduction in funding usually results in a loss of some journals. And the high rate of annual inflation means that academic library budgets must increase every year simply to keep the same resources that students and faculty need. At many academic libraries, the proportion of the budget devoted to journal subscriptions has increased,2 leaving less money for purchasing monographs and other resources. Scholarly communication is a “gift exchange culture.”3 Faculty perform research, write articles, provide peer review, and serve as editors largely without expectation of payment. Faculty publish in order to advance the state of knowledge in their field, and to meet tenure and promotion standards.4 Hyperinflation of journal prices has renewed criticism of publishers, who receive content, peer review, and sometimes editorial services for free: University administrators often complain that they are paying twice to acquire publications: once for the salary of their faculty members who did the research, and a second time to buy their scholarly products back from the publishers. As long as the price for the added value was deemed reasonable, libraries and universities were willing to pay publishers their asking price for the products and services.5 Publishers indisputably add value to scholarly articles, from managing the publication process to offering services for search, linking, and analysis, and sometimes adding media and interactivity. While journal pricing was a problem before the electronic journal, the online environment has exacerbated the situation. Expectations of reduced costs due to the elimination of printing and distribution, estimated at 15-25%,6 have not been realized. The continuation of print is due to a number of factors, including the early reluctance by libraries to go online-only and the bundling of print and online by the large commercial publishers (more on this below). 2 Market factors Several aspects of the academic journal marketplace make subscriptions economically unsustainable. Scholarly articles are unique and have low substitutability.7 Likewise, “any journal is at best an imperfect substitute for any other journal.”8 In other markets, substitution mechanisms keep prices competitive, but scholarly articles and journals are unlike most consumer goods. This contributes to an “inelastic demand market,”9 in which demand is not sensitive to price increases. Access to research is essential for faculty, who prefer it to be as comprehensive as possible, thus contributing to inelasticity. Because a 1% price increase results in 0.3% decline in subscriptions, “publishers have a strong incentive to increase prices faster than the growth rate of library budgets.”10 For-profit journals are priced 10-15 times higher than non-profit publisher titles.11 Let’s be clear: we are talking about a true market failure. This is a market in which the creation of the information that publishers sell in their journals is not typically funded by them but by subsidies from someone else—be it governments, research foundations, or whatever… They make a relatively small investment and then (rationally) charge a high price for the end product.12 3 The scholarly journal marketplace has consolidated in recent years. Three companies dominate: Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley. Elsevier is the dominant force in science, technology, and medical (STM) publishing, with three times the market share of its closest competitor.13 Commercial publishers have established considerable monopoly power, playing a role in 60% of all peer-reviewed journals, owning 45% and publishing 17% on behalf of non-profit organizations.14 In STM, seven major commercial publishers account for 30% of peer-reviewed titles but 60% of the market’s revenue.15 In February of 2007, Wiley acquired Blackwell and the merged companies now publish about 1,250 scholarly journals and hundreds of scholarly books per year.16 These mergers often result in higher prices. Journals published by Pergamon rose 27% in price after Elsevier bought the company, and after law publishers West and Thomson merged, prices rose 30%.17 Due to their market dominance and pricing practices, commercial publishers are receiving more scrutiny than ever before. Ivy Anderson, director of collections at the California Digital Library, “examined UC-affiliated authorship in Elsevier journals, and concluded that 2.2% of journal articles were authored by members of the UC community. From this, Anderson calculated that Elsevier’s UC-related revenue amounted to $31 million, including $9.8 million in profit.”18 The segmented nature of the scholarly communications marketplace exacerbates the power of the largest publishing entities to exploit highly resilient niche “monopolies”. When a journal is firmly established, there are no substitutes for it. For example, the owner of a prestigious journal title is in a position to attract the best papers and then to charge monopoly rents for access to that research. Due to faculty influence, libraries feel tremendous pressure to continue subscribing to top tier journals regardless of prices. One might argue that authors should stop submitting papers to these journals, but their incentives (i.e. the criteria on which their tenure and promotion are based) dictate otherwise. As more scholarship migrates to the largest publishers, these niche monopolies are likely to be consolidated, reinforcing their power relative to libraries.19 Commercial publishers bundle subscriptions together in a practice often referred to as the “Big Deal.” Bundling refers to selling print and online versions together, as well as grouping many titles in a package, regardless of format.20 Libraries are prevented or effectively discouraged from making individual selections due to pricing differentials. Contracts cover multiple years, lock in annual price increases, and do not allow refunds for cancellations.21 Sometimes the same journals are included in multiple contracts, so libraries end up paying for duplicates.22 While some say that the “Big Deal” is not sustainable and is at a crisis point,23 others argue that it has widened access, reduced the average cost per subscription and per article download, and will likely remain the dominant business model for the foreseeable future.24 Many libraries have responded in kind by licensing content through consortia. Each “Big Deal” negotiation between the publisher and a library or consortia is based on individual characteristics,25 and the contract includes a non-disclosure clause. Academic libraries do not know what other libraries are paying for the resource, which effectively weakens their negotiation powers.26 However, a group of researchers has recently succeeded in using open records laws to gain access to many of these agreements, and analysis is forthcoming.27 Early reports are that libraries are sometimes paying vastly different sums for identical content. Faculty and students are usually unaware of journal costs,28 and are insulated from them by the library. The economist Mark McCabe described this situation: One distinctive aspect of this market is that end users do not pay for the material they use since the actual purchases are mediated by the libraries. This means that the principals (the professors, the scientists, the researchers of a particular institution) ask their agent (the library) to buy whatever they need, and the agent has no way of enforcing price discipline on the users. So there is a disconnect.29 4 The proliferation of academic journals contributes to rising costs. Since 1983, the number of published articles has doubled, as has the number of academic journals.30 The annual rate of growth of published articles is estimated at approximately 3%,31 or 2.5 million articles per year, published in 25,000 journals.32 Top science and medical journals report a doubling of submissions in recent years.33 About 100 new peer-reviewed journals are started annually, most of them by commercial publishers.34 Control over scholarship Control over content is a long-standing problem in scholarly publishing. Many decry the copyright monopoly of publishers due to the permissions needed for class use, and in some cases, faculty need permission to use their own research when teaching.35 Author rights and fair use are becoming serious issues as the trend of stronger copyright law and its enforcement continues.36 A survey of faculty in the University of California system found that the large majority ceded copyright to their articles, while 7% modified publishing contracts and 4% refused to accept contract terms: UC faculty appear to believe that nearly all published materials eventually appear online through the efforts of publishers or aggregators, and are accessible to almost anyone on the Internet. Such is not the case, however, as many published materials are legally accessible only by subscription or with the explicit author/institutional act of alternative or supplementary dissemination. 37 Questions of control will likely grow more frequent as younger faculty are hired: ... the current generation of students has grown up with a variety of forms of file and content sharing, legal and otherwise. This generation greets with dumbfounded mystification the explanation of how researchers perform research, write an article, make the figures, and then are not permitted to do as they please with the final product.38 The “Big Deal” plays a role here as well. Bundling replaces subscriptions with contracts, and because contract law can exclude fair use, publishers are able to determine the use of content.39 Now that much of scholarly publishing occurs in the online environment, there are concerns that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) will further benefit commercial interests, since it has even stronger protections for digital media.40 The DMCA “gives rights holders the exclusive right to control any computer-mediated use of their works, and captures in its regulatory scope all uses that were once excluded from control in prior media.”41 Libraries cite numerous other issues with the current state of affairs in the electronic environment. Many publishers limit the number of concurrent users as well as disallow off-campus use, walk-in use, and interlibrary loan.42 Some publishers have implemented Digital Rights Management (DRM) policies, preventing downloads and charging per view rather than at a flat rate.43 Because many electronic resources are leased rather than purchased, there is concern about archiving.44 Course packs require copyright fees. Since universities pay the salaries of their faculty authors and for journal subscriptions, they could end up paying two or three times for the use of the material when they pay copyright fees.45 For all of these reasons, universities are not always receiving the full value of their purchase.46 Barriers to access beyond the library Barriers of price and permissions prevent the spread of information in a number of situations. For example, professors often need permission to use articles in their classes, sometimes even their own articles;47 students who become used to easy access to scholarship find that access gone upon graduation;48 citizens researching medical conditions find themselves walled off from research their taxes 5 may have funded; and scholars in the developing world find themselves unable to fully participate in or benefit from research.49 While some publishers provide free or discounted access in developing countries, not all publishers participate, and countries like India are left out.50 Restrictions on access result in numerous work-arounds. Scholarly articles are illegally posted and downloaded on file-sharing websites just like popular music. Requests on a medical article-sharing site were fulfilled about 83% of the time.51 Recently, an online business began renting access to individual articles, offering a variety of payment plans.52 Many publishers charge to download individual articles, with fees often around $30. For years, authors have mailed or e-mailed their articles to colleagues who requested them due to lack of access. A recent survey of biologists in India revealed that 84% had contacted an author, or a friend with better access, in a three-month period.53 But requests are not always successful, and responding to them is time consuming for authors. Open Access While there are a number of ways to define open access, the simplest definition is that it means “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.”54 Open access removes barriers of price and permissions, which enables numerous additional benefits. Benefits of openness Open science is based on the premise that scholarly information is a public good.55 In addition, fundamental access to information has an ethical dimension, and enhances justice and human development.56 While some see open access as a threat to the scholarly communications system they have always known and are comfortable with, others view it as a return to the traditional values of open scholarship.57 Scholarship is a cumulative process, and its success depends on wide and rapid dissemination of new knowledge so that findings can be discarded if they are unreliable or built on if they are confirmed. Society overall benefits from the open exchange of ideas within the scholarly community. This notion of ‘open science’ arises early in Western thought, dating back to Saint Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries... 58 The citation advantage enjoyed by open access articles is well documented.59 One study found that open access articles receive twice as many citations as articles behind pay barriers, and the advantage is sustained over time.60 Some are more skeptical, attributing the results to “early view effect” (open access articles were online earlier) and selection bias (better articles, or better authors giving them open access).61 But the vast majority of studies show that open access results in more citations and possibly greater article impact, which in turn can affect tenure and promotion decisions. This comparative advantage will disappear as open access advances,62 though all articles will then benefit from increased circulation. Open access also enables data mining. Open access is likely necessary (but not sufficient) for large-scale computation of the scholarly literature, though it will not help with the vast corpus of past literature behind permissions barriers.63 There is more to open access than just free access. True open access permits any 3rd party to aggregate and data-mine the articles, themselves treated as computable objects, linkable and interoperable with associated databases.64 6 The benefits of openness for data sets are well established: The success of the genome project, which is generally considered to be one of the great scientific achievements of recent times, is due in no small part to the fact that the world’s entire library of published DNA sequences has been an open-access public resource for the past 20 years. If the sequences could be obtained only in the way that traditionally published work can be obtained, that is, one article at a time under conditions set by the publisher, there would be no genome project.65 Data sets are increasingly listed as scholarly publications and cited in articles,66 and due to the explosion of data-driven research, better linkages to and from datasets are needed.67 Openness is necessary for research integrity, so data can be examined and verified.68 Access to the widest number of articles increases the effectiveness of plagiarism detection software.69 Open data enables unforeseen uses, often interdisciplinary in nature.70 A recent study confirmed this in a comparison of academic papers on genetically engineered mice, in which open data not only resulted in more downstream research, but more diversity in research approaches.71 Generating additional research can have positive economic effects, in addition to improved returns on research and development inputs.72 Two roads to open access Authors can provide open access to their publications in two ways. First, self-archiving (sometimes referred to as “green” open access) is article deposit in a disciplinary or institutional archive. While posting an article to the author’s web site also provides access, it is problematic for preservation, metadata, and linking. Second, authors may choose to publish in open access journals (sometimes referred to as “gold” open access). Open access journals do not charge subscription fees, and publish issues online for all to read. In addition, some subscription journals offer open access for individual articles for a fee, paid by the author or a surrogate. This method, called hybrid open access, results in online journals that have some articles freely available while others are behind a subscription barrier. Self-archiving Self-archiving provides access to articles accepted for publication, which shortens the time lag from research to dissemination.73 Most commercial publishers now permit archiving by authors.74 However, permissions don’t result in access, because that depends on the individual efforts of authors, and the rate of voluntary self-archiving is currently only 15%.75 Lack of a central place to find archived articles is being addressed by the rise of more disciplinary archives as well as aggregated metadata from the Open Archives Initiative.76 Faculty in some fields deposit articles and keep up with new research through disciplinary archives. The first was arXiv, started by Paul Ginsparg in August 1991 for physics and since expanded to other fields.77 Numerous in the sciences, where quick dissemination of results is important, disciplinary archives have also been started in the social sciences, but are less numerous in the humanities.78 Researchers continue to publish in parallel with deposit, so this practice does not ameliorate the serials crisis, but provides all the other benefits of open access. Self-archiving of articles in astronomy, some branches of physics, and a few other specialized fields approaches 100%. Yet physics journals, for example, have not suffered from subscription cancellations.79 Some journals use embargoes (sometimes called delayed open access) of 6 to 12 months in order to protect subscriptions. In the last few years, many universities have begun digital archives, often called institutional repositories, to host faculty papers as well as various online projects. Virtually all major research libraries now host an 7 institutional repository. However, most repositories have not met with success. Dependence on voluntary submissions, not to mention still-developing software, has meant that many repositories host relatively few items.80 Repositories offer significant advantages over faculty web pages for hosting articles, including the provision of metadata, indexing, and preservation, and universities have an opportunity to showcase their research outputs.81 It is sometimes difficult to determine the status of archived articles, because faculty often fail to identify the version, and do not replace earlier versions with a final version.82 Multiple versions online concurrently complicates the scholarly record, though recommended terminology should help clarify manuscript status.83 Many researchers will read an author-posted version of an article and then cite the published version, which may not be accessible to them.84 Most faculty already use search engines to find articles, leading one researcher to comment that there is currently a far greater demand for open access scholarship than is currently being met by self-archiving.85 Open access journals Open access journals differ from traditional academic journals only in making their contents freely available to all online, usually without any embargo period. The publication process, including submission, peer review, editing, and publication, is otherwise identical. The Directory of Open Access Journals86 provides a central location for searching peer-reviewed journals in various fields, and now includes over 4,400 titles. Currently only 2% of all articles are published in open access journals.87 The influence of journal prestige on tenure and promotion committees, and therefore on faculty authors, is cited as a disincentive to publish in open access journals, most of which are recent in origin.88 By rewarding faculty who win a journal's imprimatur, mindful of the journal's prestige but heedless of its access policies, universities [and funders] shift bargaining power from authors to publishers of high-prestige journals. They give publishers less incentive to modify their standard contracts and authors greater incentive to sign whatever publishers put in front of them.89 In addition, the exclusion effect of the “big deals” makes market entry more difficult for all new journals, whether open access or not.90 Business models The most active debate about open access journals concerns their business models. At the moment, it remains to be seen whether a dominant business model for open access journals will emerge. Author fees, grants, membership subscriptions, sponsorship/advertising, commercial reprints, classified advertising, print subscriptions, subsidy or support in kind from the host organization, and charges for value added content are among open access journal sources of support.91 The author fee, sometimes called the article processing charge (APC), causes the most concern for faculty. However, only about 27% of open-access journals charge fees,92 and fees can be included in grants from funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). Fees tend to be found in disciplines with the most grant support.93 But author fees are rising, leading some to speculate that this model may not solve the journal affordability problem.94 Recently a study was begun to investigate the possibility of fees upon article submission rather than on acceptance.95 While there were early criticisms from publishers that ability to pay author fees may influence an article’s acceptance,96 journals using this model keep evaluation and payment functions separate. Many journals requiring an author fee offer waivers. While waivers can help the 25% of authors from developing countries,97 the lost fees affect journal sustainability. Waiver data are scarce, but Oxford University Press 8 reports a rate of 6-7%.98 Institutional memberships can be used to cover or reduce author fees with some journals,99 although Yale cancelled its membership with BioMed Central when the cost rose to $30,000 per year.100 Many faculty in the humanities and social sciences do not have grants, and even in the sciences, research funding varies greatly. For this reason, some universities have created funds for faculty without grants who wish to publish in a journal charging author fees. The potential for transitioning subscription costs to funds for author fees is in dispute. The costs and benefits of subscriptions as compared to open access models are difficult to determine since they charge in very different ways.101 Although about 30 journals have switched from the subscription model to open access,102 none of significance have done so, and there are few if any examples of cost recovery. While BioMed Central (now part of Springer) and Hindawi are said to be financially successful, and PLoS is reported to break even soon, data is lacking, and no dominant business model has emerged. It seems unlikely that one model will serve as a panacea. Hybrid open access allows subscription journals to experiment with a potential transition to open access without substantial change to their business model.103 About 75% of subscription journals charge author fees for open access, while only 27% of open access journals do.104 Less than 1% of all articles published are hybrid open access.105 Hybrid journals haven’t reduced subscription costs for libraries,106 and concerns have been raised that publishers are simply using open access fees as an additional revenue stream.107 However, two journals recently announced lower subscription prices as a result of authors taking the open access option.108 Some speculate that various open access activities could force publishers to moderate their prices. Self- archiving is cited as one of these, but so far there is little evidence that subscriptions have been affected.109 Some open access journal income models introduce market dynamics that could moderate prices systemically.110 There is speculation that enough self-archiving mandates could reduce prices in the long term, but so far there is no evidence that any form of open access will reduce the costs of scholarly communication.111 However, some say that even in the absence of cost savings, the advantages of open access are sufficient to advocate for a transition. For them, the primary issue is access to research, not solving problems of journal economics. Disciplinary differences can affect receptiveness to open access. Some faculty in the humanities view open access as a STM issue, but as journal costs take up a greater proportion of library budgets, resources important to the humanities can be eliminated. Monograph purchases have been reduced, resulting in greater financial pressures on university presses and more difficulty in publishing dissertations.112 Less expensive journals, often in the humanities, may be at risk.113 Dramatic increases in interlibrary loan in recent years114 may reflect less access to humanities resources. Perhaps because articles in the humanities tend to retain their currency, many publishers oppose self-archiving, though some journals are beginning to offer open access publication.115 Open access misconceptions Because open access is relatively new, dynamic, and varied in implementation, it has often been misinterpreted. Many faculty fear for peer review and don’t trust open access.116 But as Peter Suber puts it, “the goal is to remove access barriers, not quality filters.”117 Self-archived articles have been peer- reviewed elsewhere, or are undergoing peer review, and all titles in the Directory of Open Access Journals have some form of peer review. Faculty also are concerned about rights infringement, as well as the time and difficulty of self-archiving.118 Yet faculty have control over their own articles through author addenda or alternative licensing such as Creative Commons.119 The time and difficulty of self- 9 archiving is minimal120 and some universities provide this service to faculty.121 Open access applies to unpaid, scholarly, royalty-free works—primarily the research articles that faculty write for the advancement of knowledge and to meet tenure and promotion requirements. Income-generating works such as textbooks, patents, or other significant intellectual property are not affected. Peter Suber provides a comprehensive guide to open access misunderstandings in an issue of the Open Access Newsletter.122 University Support for Open Access In 2005, the NIH asked its grant recipients to voluntarily self-archive their articles, within 12 months of journal acceptance, to PubMed Central123 in order to provide public access to taxpayer-funded research. Resulting rates of deposit were less than 5%. As noted above, requests for voluntary archiving tend to be ignored, just as publisher permissions do not lead to self-archiving. In early 2008, archiving became mandatory, and deposits skyrocketed.124 This funder mandate was soon joined by a faculty self-mandate at Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.125 The two mandates are the most significant developments in the history of the open access movement, and have begun a wave of similar actions. At this writing, mandates worldwide have risen to 42 by funders, 50 by institutions, and 14 by departments.126 In 2009, Kansas University became the first large public institution to implement a mandate.127 It is widely believed that the NSF is considering a mandate.128 If passed, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 would extend the mandate to all government agencies with extramural research budgets of $100 million or more, and shorten the embargo period to 6 months.129 Several proposed university mandates will likely continue open access momentum. After the failure of voluntary archiving, mandates are viewed by many as the only way to alter established habits and inertia.130 “Mandate” is something of a misnomer, because the majority are faculty self-mandates, and because virtually all contain a waiver. At some universities, open access is piecemeal, because faculty are self-mandating at the department or college level. Due to low faculty awareness of open access, outreach and numerous conversations are necessary.131 The presence of a waiver and flexibility regarding disciplinary differences are important, as is the emphasis on self-archiving as opposed to publishing in open access journals. While open access policies at universities differ, Harvard’s grants the university a non-exclusive license, requires opt out rather than an opt in, and has no embargo.132 Waivers are automatic, but must be applied for to the dean.133 Harvard created an Office of Scholarly Communication to coordinate open access policy, which required funding from the provost’s office.134 At the University of Liège, the mandate is stronger, because faculty publications must be in the institutional repository in order to receive consideration for tenure and promotion.135 Faculty are being encouraged to use grants for publication fees, publish in open access journals, use alternative licensing (such as Creative Commons) or use author addenda to retain rights, and refuse to publish in, edit, or serve on editorial boards of journals with “predatory” pricing. Managers of institutional repositories are also urging faculty to retain a copy of all publication contracts, in order to determine future archiving permissions. A few universities, including the University of California-Berkeley, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Tennessee, have created funds to cover publication fees.136 Faculty without grant funding who wish to publish in a fee-charging open access or hybrid journal can apply. So far the funds appear to be benefiting faculty at lower rank, as well as those in their first year, postdocs, and even graduate students. Universities have also demonstrated support for open access by joining groups such as the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity,137 becoming a member of the Directory of Open Access 10 Journals, and by hosting open access journals. Universities have started institutional repositories for faculty articles, revised tenure and promotion guidelines to encourage openness, and rejected the “Big Deal” contracts of large publishers. Conclusion A transformation of scholarly communication is underway. While the number of funders and universities implementing mandates is currently a tiny minority of the total, open access is generating significant momentum, and some feel that it is inevitable. The values represented by open access receive strong support, but implementing a new system of dissemination presents numerous challenges. Faculty have the power to determine the conditions under which their articles are published. Actions can include mandating article archiving at the university, college, or department level, retaining rights through the use of author addenda or alternative licensing, and publishing in open access journals. To support faculty engagement in open access, universities can create open access funds and ensure alignment of tenure and promotion requirements. Services to save faculty time can include streamlined deposit of articles into digital archives, handling copyright and licensing issues, submitting articles to additional sites if requested, monitoring embargo periods, and generating statistics. Closer relationships between libraries and offices overseeing research and grants may be necessary. Universities are beginning to renew the dissemination function as central to their mission. Open access and subscription journals currently coexist, and will likely do so for years to come. Solving problems of journal economics may take many more years. The primary motivation for open access is providing fundamental access to research. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Commission on Research as well as the Library Faculty Association for supporting my proposal to write this paper, and my colleagues Gail McMillan and Paul Metz for reviewing it in draft form. Any errors or omissions are my own. 11 References 1 Mike Furlough, “Journal economics: a turning point,” Scholarly Communication Toolkit (January 6, 2009), http://www.acrl.ala.org/scholcomm/node/9. 2 Research Information Network, “Scholarly books and journals at risk: responding to the challenges of a changing economy,” (March 2009), http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/sarah/Scholarly- books-journals-risk-briefing.pdf. 3 Christine L. Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age: information, infrastructure, and the Internet (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2007), 56. 4 Alma Swan, “The culture of open access: researchers’ views and responses,” in Open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects, ed. Neil Jacobs (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006), http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/12428/1/asj7.pdf. 5 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 111-112. 6 National Academies, Electronic scientific, technical, and medical journal publishing and its implications: report of a symposium (Washington, D.C. : The National Academies Press, 2004), 14. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10969.html. 7 Lisa Richmond, “The dark side of online journals: commercial publishers dominate online scholarly journal production,” Z Magazine (June 2009), http://www.zmag.org/zmag/viewArticlePrint/21606. 8 Mark J. McCabe, “The impact of publisher mergers on journal prices: theory and evidence,” The Serials Librarian 40:1/2 (2001): 157-166. 9 Furlough, “Journal economics” ; Richmond, “The dark side of online journals.” 10 McCabe, “The impact of publisher mergers on journal prices.” 11 Carl T. Bergstrom and Theodore C. Bergstrom, “The economics of ecology journals,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4:9 (2006): p. 488-495. http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Journals/EcologyJournals.pdf 12 Richard Poynder, “A true market failure: professor Mark McCabe talks about problems in the STM publishing industry,” Information Today 19:11 (2002). 13 Furlough, “Journal economics.” 14 Raym Crow, “Publishing cooperatives: an alternative for non-profit publishers,” First Monday 11: 9 (September 2006), http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1396/1314. 15 Ibid. 16 Laura Brown, Rebecca Griffiths, and Matthew Rascoff, “University publishing in a digital age,” Ithaka report (July 26, 2007), http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s- r/strategy/Ithaka%20University%20Publishing%20Report.pdf. 17 Richmond, “The dark side of online journals.” 18 Josh Hadro, “ALA 2009: Academic libraries urged to consider maverick models of publishing,” Library Journal (July 16, 2009), http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6671431.html. 19 Brown, Griffiths, and Rascoff, “University publishing in a digital age.” 20 Aaron S. Edlin and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, “ Exclusion or efficient pricing: the big deal bundling of academic journals,” Antitrust Law Journal 72:1 (2004), 119-157. 21 Ibid. 22 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 112. 23 Mike Rossner, “A challenge to Goliath,” The Journal of Experimental Medicine 206:5 (2009), 971. http://www.jem.org/cgi/doi/10.1084/jem.20090836 24 Mark Ware and Michael Mabe, “The STM report: an overview of scientific and scholarly journals publishing,” STM: International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (2009), http://www.stm-assoc.org/2009_10_13_MWC_STM_Report.pdf 25 Edlin and Rubinfeld, “Exclusion or efficient pricing.” 12 26 Richmond, “The dark side of online journals.” 27 Ted Bergstrom, “Big Deal contract project,” (2009), http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Journals/BundleContracts.html 28 Richmond, “The dark side of online journals.” 29 Poynder, “A true market failure.” 30 Nawin Gupta et al., “Shifting costs in the journal publishing world,” The Serials Librarian 56:1 (2009), 95-100. 31 Research Information Network, “Scholarly books and journals at risk.” 32 Andrew Odlyzko, “Economic costs of toll access,” in Open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects, ed. Neil Jacobs (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006). 33 A. McCook, “Is peer review broken?,” Scientist 20:2 (2006), 26. 34 Lee C. Van Orsdel and Kathleen Born, “Reality bites: periodicals price survey 2009,” Library Journal (April 15, 2009), http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6651248.html. 35 Art Jahnke and Jessica Ullian, “University Council approves open access plan,” BU Today (February 17, 2009), http://www.bu.edu/today/node/8320. 36 Tim Hackman, “What’s the opposite of a pyrrhic victory? Lessons learned from an open access defeat,” C&RL News 70:8 (October 2009), http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2009/oct/pyrrhicvict.cfm ; K.A. Wallace, “Marketing ideas,” Science Progress (April 10, 2008), http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/04/marketing-ideas/print 37 University of California, “Faculty attitudes and behaviors regarding scholarly communication: survey findings from the University of California,” (August 2007), http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/responses/materials/OSC-survey-full-20070828.pdf 38 Paul Ginsparg, “Next-generation implications of open access,” CTWatch Quarterly 3: 3 (August 2007), 11-18, http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/articles/2007/08/next-generation-implications-of-open- access/index.html 39 Richmond, “The dark side of online journals.” 40 Wallace, “Marketing ideas.” 41 Yochai Benkler, The wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006), 440. 42 Judith M. Panitch and Sarah Michalak, “The serials crisis: a white paper for the UNC-Chapel Hill Scholarly Communications Convocation,” (January 2005), http://www.unc.edu/scholcomdig/whitepapers/panitch-michalak.html 43 Larry Thompson, “SAE and Digital Rights (Mis)management, or, how to marginalize your product, alienate your customers, and jeopardize your future (in three easy steps),” (poster presented at the annual conference of ASEE, Pittsburgh, 2008). 44 National Academies, Electronic scientific, technical, and medical journal publishing and its implications, 44. 45 Wallace, “Marketing ideas.” 46 Panitch and Michalak, “The serials crisis.” 47 Jahnke and Ullian, “University Council approves open access plan.” 48 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 3. 49 Raym Crow, “Income models for open access: an overview of current practice,” (2009), http://www.arl.org/sparc/bm~doc/incomemodels_v1.pdf 50 Patrick Gaulé, “Access to scientific literature in India,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60:12 (2009), 2548-2553, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.21195. 13 51 Ken Masters, “Opening the non-open access medical journals: Internet-based sharing of journal articles on a medical web site,” The Internet Journal of Medical Informatics 5: 1 (2009),http://www.ispub.com/journal/the_internet_journal_of_medical_informatics/volume_5_number_1 _52/article/opening-the-non-open-access-medical-journals-internet-based-sharing-of-journal-articles-on- a-medical-web-site.html 52 Frederic Lardinois, “Netflix for researchers: Deep Dyve launches rental service for research articles,” ReadWriteWeb (October 27, 2009), http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netflix_for_researchers_deep_dyve_launches_rental_service_for_ articles.php 53 Gaulé, “Access to scientific literature in India,” 2552. 54 Peter Suber, “Open access overview,” (2007), http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm 55 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 35. 56 Panitch and Michalak, “The serials crisis” ; Benkler, The wealth of networks, 13. 57 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 36 ; John Willinsky, The access principle: the case for open access to research and scholarship (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2006). http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/ebook.asp?ttype=2&tid=10611 58 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 35. 59 G. Eysenbach, “Citation advantage of open access articles,” PLoS Biology 4:5 (2006), e157, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040157 ; a bibliography of open access citation studies is available at http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html. 60 Michael Kurtz and Tim Brody, “The impact loss to authors and research,” in Open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects, ed. Neil Jacobs (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006). 61 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 62 Ginsparg, “Next-generation implications of open access” ; Willinsky, The access principle, 23. 63 Clifford Lynch, “Open computation: beyond human reader-centric views of scholarly literatures,” in Open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects, ed. Neil Jacobs (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006). 64 Ginsparg, “Next-generation implications of open access.” 65 National Academies, Electronic scientific, technical, and medical journal publishing and its implications, 30. 66 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 8. 67 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 68 National Academies, Ensuring the integrity, accessibility, and stewardship of research data in the digital age (Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2009), http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12615.html 69 Arthur Sale, “Researchers and institutional repositories,” in Open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects, ed. Neil Jacobs (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006). http://eprints.utas.edu.au/257/1/Chapter.pdf 70 National Academies, Ensuring the integrity, accessibility, and stewardship of research data in the digital age. 71 Fiona Murray et al., “Of mice and academics: examining the effect of openness on innovation,” National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER working paper 14819 (2009), http://www.nber.org/papers/w14819.pdf 72 John Houghton and Peter Sheehan, “The economic impact of enhanced access to research findings,” Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, CSES working paper no. 23 (July 2006), http://www.cfses.com/documents/wp23.pdf 73 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 51 ; Eysenbach, “Citation advantage of open access articles.” 14 74 Richard Poynder, “Compact for Open-access Publishing Equity: mistaking intent for action?,” (September 26, 2009), http://poynder.blogspot.com/2009/09/compact-for-open-access-publishing.html ; Peter Suber, SPARC Open Access Newsletter 128 (December 2, 2008), http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/12-02-08.htm 75 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 102 ; Poynder, “Compact for Open-access Publishing Equity.” 76 OAIster, http://www.oclc.org/oaister/about/default.htm. 77 Ginsparg, “Next-generation implications of open access” ; see http://www.arxiv.org. 78 See a list of disciplinary repositories at http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Disciplinary_repositories. 79 Zoe Corbyn and Matthew Reisz, “Learning to share,” Times Higher Education (November 12, 2009), http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409049&c=2 80 Dorothea Salo, “Innkeeper at the Roach Motel,” Library Trends 57:2 (Fall 2008), http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/22088 81 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report” ; Denise Troll Covey, “Self-archiving journal articles: a case study of faculty practice and missed opportunity,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 9:2 (2009), 249. 82 Troll Covey, “Self-archiving journal articles,” 238, 249. 83 National Information Standards Organization, “Journal Article Versions (JAV): Recommendations of the NISO/ALPSP JAV Technical Working Group,” (April 2008), http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/RP-8-2008.pdf 84 Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 104. 85 Kristin Antelman, “Self-archiving practice and the influence of publisher policies in the social sciences,” Learned Publishing 19:2 (April 2006), 85-95. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/kaantelm/antelman_self-archiving.pdf 86 See http://www.doaj.org. 87 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 88 Benkler, The wealth of networks, 324 ; Borgman, Scholarship in the digital age, 72 ; University of California, “Faculty attitudes and behaviors regarding scholarly communication.” 89 Peter Suber, SPARC Open Access Newsletter 105 (January 2, 2007), http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/01-02-07.htm 90 Edlin and Rubinfeld, “Exclusion or efficient pricing.” 91 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 92 Stuart Shieber, “What percentage of open-access journals charge publication fees?,” (May 29, 2009), http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2009/05/29/what-percentage-of-open-access-journals-charge- publication-fees/ 93 Stuart Shieber, “Equity for open-access journal publishing,” PLoS Biology 7:8 (August 2009), http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000165 94 Poynder, “Compact for Open-access Publishing Equity.” 95 Mark Ware, “Open access submission fees,” (November 4, 2009), http://mrkwr.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/open-access-submission-fees/ 96 National Academies, Electronic scientific, technical, and medical journal publishing and its implications, 28. 97 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 98 Ibid. 99 e.g. PLoS, http://www.plos.org/support/instmembership.html. 100 Richard Poynder, “Open access: whom would you back?,” (March 10, 2009), http://www.richardpoynder.co.uk/whom_would_you_back.pdf 101 Jonas Holmstrom, “The cost per article reading of open access articles,” D-Lib Magazine 10:1 (January 2004), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january04/holmstrom/01holmstrom.html. 102 Committee for Economic Development, “Harnessing openness to improve research, teaching and learning in higher education,”, (September 22, 2009), http://www.arl.org/sparc/bm~doc/dcc_opennessedu_10-19.pdf 15 103 e.g. Springer Open Choice, http://www.springer.com/open+access/open+choice. 104 Walt Crawford, “Library access to scholarship,” Cites & Insights 9:12 (November 2009), http://citesandinsights.info/civ9i12.pdf 105 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 106 Sean O’Doherty and Bob Boissy, “Is there a future for the traditional subscription-based journal?,” The Serials Librarian 56 (2009),155-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03615260802678582 107 Wellcome Trust, “Wellcome Trust calls for greater transparency from journals on open access publishing costs,” (October 19, 2009), http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press- releases/2009/WTX057058.htm 108 Nature Publishing Group, “Open access uptake prompts 9% price reduction for The EMBO Journal and EMBO reports,” (November 12, 2009), http://www.nature.com/press_releases/emboopen.html. 109 Ware and Mabe, “The STM report.” 110 Crow, “Income models for open access.” 111 Poynder, “Compact for Open-access Publishing Equity.” 112 Robert Darnton, “Open access,” in The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future (New York: Public Affairs, 2009) ; Hackman, “What’s the opposite of a pyrrhic victory?” ; McCabe, “The impact of publisher mergers on journal prices.” 113 Panitch and Michalak, “The serials crisis.” 114 Anne K. Beaubien, “ARL white paper on interlibrary loan,” (June 2007), http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/ARL_white_paper_ILL_june07.pdf 115 Corbyn and Reisz, “Learning to share” ; e.g. Brill Open, http://www.brill.nl/openaccess. 116 O’Doherty and Boissy, “Is there a future for the traditional subscription-based journal?” 117 Peter Suber, “A field guide to misunderstandings about open access,” Open Access Newsletter 132 (April 2, 2009), http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/04-02-09.htm. 118 Swan, “The culture of open access.” 119 For addenda, see http://scholars.sciencecommons.org; for alternative licensing, see http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses. 120 Time for archiving is commonly given as 10 minutes; see Swan, “The culture of open access” ; Corbyn and Reisz, “Learning to share.” 121 Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, “SPARC member spotlight: testing the waters with open-access funds (University of California at Berkeley and the University of Calgary),” (2009), http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/articles/mp-berkeley-calgary.shtml. 122 Suber, “A field guide to misunderstandings about open access.” 123 See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc. 124 For deposit statistics, see http://www.nihms.nih.gov/stats/. 125 Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, “Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences,” SPARC Innovators (June 2008), http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/harvardfas.shtml. 126 See http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/. 127See http://www.news.ku.edu/2009/june/26/openaccess.shtml. 128 Van Orsdel and Born, “Reality bites.” 129 See http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.111s1373. 130 Stevan Harnad, “Opening access by overcoming Zeno's paralysis,” in Open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects, ed. Neil Jacobs (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006), http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/12094/ ; Odlyzko, “Economic costs of toll access.” 131 Darnton, “Open access” ; Hackman, “What’s the opposite of a pyrrhic victory?” 132 SPARC, “Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences.” 133 Darnton, “Open access.” 134 SPARC, “Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences.” 16 135 Peter Suber, “U of Liege OA mandate moves past its experimental phase,” Open Access News (January 3, 2009), http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/01/u-of-liege-oa-mandate-now.html. 136 SPARC, “SPARC member spotlight.” 137See http://www.oacompact.org. 
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www-aaup-org-3711	----	1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure | AAUP Skip to main content Alert Top Message Due to concerns about COVID-19, the AAUP office has transitioned to telework. Please contact staff by email.   Visit the AAUP Foundation Secondary menu Contact Events Career Center Search form Search Submit Join Login About Mission Constitution Biennial Meeting Find a Chapter Elected Leaders Staff Committees Organizational Restructuring History Programs Academic Freedom Shared Governance Chapter Organizing Collective Bargaining Summer Institute Webinars Research Legal Program Government Relations Membership Join/Renew My Account Benefits of Membership Start a Chapter Support Your Union AAUP Shirts and Gear Issues Academic Freedom Shared Governance COVID-19 Pandemic Responding to Financial Crisis Racial Justice Contingent Faculty Positions Tenure Workplace Issues Privatization in Online Education Gender and Sexuality in Higher Education Targeted Harassment Faculty Speech after the 2016 Election Border Searches Intellectual Property & Copyright Civility Sanctuary Campuses Reports/Pubs AAUP Policies & Reports Academe Faculty Compensation Survey Bulletin of the AAUP The Redbook Journal of Academic Freedom Guidebooks News AAUP in the News Read AAUP Updates Join Our Email List Chapter Resources For All Chapters For Union Chapters Chapter Websites Chapter Profiles Start a Chapter Forming a Union Chapter Chapter Responsibilities State Conferences State Conference Directory State Conference Committee A Resources Good Practices for Chapters & Conferences Election Guidance for State Conferences Support for State Conferences   You are here Home 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure Download:  1940 Statement.pdf In 1915 the Committee on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure of the American Association of University Professors formulated a statement of principles on academic freedom and academic tenure known as the 1915 Declaration of Principles, which was officially endorsed by the Association at its Second Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C., December 31, 1915, and January 1, 1916. In 1925 the American Council on Education called a conference of representatives of a number of its constituent members, among them the American Association of University Professors, for the purpose of formulating a shorter statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure. The statement formulated at this conference, known as the 1925 Conference Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure, was endorsed by the Association of American Colleges (now the Association of American Colleges and Universities) in 1925 and by the American Association of University Professors in 1926. In 1940, following a series of joint conferences begun in 1934, representatives of the American Association of University Professors and of the Association of American Colleges (now the Association of American Colleges and Universities) agreed upon a restatement of principles set forth in the 1925 Conference Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure. This restatement is known to the profession as the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Following extensive discussions on the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure with leading educational associations and with individual faculty members and administrators, a joint committee of the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges met during 1969 to reevaluate this key policy statement. On the basis of the comments received, and the discussions that ensued, the joint committee felt the preferable approach was to formulate interpretations of the 1940 Statement from the experience gained in implementing and applying it for over thirty years and of adapting it to current needs.  The committee submitted to the two associations for their consideration Interpretive Comments that are included below as footnotes to the 1940 Statement.1 These interpretations were adopted by the Council of the American Association of University Professors in April 1970 and endorsed by the Fifty-Sixth Annual Meeting as Association Policy. The purpose of this statement is to promote public understanding and support of academic freedom and tenure and agreement upon procedures to ensure them in colleges and universities. Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole.2 The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research. Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning. It carries with it duties correlative with rights.3 Tenure is a means to certain ends; specifically: (1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities, and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability. Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society. Academic Freedom Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties; but research for pecuniary return should be based upon an understanding with the authorities of the institution. Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject.4 Limitations of academic freedom because of religious or other aims of the institution should be clearly stated in writing at the time of the appointment.5 College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.6 Academic Tenure After the expiration of a probationary period, teachers or investigators should have permanent or continuous tenure, and their service should be terminated only for adequate cause, except in the case of retirement for age, or under extraordinary circumstances because of financial exigencies. In the interpretation of this principle it is understood that the following represents acceptable academic practice: The precise terms and conditions of every appointment should be stated in writing and be in the possession of both institution and teacher before the appointment is consummated. Beginning with appointment to the rank of full-time instructor or a higher rank,7 the probationary period should not exceed seven years, including within this period full-time service in all institutions of higher education; but subject to the proviso that when, after a term of probationary service of more than three years in one or more institutions, a teacher is called to another institution, it may be agreed in writing that the new appointment is for a probationary period of not more than four years, even though thereby the person’s total probationary period in the academic profession is extended beyond the normal maximum of seven years.8 Notice should be given at least one year prior to the expiration of the probationary period if the teacher is not to be continued in service after the expiration of that period.9 During the probationary period a teacher should have the academic freedom that all other members of the faculty have.10 Termination for cause of a continuous appointment, or the dismissal for cause of a teacher previous to the expiration of a term appointment, should, if possible, be considered by both a faculty committee and the governing board of the institution. In all cases where the facts are in dispute, the accused teacher should be informed before the hearing in writing of the charges and should have the opportunity to be heard in his or her own defense by all bodies that pass judgment upon the case. The teacher should be permitted to be accompanied by an advisor of his or her own choosing who may act as counsel. There should be a full stenographic record of the hearing available to the parties concerned. In the hearing of charges of incompetence the testimony should include that of teachers and other scholars, either from the teacher’s own or from other institutions. Teachers on continuous appointment who are dismissed for reasons not involving moral turpitude should receive their salaries for at least a year from the date of notification of dismissal whether or not they  are continued in their duties at the institution.11 Termination of a continuous appointment because of financial exigency should be demonstrably bona fide. Endorsers The 1940 Statement of Principles has been endorsed by more than 250 scholarly and education groups. Endnotes: 1. The Introduction to the Interpretive Comments notes: In the thirty years since their promulgation, the principles of the 1940 “Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure” have undergone a substantial amount of refinement. This has evolved through a variety of processes, including customary acceptance, understandings mutually arrived at between institutions and professors or their representatives, investigations and reports by the American Association of University Professors, and formulations of statements by that association either alone or in conjunction with the Association of American Colleges. These comments represent the attempt of the two associations, as the original sponsors of the 1940 “Statement,” to formulate the most important of these refinements. Their incorporation here as Interpretive Comments is based upon the premise that the 1940 “Statement” is not a static code but a fundamental document designed to set a framework of norms to guide adaptations to changing times and circumstances.  Also, there have been relevant developments in the law itself reflecting a growing insistence by the courts on due process within the academic community which parallels the essential concepts of the 1940 “Statement”; particularly relevant is the identification by the Supreme Court of academic freedom as a right protected by the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court said in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 US 589 (1967), “Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.” Back to text. 2. The word “teacher” as used in this document is understood to include the investigator who is attached to an academic institution without teaching duties. Back to text. 3. First 1970 comment: The Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors have long recognized that membership in the academic profession carries with it special responsibilities. Both associations either separately or jointly have consistently affirmed these responsibilities in major policy statements, providing guidance to professors in their utterances as citizens, in the exercise of their responsibilities to the institution and to students, and in their conduct when resigning from their institution or when undertaking government-sponsored research. Of particular relevance is the “Statement on Professional Ethics” adopted in 1966 as Association policy (AAUP, Policy Documents and Reports, 11th ed. [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015], 145– 46). Back to text. 4. Second 1970 comment: The intent of this statement is not to discourage what is “controversial.” Controversy is at the heart of the free academic inquiry which the entire statement is designed to foster. The passage serves to underscore the need for teachers to avoid persistently intruding material which has no relation to their subject. Back to text. 5. Third 1970 comment: Most church-related institutions no longer need or desire the departure from the principle of academic freedom implied in the 1940 “Statement,” and we do not now endorse such a departure. Back to text. 6. Fourth 1970 comment: This paragraph is the subject of an interpretation adopted by the sponsors of the 1940 “Statement” immediately following its endorsement: If the administration of a college or university feels that a teacher has not observed the admonitions of paragraph 3 of the section on Academic Freedom and believes that the extramural utterances of the teacher have been such as to raise grave doubts concerning the teacher’s fitness for his or her position, it may proceed to file charges under paragraph 4 of the section on Academic Tenure. In pressing such charges, the administration should remember that teachers are citizens and should be accorded the freedom of citizens. In such cases the administration must assume full responsibility, and the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges are free to make an investigation. Paragraph 3 of the section on Academic Freedom in the 1940 “Statement” should also be interpreted in keeping with the 1964 “Committee A Statement on Extramural Utterances,” Policy Documents and Reports, 31, which states inter alia: “The controlling principle is that a faculty member’s expression of opinion as a citizen cannot constitute grounds for dismissal unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty member’s unfitness for his or her position. Extramural utterances rarely bear upon the faculty member’s fitness for the position. Moreover, a final decision should take into account the faculty member’s entire record as a teacher and scholar.” Paragraph 5 of the “Statement on Professional Ethics,” Policy Documents and Reports, 146, also addresses the nature of the “special obligations” of the teacher: As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution. When they speak or act as private persons, they avoid creating the impression of speaking or acting for their college or university. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom. Both the protection of academic freedom and the requirements of academic responsibility apply not only to the full-time probationary and the tenured teacher, but also to all others, such as part- time faculty and teaching assistants, who exercise teaching responsibilities. Back to text. 7. Fifth 1970 comment: The concept of “rank of full-time instructor or a higher rank” is intended to include any person who teaches a full- time load regardless of the teacher’s specific title. [For a discussion of this question, see the “Report of the Special Committee on Academic Personnel Ineligible for Tenure,” AAUP Bulletin 52 (September 1966): 280– 82.] Back to text. 8. Sixth 1970 comment: In calling for an agreement “in writing” on the amount of credit given for a faculty member’s prior service at other institutions, the “Statement” furthers the general policy of full understanding by the professor of the terms and conditions of the appointment. It does not necessarily follow that a professor’s tenure rights have been violated because of the absence of a written agreement on this matter. Nonetheless, especially because of the variation in permissible institutional practices, a written understanding concerning these matters at the time of appointment is particularly appropriate and advantageous to both the individual and the institution. [For a more detailed statement on this question, see “On Crediting Prior Service Elsewhere as Part of the Probationary Period,” Policy Documents and Reports, 167– 68.] Back to text. 9. Seventh 1970 comment: The effect of this subparagraph is that a decision on tenure, favorable or unfavorable, must be made at least twelve months prior to the completion of the probationary period. If the decision is negative, the appointment for the following year becomes a terminal one. If the decision is affirmative, the provisions in the 1940 “Statement” with respect to the termination of service of teachers or investigators after the expiration of a probationary period should apply from the date when the favorable decision is made. The general principle of notice contained in this paragraph is developed with greater specificity in the “Standards for Notice of Nonreappointment,” endorsed by the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors (1964) (Policy Documents and Reports, 99). These standards are: Notice of nonreappointment, or of intention not to recommend reappointment to the governing board, should be given in writing in accordance with the following standards: 1. Not later than March 1 of the first academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year; or, if a one-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least three months in advance of its termination. 2. Not later than December 15 of the second academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year; or, if an initial two-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least six months in advance of its termination. 3. At least twelve months before the expiration of an appointment after two or more years in the institution. Other obligations, both of institutions and of individuals, are described in the “Statement on Recruitment and Resignation of Faculty Members,” Policy Documents and Reports, 153– 54, as endorsed by the Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors in 1961. Back to text. 10. Eighth 1970 comment: The freedom of probationary teachers is enhanced by the establishment of a regular procedure for the periodic evaluation and assessment of the teacher’s academic performance during probationary status. Provision should be made for regularized procedures for the consideration of complaints by probationary teachers that their academic freedom has been violated. One suggested procedure to serve these purposes is contained in the “Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure,” Policy Documents and Reports, 79– 90, prepared by the American Association of University Professors. Back to text. 11. Ninth 1970 comment: A further specification of the academic due process to which the teacher is entitled under this paragraph is contained in the “Statement on Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings,” Policy Documents and Reports, 91– 93, jointly approved by the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges in 1958. This interpretive document deals with the issue of suspension, about which the 1940 “Statement” is silent. The “Statement on Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings” provides: “Suspension of the faculty member during the proceedings is justified only if immediate harm to the faculty member or others is threatened by the faculty member’s continuance. Unless legal considerations forbid, any such suspension should be with pay.” A suspension which is not followed by either reinstatement or the opportunity for a hearing is in effect a summary dismissal in violation of academic due process. The concept of “moral turpitude” identifies the exceptional case in which the professor may be denied a year’s teaching or pay in whole or in part. The statement applies to that kind of behavior which goes beyond simply warranting discharge and is so utterly blameworthy as to make it inappropriate to require the offering of a year’s teaching or pay. The standard is not that the moral sensibilities of persons in the particular community have been affronted. The standard is behavior that would evoke condemnation by the academic community generally. Back to text. 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Butler University v. John Doe Biology, Theology, and Academic Freedom The View from 2020 Campus Clout, Statewide Strength What Do Graduate Employee Unions Have to Do with Academic Freedom? Graduate Student Academic Freedom and the Apprenticeship Myth Volume 3 (2012) Editor's Introduction Assessment as a Subversive Activity In Response to Ellen Schrecker’s “Ward Churchill at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain” Report on the Termination of Ward Churchill The Dismissal of Ralph Turner The US Air Force Academy Negotiating Academic Freedom Cooking the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs Academic Freedom in a State-Sponsored African University Academic Freedom in Principle and Practice Volume 4 (2013) Editor's Introduction Rethinking Academic Boycotts Palestine, Boycott, and Academic Freedom Boycott, Academic Freedom, and the Moral Responsibility to Uphold Human Rights The Israeli State of Exception and the Case for Academic Boycott Boycotts against Israel and the Question of Academic Freedom in American Universities in the Arab World Changing My Mind about the Boycott Academic Freedom Encompasses the Right to Boycott Market Forces and the College Classroom: Losing Sovereignty Academic Freedom from Below Readers Respond: Cary Nelson Readers Respond: Ernst Benjamin Readers Respond: Emily Budick Readers Respond: Joshua A. Fogel Readers Respond: Kenneth Waltzer Readers Respond: Gerald M. Steinberg Readers Respond: Kenneth L. Marcus and Sitara Kedilaya Readers Respond: Samuel M. Edelman Readers Respond: Peter Haas Readers Respond: USACBI Organizing Collective Readers Respond: Chad Alan Goldberg Readers Respond: Roderick A. Ferguson and Jodi Melamed Authors Respond: David Lloyd Authors Respond: Bill V. Mullen Authors Respond: Malini Johar Schueller Readers Respond: Rima Kapitan Volume 5 (2014) Editor's Introduction ‘To Make Collective Action Possible’ Religion, Sectarianism, and the Pursuit of Truth Tenure Matters: An Historian's Perspective The Two Cultures of Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century The Case of the Student Racist Facebook Message Emergencies and Due Process Opportunities of Our Own Making Open Access to Technology On the Pros and Cons of Being a Faculty Member at E-Text University On the Ground in Kansas Volume 6 (2015) Editor's Introduction Professionalism and Unionism Catholicism and Unions A New Hope? The “Textbook Controversy” Title IX, Sexual Harassment, and Academic Freedom Institutional Review Boards Risking Responsibility The Personal Ethics of Academic Freedom Academic Freedom and Extramural Utterances Civility and Academic Freedom after Salaita Professor Salaita's Intramural Speech Garcetti and Salaita Everything Old Is New Again Social Media & the Politics of Collegiality Steven Salaita’s Scholarly Record and the Problem of His Appointment Response to Cary Nelson Volume 7 (2016) Editor's Introduction Academic Freedom, Political Interference, and Public Accountability Debating Academic Freedom in India A Review of Academic Freedom in African Universities Lost in Post-Cold War Transitions Academic Freedom and the Common Good The AAUP's 1915 Declaration of Principles Championing Academic Freedom at Rutgers Free Space in the Academy Volume 8 (2017) Editor's Introduction - Volume 8 Oppenheimer’s House Repressive Tolerance Revamped? Collective Bargaining, Shared Governance, and Academic Freedom An Evolution of Principled Futility Complying with Title IX while Protecting Shared Governance, Academic Freedom, and Due Process Intellectual Freedom, Academic Freedom, and the Academic Librarian Academic Freedom as the Freedom to do Academic Work On Free Speech and Academic Freedom Volume 9 (2018) Editor's Introduction “Affirming Our Values” The Academic Freedom Double Standard When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives At the Margins of University Work Diversity Work The Ironic Interplay of Free Speech and Silencing Free Speech, Safe Spaces, and Teaching Stopping the Presses Academic Freedom under the Gun Not Chilly Enough? Managing the Academic Racehorse Illuminating the Dark History Volume 10 (2019) Editor's Introduction Compulsory Civility and the Necessity of (Un)Civil Disobedience A Vision for Scholar-Activists of Color The Danger of Campus Bans on Bullying The Weaponization of Student Evaluations of Teaching Endangered and Vulnerable The Tale of Professor X Postwar Recovery and Student Academic Freedom in Côte d’Ivoire "Book Burning" in Japan Dear Administrators No Sanctuary Speech, Academic Freedom, and Privilege Volume 11 (2020) Editor's Introduction Trickle-Down Managerialism On Borders and Academic Freedom Gentrifying the University and Disempowering the Professoriate What I Learned in the Faculty Senate The Rollins College Inquiry of 1933 Leadership during a Budget Crisis Leadership Threats to Shared Governance How Ego, Greed, and Hubris (Almost) Destroyed a University Why Revenue Generation Can’t Solve the Crisis in Higher Education Afterword: Can the Managerial Technique Speak? 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www-aaup-org-6876	----	Background Facts on Contingent Faculty Positions | AAUP Skip to main content Alert Top Message Due to concerns about COVID-19, the AAUP office has transitioned to telework. Please contact staff by email.   Visit the AAUP Foundation Secondary menu Contact Events Career Center Search form Search Submit Join Login About Mission Constitution Biennial Meeting Find a Chapter Elected Leaders Staff Committees Organizational Restructuring History Programs Academic Freedom Shared Governance Chapter Organizing Collective Bargaining Summer Institute Webinars Research Legal Program Government Relations Membership Join/Renew My Account Benefits of Membership Start a Chapter Support Your Union AAUP Shirts and Gear Issues Academic Freedom Shared Governance COVID-19 Pandemic Responding to Financial Crisis Racial Justice Contingent Faculty Positions Tenure Workplace Issues Privatization in Online Education Gender and Sexuality in Higher Education Targeted Harassment Faculty Speech after the 2016 Election Border Searches Intellectual Property & Copyright Civility Sanctuary Campuses Reports/Pubs AAUP Policies & Reports Academe Faculty Compensation Survey Bulletin of the AAUP The Redbook Journal of Academic Freedom Guidebooks News AAUP in the News Read AAUP Updates Join Our Email List Chapter Resources For All Chapters For Union Chapters Chapter Websites Chapter Profiles Start a Chapter Forming a Union Chapter Chapter Responsibilities State Conferences State Conference Directory State Conference Committee A Resources Good Practices for Chapters & Conferences Election Guidance for State Conferences Support for State Conferences   You are here Home Background Facts on Contingent Faculty Positions "Contingent” faculty positions include both part- and full-time non-tenure-track appointments. Their common characteristic is that institutions make little or no long-term commitment to faculty holding these positions.  Today, more than half of all faculty appointments are part-time. This includes positions that may be classified by the institution as adjuncts, part-time lecturers, or graduate assistantships.  Many faculty in so-called “part-time” positions actually teach the equivalent of a full-time course load. Other part-time appointments are held by graduate student employees, whose chances of obtaining tenure-track positions in the future are increasingly uncertain.What is billed as a teaching apprenticeship often instead amounts to years of intensive, low-paid work that distracts from, rather than complementing, graduate studies. To support themselves, part-time faculty often commute between institutions and prepare courses on a grueling timetable, making enormous sacrifices to maintain interaction with their students. Since faculty classified as part-time are typically paid by the course, without benefits, many college teachers lack access to health insurance and retirement plans. Back to top Both part- and full-time non-tenure-track appointments are increasingly prevalent. Non-tenure-track positions of all types now account for over 70 percent of all instructional staff appointments in American higher education. This chart compares tenure-line and contingent appointments 1975–2015.   Back to top The majority of faculty working on contingent appointments do not have professional careers outside of academe, and most teach basic core courses rather than narrow specialties. While a small percentage of part-time faculty are specialists or practitioners of a profession such as law or architecture and teach a class on the side, this situation is the exception rather than the norm. In other words, contingent faculty are "real" faculty, not other professionals who are moonlighting by teaching a course. Students at community colleges and in lower-level undergraduate courses are disproportionately taught by faculty on contingent appointments.  Back to top The excessive use of, and inadequate compensation and professional support for,  faculty in contingent positions exploits these colleagues. Positions that require comparable work, responsibilities, and qualifications should be comparably compensated. As the AAUP recommended in 1993, compensation for part-time appointments should be the applicable fraction of the compensation (including benefits) for a comparable full-time position. Back to top The turn towards cheaper contingent labor is largely a matter of priorities rather than economic necessity. While many institutions are currently suffering budget cuts, the greatest growth in contingent appointments occurred during times of economic prosperity. Many institutions have invested heavily in facilities and technology while cutting instructional spending. Though incoming students may find finer facilities, they are also likely to find fewer full-time faculty with adequate time, professional support, and resources available for their instruction. Back to top Many contingent faculty members are excellent teachers and scholars. But no matter how qualified and dedicated, faculty teaching in these positions are hobbled in the performance of their duties by a lack of professional treatment and support. Many lack access to such basics as offices, computer support, and photocopying services. Back to top Heavy reliance on contingent faculty appointments hurts students. Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions. Faculty on contingent appointments are typically paid only for the hours they spend in the classroom. While they may be excellent teachers, they are not given adequate institutional support for time spent meeting with students, evaluating student work, and class planning and preparation.  Adjuncts are often hired on the spur of the moment with little evaluation or time to prepare--sometimes after a semester has already started. Faculty in contingent positions often receive little or no evaluation and mentoring, making them especially vulnerable to being dismissed over one or two student complaints.  Faculty in contingent positions, though they may teach the majority of some types of courses, are often cut out of department and institution-wide planning. The knowledge that they have about their students and the strengths and weaknesses of the courses they teach is not taken into consideration. The high turnover among contingent faculty members mean that students in a department may never have the same teacher twice, or may be unable to find an instructor who knows them well enough to write a letter of recommendation.  The free exchange of ideas may be hampered by the fear of dismissal for unpopular utterances, so students may be deprived of the debate essential to citizenship. They may also be deprived of rigorous  evaluations of their work. Back to top Overuse of contingent faculty appointments hurts all faculty. The integrity of faculty work is threatened as parts of the whole are divided and assigned piecemeal to instructors, lecturers, graduate students, specialists, researchers, and administrators. Proportionally fewer tenure-track faculty means fewer people to divide up the work of advising students, setting curriculum, and serving on college-wide committees. Divisions among instructors create a less cohesive faculty; on some campuses, tenure-track and adjunct faculty rarely interact or participate in planning together.  Tenure should be a big tent that provides due process protections for the academic freedom of all faculty; where contingent appointments predominate, it becomes instead a merit badge for a select few. Back to top Academic freedom is weakened when a majority of the faculty lack the protections of tenure. The insecure relationship between faculty members in contingent positions and their institutions can chill the climate for academic freedom, which is essential to the common good of a free society. Faculty serving in insecure contingent positions may be less likely to take risks in the classroom or in scholarly and service work.  Back to top The use of non-tenure-track appointments should be limited to specialized fields and emergency situations. While we recognize that current patterns of faculty appointment depart substantially from the ideal, the AAUP recommends that no more than 15 percent of the total instruction within an institution, and no more than 25 percent of the total instruction within any department, should be provided by faculty with non-tenure-track appointments. While institutions often cite "flexibility" for a reason to hire faculty off the tenure track, contingent appointments are often clustered in programs with very high levels of predictability--such as freshman writing courses that are required for all students.  Back to top Shared governance responsibilities should be shared among all faculty, including those appointed to part-time positions. Curricular and other academic decisions benefit from the participation of all faculty, especially those who teach core courses. Faculty and administrators should together determine the appropriate modes and levels of participation in governance for part-time faculty, considering issues such as voting rights, representation, and inclusion in committees and governance bodies. Back to top When contingent appointments are used, they should include job security and due process protections. Contingent faculty appointments, like all faculty appointments, should include: the full range of faculty responsibilities (teaching, scholarship, service); comparable compensation for comparable work; assurance of continuing employment after a reasonable opportunity for successive reviews; inclusion in institutional governance structures; and appointment and review processes that involve faculty peers and follow accepted academic due process. Back to top The proportion of faculty appointments that are on the tenure line should be increased. This can be done by: Changing the status of faculty members currently holding non-tenure-track appointments. Individuals holding contingent appointments are offered tenure-eligible reappointments. Creating new tenure-line appointments. New tenure-line positions are created and open searches are held for candidates to fill them. In both cases, transition to a higher proportion of tenured faculty should be accomplished primarily through attrition, retirements, and, where appropriate “grandfathering” of currently contingent faculty into tenured positions. Faculty in contingent positions should not bear the cost of transition. Back to top Additional information about contingent faculty is available here. Join American Association of University Professors 1133 Nineteenth Street, NW, Suite 200 Washington, DC 20036 Phone: 202-737-5900 aaup@aaup.org   Visit the AAUP Foundation Secondary menu Contact Events Career Center Privacy Policy & Terms of Use About Mission Constitution Biennial Meeting Awards Sternberg Award Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Academic Freedom Georgina M. Smith Award Outstanding Achievement Award Ralph S. 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Butler University v. John Doe Biology, Theology, and Academic Freedom The View from 2020 Campus Clout, Statewide Strength What Do Graduate Employee Unions Have to Do with Academic Freedom? Graduate Student Academic Freedom and the Apprenticeship Myth Volume 3 (2012) Editor's Introduction Assessment as a Subversive Activity In Response to Ellen Schrecker’s “Ward Churchill at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain” Report on the Termination of Ward Churchill The Dismissal of Ralph Turner The US Air Force Academy Negotiating Academic Freedom Cooking the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs Academic Freedom in a State-Sponsored African University Academic Freedom in Principle and Practice Volume 4 (2013) Editor's Introduction Rethinking Academic Boycotts Palestine, Boycott, and Academic Freedom Boycott, Academic Freedom, and the Moral Responsibility to Uphold Human Rights The Israeli State of Exception and the Case for Academic Boycott Boycotts against Israel and the Question of Academic Freedom in American Universities in the Arab World Changing My Mind about the Boycott Academic Freedom Encompasses the Right to Boycott Market Forces and the College Classroom: Losing Sovereignty Academic Freedom from Below Readers Respond: Cary Nelson Readers Respond: Ernst Benjamin Readers Respond: Emily Budick Readers Respond: Joshua A. Fogel Readers Respond: Kenneth Waltzer Readers Respond: Gerald M. Steinberg Readers Respond: Kenneth L. Marcus and Sitara Kedilaya Readers Respond: Samuel M. Edelman Readers Respond: Peter Haas Readers Respond: USACBI Organizing Collective Readers Respond: Chad Alan Goldberg Readers Respond: Roderick A. Ferguson and Jodi Melamed Authors Respond: David Lloyd Authors Respond: Bill V. Mullen Authors Respond: Malini Johar Schueller Readers Respond: Rima Kapitan Volume 5 (2014) Editor's Introduction ‘To Make Collective Action Possible’ Religion, Sectarianism, and the Pursuit of Truth Tenure Matters: An Historian's Perspective The Two Cultures of Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century The Case of the Student Racist Facebook Message Emergencies and Due Process Opportunities of Our Own Making Open Access to Technology On the Pros and Cons of Being a Faculty Member at E-Text University On the Ground in Kansas Volume 6 (2015) Editor's Introduction Professionalism and Unionism Catholicism and Unions A New Hope? The “Textbook Controversy” Title IX, Sexual Harassment, and Academic Freedom Institutional Review Boards Risking Responsibility The Personal Ethics of Academic Freedom Academic Freedom and Extramural Utterances Civility and Academic Freedom after Salaita Professor Salaita's Intramural Speech Garcetti and Salaita Everything Old Is New Again Social Media & the Politics of Collegiality Steven Salaita’s Scholarly Record and the Problem of His Appointment Response to Cary Nelson Volume 7 (2016) Editor's Introduction Academic Freedom, Political Interference, and Public Accountability Debating Academic Freedom in India A Review of Academic Freedom in African Universities Lost in Post-Cold War Transitions Academic Freedom and the Common Good The AAUP's 1915 Declaration of Principles Championing Academic Freedom at Rutgers Free Space in the Academy Volume 8 (2017) Editor's Introduction - Volume 8 Oppenheimer’s House Repressive Tolerance Revamped? Collective Bargaining, Shared Governance, and Academic Freedom An Evolution of Principled Futility Complying with Title IX while Protecting Shared Governance, Academic Freedom, and Due Process Intellectual Freedom, Academic Freedom, and the Academic Librarian Academic Freedom as the Freedom to do Academic Work On Free Speech and Academic Freedom Volume 9 (2018) Editor's Introduction “Affirming Our Values” The Academic Freedom Double Standard When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives At the Margins of University Work Diversity Work The Ironic Interplay of Free Speech and Silencing Free Speech, Safe Spaces, and Teaching Stopping the Presses Academic Freedom under the Gun Not Chilly Enough? Managing the Academic Racehorse Illuminating the Dark History Volume 10 (2019) Editor's Introduction Compulsory Civility and the Necessity of (Un)Civil Disobedience A Vision for Scholar-Activists of Color The Danger of Campus Bans on Bullying The Weaponization of Student Evaluations of Teaching Endangered and Vulnerable The Tale of Professor X Postwar Recovery and Student Academic Freedom in Côte d’Ivoire "Book Burning" in Japan Dear Administrators No Sanctuary Speech, Academic Freedom, and Privilege Volume 11 (2020) Editor's Introduction Trickle-Down Managerialism On Borders and Academic Freedom Gentrifying the University and Disempowering the Professoriate What I Learned in the Faculty Senate The Rollins College Inquiry of 1933 Leadership during a Budget Crisis Leadership Threats to Shared Governance How Ego, Greed, and Hubris (Almost) Destroyed a University Why Revenue Generation Can’t Solve the Crisis in Higher Education Afterword: Can the Managerial Technique Speak? Guidebooks News AAUP in the News 2019 AAUP in the News 2018 AAUP in the News Read AAUP Updates 2019 AAUP Updates 2018 AAUP Updates 2017 AAUP Updates 2016 AAUP Updates 2015 AAUP Updates 2014 AAUP Updates 2013 AAUP Updates 2012 AAUP Updates 2011 AAUP Updates 2010 AAUP Updates Join Our Email List Chapter Resources For All Chapters AAUP Terms and Abbreviations Building Campus Coalitions Chapter Leader Digests For Union Chapters How-Tos Tips for Successful Office Visits List Building Media Relations Government Relations Toolkit Institutional Financial Analysis Chapter Websites Chapter Profiles Start a Chapter Starting an AAUP Chapter, Step By Step Sample Chapter Bylaws Establishing Advocacy-Chapter Dues Forming a Union Chapter Organizing in Challenging Contexts Chapter Responsibilities Guidelines for Good Practices Resolving Complaints against Chapters Good Practices for Chapters & Conferences State Conferences State Conference Directory State Conference Committee A Resources Good Practices for Chapters & Conferences Election Guidance for State Conferences Support for State Conferences 
www-ala-org-1098	----	ACRL Statement on Academic Freedom | Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Skip to main content A Division of the American Library Association ALA User Menu My Account ALA Contact ACRL Give ACRL Join ACRL Renew Login Toggle navigation !Left Navigation: ACRL My Account ALA Contact ACRL Give ACRL Join ACRL Renew Login About ACRL Give to ACRL Annual Reports Bylaws Directory of Leadership Elections History Staff List ACRL Strategic Planning Advocacy & Issues ACRL Speaks Out Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Information Literacy & Student Learning Legislation & Policy Liaison Activities Marketing The Academic Library The Role of the Community College Library in the Academy Scholarly Communication Value of Academic Research Libraries White Papers & Reports Awards & Scholarships Conferences & eLearning Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks Alphabetical List Listing by Topic Policies and Procedures for Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks Member Center Join ACRL Benefits Career Advancement Get Involved Volunteer Student Member Resources International Member Resources Member of the Week Working with ACRL Professional Tools Pandemic Resources for Academic Libraries Academic Library Building Design Communication and Idea Sharing Consulting Services Index to Section Created Resources JobList Personnel - New Position Descriptions Project Outcome Recruiting to the Profession TechConnect Toolkits Publications & Statistics Books and Digital Resources Journals and Magazines Statistics, White Papers, and More × Breadcrumb navigation ACRL Sites Feedback ALA > ACRL > Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks > ACRL Statement on Academic Freedom Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks Alphabetical List Listing by Topic Access Joint Statement on Access to Research Materials in Archives and Special Collections Libraries Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians Education, Personnel, and Academic Status ACRL Guidelines for Academic Librarians Without Faculty Status ACRL Standards for Faculty Status for Academic Librarians ACRL Statement on Academic Freedom Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries Guideline for the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Academic Librarians Guideline on Collective Bargaining Guidelines for Recruiting Academic Librarians Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians Statement on the Certification & Licensing of Academic Librarians Statement on the Terminal Professional Degree for Academic Librarians Information Literacy and Instruction Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline Annotations Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Appendices Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy Information Literacy Competency Standards for Journalism Students and Professionals Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology Information Literacy Standards for Teacher Education Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Librarians Political Science Research Competency Guidelines Psychology Information Literacy Standards Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Libraries in Higher Education Guidelines for University Library Services to Undergraduate Students Standards for Libraries in Higher Education Rare Books, Manuscripts, Special Collections, and Archives ACRL/RBMS Guidelines For Interlibrary And Exhibition Loan Of Special Collections Materials Guidelines Regarding Security and Theft in Special Collections Guidelines on the Selection and Transfer of Materials from General Collections to Special Collections Guidelines: Competencies for Special Collections Professionals Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries Special Topics ACRL Proficiencies for Assessment Librarians and Coordinators Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries Standards for Distance Learning Library Services Policies and Procedures for Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks ACRL Statement on Academic Freedom Email Print Cite Share This Page Approved by the ACRL Board of Directors during the ALA Annual Conference, June 2015 Librarians have a long history and practice of defending the free expression of ideas. The “Code of Ethics of American Library Association” (2008) states that “we are members of a profession explicitly committed to intellectual freedom and the freedom of access to information.” In the context of higher education, intellectual freedom is closely associated with academic freedom. The “Association of College and Research Libraries Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians” (2012) states that “[c]ollege and university librarians share the professional concerns of faculty members. Academic freedom is indispensable to librarians in their roles as teachers and researchers.” The Association of College and Research Libraries, in accordance with our professional standards and stated commitments, opposes any actions that limit the free expression of ideas of librarians and faculty on campus, in the classroom, in writing, and in the public sphere, especially in the context of higher education and its traditional support for academic freedom.  Further, the Association of College and Research Libraries opposes retaliation for the expression of those ideas.  A free and vigorous exchange of ideas is integral to sustaining an environment in which teaching, learning, and research may thrive.   Other relevant documents: AAUP 1940 Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure Endorsed by ALA 1946 | Reaffirmed by ALA 2006 | Endorsed by ACRL 2007 Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries – An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights Passed by ALA Council 2000 | Endorsed by AAUP 2000 Footer navigation Committees Sections Interest Groups Discussion Groups Staff Copyright Statement Privacy Policy User Guidelines Site Index Feedback Work at ALA © 1996–2020 American Library Association ALA American Library Association 225 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1300 Chicago, IL 60601 | 1.800.545.2433 
www-ala-org-2475	----	ACRL Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians | Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Skip to main content A Division of the American Library Association ALA User Menu My Account ALA Contact ACRL Give ACRL Join ACRL Renew Login Toggle navigation !Left Navigation: ACRL My Account ALA Contact ACRL Give ACRL Join ACRL Renew Login About ACRL Give to ACRL Annual Reports Bylaws Directory of Leadership Elections History Staff List ACRL Strategic Planning Advocacy & Issues ACRL Speaks Out Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Information Literacy & Student Learning Legislation & Policy Liaison Activities Marketing The Academic Library The Role of the Community College Library in the Academy Scholarly Communication Value of Academic Research Libraries White Papers & Reports Awards & Scholarships Conferences & eLearning Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks Alphabetical List Listing by Topic Policies and Procedures for Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks Member Center Join ACRL Benefits Career Advancement Get Involved Volunteer Student Member Resources International Member Resources Member of the Week Working with ACRL Professional Tools Pandemic Resources for Academic Libraries Academic Library Building Design Communication and Idea Sharing Consulting Services Index to Section Created Resources JobList Personnel - New Position Descriptions Project Outcome Recruiting to the Profession TechConnect Toolkits Publications & Statistics Books and Digital Resources Journals and Magazines Statistics, White Papers, and More × Breadcrumb navigation ACRL Sites Feedback ALA > ACRL > Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks > ACRL Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks Alphabetical List Listing by Topic Access Joint Statement on Access to Research Materials in Archives and Special Collections Libraries Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians Education, Personnel, and Academic Status ACRL Guidelines for Academic Librarians Without Faculty Status ACRL Standards for Faculty Status for Academic Librarians ACRL Statement on Academic Freedom Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries Guideline for the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Academic Librarians Guideline on Collective Bargaining Guidelines for Recruiting Academic Librarians Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians Statement on the Certification & Licensing of Academic Librarians Statement on the Terminal Professional Degree for Academic Librarians Information Literacy and Instruction Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline Annotations Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Appendices Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy Information Literacy Competency Standards for Journalism Students and Professionals Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology Information Literacy Standards for Teacher Education Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Librarians Political Science Research Competency Guidelines Psychology Information Literacy Standards Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Libraries in Higher Education Guidelines for University Library Services to Undergraduate Students Standards for Libraries in Higher Education Rare Books, Manuscripts, Special Collections, and Archives ACRL/RBMS Guidelines For Interlibrary And Exhibition Loan Of Special Collections Materials Guidelines Regarding Security and Theft in Special Collections Guidelines on the Selection and Transfer of Materials from General Collections to Special Collections Guidelines: Competencies for Special Collections Professionals Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries Special Topics ACRL Proficiencies for Assessment Librarians and Coordinators Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries Standards for Distance Learning Library Services Policies and Procedures for Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks ACRL Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians Email Print Cite Share This Page The statement that follows was prepared by the Joint Committee on College Library Problems, a national committee representing the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Association of American Colleges (now the Association of American Colleges and Universities), and the American Association of University Professors. The statement was endorsed by the board and annual meeting of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, in 1972. It was reaffirmed by the ACRL board in June 2001 and 2007. It was adopted by the Council of the American Association of University Professors in April 1973 and endorsed by the Fifty-ninth Annual Meeting. Additional revisions were made by a subcommittee of the ACRL along with representatives of the AAUP in June 2012 and approved by the ACRL Board of Directors in October 2012. The statement was reaffirmed by the ACRL Board of Directors in April 2018. As the primary means through which students and faculty gain access to the storehouse of organized knowledge, the college and university library performs a unique and indispensable function in the educational process. This function will grow in importance as students assume greater responsibility for their own intellectual and social development. Indeed, all members of the academic community are likely to become increasingly dependent on skilled professional guidance in the acquisition and use of library resources as the forms and numbers of these resources multiply, scholarly materials appear in more languages, bibliographical systems become more complicated, and library technology grows increasingly sophisticated. The librarian who provides such guidance plays a major role in the learning process. The character and quality of an institution of higher learning are shaped in large measure by the nature and accessibility of its library resources as well as the expertise and availability of its librarians. Consequently, all members of the faculty should take an active interest in the operation and development of the library. Because the scope and character of library resources should be taken into account in such important academic decisions as curricular planning and faculty appointments, librarians should have a voice in the development of the institution’s educational policy. Librarians perform a multifaceted role within the academy. It includes not only teaching credit courses but also providing access to information, whether by individual and group instruction, selecting and purchasing resources, digitizing collections, or organizing information. In all of these areas, librarians impart knowledge and skills to students and faculty members both formally and informally and advise and assist faculty members in their scholarly pursuits. They are involved in the research function and conduct research in their own professional interests and in the discharge of their duties Their scholarly research contributes to the advancement of knowledge valuable to their discipline and institution.   In addition, librarians serve and contribute to university governance through their service on campus-wide committees. They also enhance the reputation of the institution by engaging in meaningful service and outreach to their profession and local communities. Where the role of college and university librarians, as described in the preceding paragraphs, requires them to function essentially as part of the faculty, this functional identity should be recognized by granting of faculty status. Neither administrative responsibilities nor professional degrees, titles, or skills, per se, qualify members of the academic community for faculty status. The function of the librarian as participant in the processes of teaching, research, and service is the essential criterion of faculty status. College and university librarians share the professional concerns of faculty members. Academic freedom is indispensable to librarians in their roles as teachers and researchers. Critically, they are trustees of knowledge with the responsibility of ensuring the intellectual freedom of the academic community through the availability of information and ideas, no matter how controversial, so that teachers may freely teach and students may freely learn. Moreover, as members of the academic community, librarians should have latitude in the exercise of their professional judgment within the library, a share in shaping policy within the institution, and adequate opportunities for professional development and appropriate reward. Faculty status entails for librarians the same rights and responsibilities as for other members of the faculty. They should have corresponding entitlement to rank, promotion, tenure, compensation, leaves, and research funds. Librarians should be offered the opportunity to have either academic-year appointments with salary and benefits commensurate with those of other faculty members or calendar-year appointments with additional compensation for summer work as is customary for faculty members who take on summer teaching assignments. As with faculty members in other academic departments on campus, librarians should be responsible for the development of their promotion and tenure criteria. Because of the special teaching role of librarians, criteria and standards may differ from traditional classroom faculty, but they must be comparable in rigor and content. Promotion and tenure guidelines should be approved by whatever faculty body is responsible for the establishment of promotion and tenure procedures and policy. Faculty librarians should go through the same process of evaluation as other faculty members. 1 On some campuses, adequate procedures for extending faculty status to librarians have already been established. These procedures vary from campus to campus because of institutional differences. In the development of such procedures, it is essential that the general faculty or its delegated agent determine the specific steps by which any professional position is to be accorded faculty rank and status. In any case, academic positions that are to be accorded faculty rank and status should be approved by the senate or the faculty at large before submission to the president and to the governing board for approval. With respect to library governance, it is to be presumed that the governing board, the administrative officers, the library faculty, and representatives of the general faculty will share in the determination of library policies that affect the general interests of the institution and its educational program. In matters of internal governance, the library will operate like other academic units with respect to decisions relating to appointments, promotions, tenure, and conditions of service. 2 Notes “Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure,” (1940) http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/contents/1940statement.htm  “Statement on Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings,” (1958) https://www.aaup.org/report/statement-procedural-standards-faculty-dismissal-proceedings; “Statement of Principles on Leaves of Absence” (1972), 54-55; in AAUP, Policy Documents and Reports, 10th ed. (Washington, DC: AAUP, 2006). American Council on Education, AAUP, and Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, “Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities” (1966), https://www.aaup.org/report/statement-government-colleges-and-universities, in AAUP, Policy Documents and Reports. Footer navigation Committees Sections Interest Groups Discussion Groups Staff Copyright Statement Privacy Policy User Guidelines Site Index Feedback Work at ALA © 1996–2020 American Library Association ALA American Library Association 225 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1300 Chicago, IL 60601 | 1.800.545.2433 
www-ala-org-3915	----	Recasting the Narrative: The Proceedings of the ACRL 2019 Conference 810 Training to Learn: Developing an Interactive, Collaborative Circulation-Reference Training Program for Student Workers Laura Surtees* Introduction Situated in the immediate line-of-sight of library entrances, service desks, whether circulation, reference, or information commons, serve as the first point of contact between library patrons and library staff.1 At college and research libraries, these desks are increasingly staffed by student workers who field a barrage of navigational, technological, or reference-related questions and act as mediators between patrons and professional librarians. Students unfamiliar with the library, its resources, or the research process are more likely to turn to a peer rather than approaching a librarian. Financial and personnel constraints result in libraries relying on student work- ers for evening and weekend staffing, thereby increasing the volume and diversity of their patron interactions.2 Thus, student workers at service desks play a pivotal role in disseminating information about library facilities and resources to patrons. These first interactions with student workers contribute significantly to the user experience and perceptions of library services.3 This significant responsibility therefore requires librarians to think more holistically about job training in order to prepare students for communicating with patrons and creating positive interactions. In my capacity as Coordinator of Rhys Carpenter Library at Bryn Mawr College, I supervise the circulation desk and train student workers. In the fall of 2018, I revamped the circulation desk training program to be a peda- gogically sound and comprehensive program that is focused on customer service, library basics, and informa- tion literacy through active learning and in particular a peer-learning model. Peer-learning has proven to be a useful methodological tool for training tutors in various situations in higher education, including writing programs and reference services, and it can be easily applied to circula- tion training.4 It is the process of learning from and with peers and provides a method of information acquisi- tion through collaborative conversations and problem-solving focused on “knowledge-building” in contrast to “knowledge-telling” and content memorization.5 Peer-tutors guide each other through the process of learning in a non-hierarchical and reciprocal format.6 The adoption of peer-learning as the core pedagogical framework of the circulation training program at Rhys Carpenter Library has bolstered communication and information literacy skills of student workers, increasing the effectiveness of patron-to-student worker interactions in the library. In this paper, I focus on the integration and adoption of peer-learning as a pedagogical tool for the newly developed 2018 training program at Rhys Carpenter Library and an assessment of its successes and failures within the first year of its implementation. * Laura Surtees, Ph.D., Research and Instruction Librarian, Coordinator Rhys Carpenter Library, Bryn Mawr Col- lege, lsurtees@brynmawr.edu mailto:lsurtees@brynmawr.edu Design of Past and Present Training Program Rhys Carpenter Library is a branch research library specializing in classics, archaeology, history of art, and architecture and urbanism at Bryn Mawr College, a small liberal arts college located outside Philadelphia. It serves a diverse population of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and outside researchers and scholars. A single service desk, still referred to as the circulation desk, in practice functions as an information commons.7 Student workers field navigational, ready reference, and more in-depth research questions. When properly trained, students can provide reference support.8 However, overhearing and observing interactions with patrons from my office, it became clear that students were not prepared for questions beyond circulation and basic navigation, if that. It was evident that I was training the workers to be “circulation assistants” and not library liaisons, which is more aligned with the reality of their responsibilities at the desk. This made me rethink the format of past student worker training. Previous training consisted of a two-to-three-hour orientation of the library and the basics of the ILS fol- lowed by a brief ILS tutorial. In reality, it was a system of trial by fire where students acquired knowledge about library functionality, organization, and management on a “need-to-know” basis and required significant ad hoc oversight from one of the two librarians in offices behind the desk. After my first year as Coordinator of Car- penter Library, I recognized the deficiencies of this method. In 2016 and 2017, I developed and implemented a two-day training program which followed a traditional library-training approach with a strong focus on the acquisition of basic circulation skills predominantly through demonstrations and lecturing. This training provided all workers with a baseline of knowledge, but the students’ retention of the content and inability to process the information called into question the effectiveness of the training as evidenced by the amount of my time and energy devoted to overseeing and correcting student workers. This led me to reevaluate and revise the program. In the fall of 2018, I modified the teaching methods and overall structure of the program to shift the focus from learning the ILS to enhancing customer service and information literacy. Drawing on research and experi- ence from other libraries, I emphasized peer-learning to improve comprehension, retention, and application but also to model positive and effective interactions with library patrons, particularly other students, through hands- on activities.9 In addition, it was evident that two days were insufficient to address the breadth of information skills required for this position and that continual multi-modal training throughout the year was a necessity.10 Consequently, I designed a new multi-part student worker training comprised of a two-day orientation and training, a mandatory shadowing shift with an experienced peer before working independently, a minimum of one regularly scheduled shift that overlaps with a librarian, one-on-one check-in meetings once a semester with a librarian, online tutorials, bi-weekly or monthly quizzes and worksheets,11 and monthly group circula- tion meetings. This multi-staged and multi-faceted training program allows me to continually assess students’ knowledge acquisition and retention and immediately intervene to address gaps. 2018 Two-day Training Program To avoid scheduling conflicts, all student workers return to campus early to participate in a mandatory two- day training the weekend before the start of the semester. The goal of the weekend training is twofold: to learn [and for returning workers review] the library system and library resources, and to foster a sense of commu- nity amongst the circulation workers who typically work independently at the desk. Rather than following a traditional library-training approach focusing on demos and lecturing, this program emphasizes “knowledge- building”12 within a collaborative participatory environment whereby student supervisors and returning work- ers play a key role in facilitating peer-learning. Training to Learn APRIL 10–13, 2019 • CLEVELAND, OHIO 811 Peer-learning and information literacy The training program is geared towards familiarizing student workers with the services and resources provided by Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) and improving their information literacy. Active learn- ing is incorporated throughout the training to increase engagement and retention of information. Many stu- dents work in the library from their sophomore year onwards and therefore over the years they have acquired considerable work experience and knowledge of the library and its resources. To capitalize on their knowledge and give them more responsibility, I ask returning workers to play a larger role in training their peers. Return- ing workers act as peer-mentors guiding their peers in a collaborative process of discovery and problem solving (and benefit from the review). The non-hierarchical and reciprocal structure of peer-learning encourages active participation in the learning process and facilitates retention through the application of knowledge. By breaking traditional hierarchies of learning, workers guide their peers through open dialogue and collaboration. Peer-learning and Scavenger Hunts Peer-learning is incorporated into two interactive library scavenger hunts that I created.13 The first focuses on circulation and ready reference questions answered predominantly through the exploration of the library web- site. The second addresses reference services and navigating the physical spaces within the library, particularly finding print resources. For each scavenger hunt, student workers complete a worksheet that is evaluated for accuracy and collected for assessment. Prizes are offered as an incentive, with the stipulation that students work through all the questions as a group. I circulate throughout the room to promote collaboration and conversation throughout the exercise. Questions are designed to provide context and introduce new concepts and resources in digestible sections without reverting to lecturing and reviewing a list of rules in the training packet. The scav- enger hunt replicate common questions and scenarios that workers can troubleshoot and answer using the LITS website. Workers have to first determine what information was needed and then discuss where this information might be located on the site. Not only did they have to find practical information about library policies and procedures, library resources, and circulation services, they also have to assess the value of the information and apply it to the appropriate situation. The website scavenger hunt highlights the range of questions they might be asked at the desk and presents a methodology for how to work with a library patron to navigate the website effectively. The second scavenger hunt concentrates on reference questions and basic research skills. As the sole service desk in the library, student workers field a range of questions from ready reference to in-depth research. Being able to ask their peers rather than a librarian can alleviate the stress of the research process and result in a posi- tive interaction with an academic library. Student workers, therefore, take on a liminal role between student and library staff. While in-depth research questions are referred to librarians for research appointments, many ready reference or basic research queries can be answered or mediated by the student workers. The challenge is to train the student workers to determine what is being asked by the patron, how to find that information, and when they should refer the question.14 This scavenger hunt replicates broad research topics and walks them through the reference interview process by providing a template for answering research questions including deconstructing and narrowing a topic, identifying keywords and concepts, using the library catalog, print and online resources, research guides, and assessing the relevance of these resources. Questions on the research scavenger hunt mirror many of the topics covered in one-shot library instruction, which improves the students’ own information literacy while simultaneously providing a framework for answer- ing similar patron questions. For this exercise, groups are comprised of a combination of two to three returning and new workers who discuss how to approach and answer the given research topics. Ranging from sophomores Laura Surtees ACRL 2019 • RECASTING THE NARRATIVE 812 to seniors who represent plethora of disciplines, the student workers draw on their research skills and experience to determine a research strategy. This exercise focuses on the structural organization of information, access to that information through the OPAC and databases, the research process, and how to decipher questions through the reference interview model. Peer-learning provides an effective avenue for working through a research prob- lem as a group. The goal of the scavenger hunt is to familiarize the workers with the range of resources and research topics but also to model the reference interview process for questions at the desk using peer-learning methods. Peer-learning and Role-playing Workers are introduced to a day in the life of the circulation desk through experiential learning facilitated by peer-learning and role-playing. Role-playing was introduced as a fun yet pedagogically sound way to diversify the training program, increase active participation, and reduce anxiety amongst new workers on what they will encounter at the desk.15 While the new workers are learning the ILS, returning workers prepare sketches of com- mon scenarios encountered at the desk that they act out for all workers. Returning workers are given autonomy in deciding on the topics and themes for role-playing. While I provided some guidance, they chose topics based on their experience of what questions and situations are the most common, relevant, and challenging. Role- playing is incorporated to create a light, fun environment that simultaneously facilitates problem-solving as a group. Students present scenarios from two perspectives: what not to do and what to do. They do this in order to highlight customer service as well as showcase common tasks at the desk. While the “what not to do” sketches are exaggerations of behaviors and create comic relief, they provide a jumping off point for group discussions following each scene. Designed to promote participation and solicit comments from all workers, I encourage everyone to draw on their own personal and professional experience to determine how to respond to these sce- narios. Peer-learning and Student Managers A primary goal of the training is the creation of a collaborative community of workers in Carpenter Library. With the exception of the last shift of the night, students work alone at the desk. During the day, there are two librarians in offices behind the circulation desk who are available for consultation and help. However, in the evenings and on weekends there is no professional staff. To provide support during these times, there are three student supervisors who conduct walk-throughs of the library and are ‘on-call’ to answer questions by text, phone, or email. This structure was designed to provide non-hierarchical venues for asking questions and have the workers learn from each other throughout the academic year. Ongoing training is necessary to avoid complacency and errors.16 Monthly circulation meetings provide a review of policies, an opportunity to learn new skills, and to foster community. Each meeting focuses on a theme or particular skill. While the student supervisors organize and run the meetings, in consultation with me, they draw on knowledge of the other student workers. For example, a student who also works in the mending depart- ment in the main library explained the mending process, had students search for books in poor condition, and discussed how and if they could be mended. This has led to student workers being more aware and consequently more proactive in identifying damaged books. Peer-learning and Shadowing Shifts The training program covers a broad range of material and draws on various learning styles and formats. Role- playing provides one mode for introducing student workers to common scenarios and how to manage a diver- Training to Learn APRIL 10–13, 2019 • CLEVELAND, OHIO 813 sity of situations at the circulation desk. Watching or even participating in these role-playing exercises provide a model but cannot prepare students for what they may encounter at the desk, particularly difficult patrons and high-pressure, high-volume situations. To reduce their anxiety before working alone, all new workers are required to complete at least one shift where they shadow a returning worker. Again, this component of training emphasizes peer-learning as returning workers oversee and guide the students through interactions and trans- actions with patrons. New student workers appreciate having a supportive experienced peer during their first shift at the circulation desk helping them through real transactions. The shadowing shift reaffirms the weekend training program, provides a safety net as new students familiarize themselves with procedures and spaces of the library, and builds their confidence. New students have expressed that this is one of the most helpful components of training. Assessment of Training Program Over the last four years of training students, I have continued to revise the content and structure of the train- ing program for circulation assistants at Carpenter Library based on formal and informal comments made by student workers and my own observations during training and at the desk. Previously, I had not adequately pre- pared them to use their knowledge of the library within the context of their work experience. It became evident that alternative methods for disseminating and applying content were required in order to enhance the effec- tiveness of the training. The lack of cognitive and transformative experiences in the training program hindered student workers’ learning.17 To address this pedagogical gap, in the fall 2018, I reduced lecture-style teaching of circulation and reference services in favor of a non-hierarchical peer-learning and active learning model. This prepares them to act as peer tutors of library skills and information literacy at the desk. Peer-learning facilitates the process of knowledge-building through experiential learning, learning by thinking (abstract conceptualiza- tion), reflective observation, and active experimentation as described in Kolb’s Cycle of Learning.18 Overall, this year’s training program was successful with higher retention of information and preparedness of student work- ers. There is, however, room for improvement. To assess the effectiveness of the program, I asked for feedback from the workers at the end of each day of training. Workers were asked three questions: (1) List one thing that you learned today, (2) What questions do you still have?, and (3) What would you like to learn more about? Feedback guided modifications to the content and structure of the training. For example, students wanted to know the organizational structure of call num- bers. Students had participated in a shelving activity earlier in the day, but I designed it to focus on the concrete experience of shelving rather than how the system functions. I incorrectly assumed classification systems to be too specialized to be of interest to the student workers. In response to this request for further explanation, stu- dent workers completed a tutorial on Library of Congress call numbers, and I will incorporate an activity that requires conceptualizing classification systems before requiring experiential or experimental application of the system in future training sessions. Additional feedback was collected through one-on-one check-in meetings I held with all student workers in the first month of the year. Students are given a check-list of tasks, locations, and procedures to review as a tool for identifying gaps in their knowledge and come to the meeting with questions and honest feedback. Pat- terns emerged amongst the workers’ comments suggesting areas to be address in circulation meetings and future training sessions. I solicit feedback on the two-day training during these meetings in order to discover methods of training that would be more conducive for their own learning process, which could be integrated into future programming. Some of the suggestions have become topics of monthly circulation meetings, which are tailored to the interests and needs of the current workers. Laura Surtees ACRL 2019 • RECASTING THE NARRATIVE 814 During the first month of the fall semester, I spent less time overseeing transactions at the circulation desk than in previous years. Student workers exhibited confidence and a deeper understanding of the library and its services. They also performed better than previous years on circulation quizzes. Requiring at least one of the student worker’s shifts to overlap with a librarian helped to mitigate discrepancies in procedures and immedi- ately address problems. I believe there is a significant correlation between the new training program and their application of their library knowledge. In reflecting on past training programs, I recognize a disconnect between my learning outcomes and peda- gogical methods. My teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of active learning but in reality, my teach- ing was bogged down in the minutiae of circulation services. Acknowledging that student workers would not retain much of the information until they were on the job, I switched the focus from content to experience and tried to find ways to model positive library experiences for both the workers and patrons. I feel that the best way to do this is through active experimentation and concrete experience. The growing literature on the application of peer-learning in reference services suggests peer-learning is an effective training method and one that corre- sponds well with my training goals of information literacy and community building. My initial implementation of this method reinforces this conclusion. Peer-learning provides a useful framework for facilitating the learning process. But reflective obser- vations need to be more explicitly integrated into future activities. While experiential learning is helpful, learning theories by John Dewey and David Kolb emphasize the necessity of reflecting on that experience in order for the learning process to be transformative.19 In role-playing scenarios, discussions following each scene create opportunities for open reflection as a large group on what works and does not work. For future scavenger hunts, I will include a metacognitive component where workers record the process of dis- covery rather than simply providing the correct response. This would require them to be more mindful of facilitating peer-learning and allow me to review their processes to identify teachable moments for informa- tion literacy. Similarly, I will re-write the research scavenger hunt in the format of the reference interview to provide examples of effective follow-up questions to guide them through the process. This activity will model how to break down the research process and demonstrate the effectiveness of this mode of inquiry. In addition, to reinforce the effectiveness of reflective observation, one of the role-playing scenarios presented by the returning workers will include a mock reference interview. Introducing workers to the reference in- terview through the research scavenger hunt and then following up in a role-playing activity reinforces the method in different learning styles. Short writing reflections or discussions in pairs or small groups are other mechanisms for reflection that could be introduced to broader conversations, such as what constitutes good customer service or the role of academic libraries on campus, encouraging them to draw on their experi- ences, be presented with new ideas, and think more holistically about their position in the library. In general, I need to be more transparent about the learning outcomes of a given activity and its relevancy to the job in order to promote mindfulness in carrying out the tasks and to improve interpersonal interactions. This includes being more explicit about the peer-learning model and the important role that returning workers play for its successful implementation. Conclusion Throughout the training, peer-learning was utilized as a pedagogical framework to dismantle hierarchies of learning, facilitate collaboration amongst student workers, and model modes of communication and engage- ment with patrons. Empowering the students with the necessary skill sets to help patrons with everything from simple directional tasks to more in-depth reference-related questions gives them agency and confidence to im- Training to Learn APRIL 10–13, 2019 • CLEVELAND, OHIO 815 part this knowledge to others while further developing their own information literacy. In addition, modelling peer-learning as the foundation of our training program introduces students to a valuable pedagogical tool that they can apply to patron encounters thereby expanding information literacy across campus. Endnotes 1. Pixey Anne Mosley, “Assessing User Interactions at the Desk Nearest the Front Door,” Reference & User Services Quarterly; Chicago 47, no. 2 (Winter 2007): 159–60. 2. Janet Sheets, “Role‐Playing as a Training Tool for Reference Student Assistants,” Reference Services Review 26, no. 1 (April 1, 1998): 37, https://doi.org/10.1108/00907329810307425; Mosley, “Assessing User Interactions at the Desk Nearest the Front Door,” 159–60; Allison I. Faix et al., “Peer Reference Redefined: New Uses for Undergraduate Students,” Reference Services Review; Bradford 38, no. 1 (2010): 91–92, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020752; Mary O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Stu- dents in an Academic Library,” Portal : Libraries and the Academy; Baltimore 15, no. 1 (January 2015): 164–65; Lori S. Mestre and Jessica M. LeCrone, “Elevating the Student Assistant: An Integrated Development Program for Student Library Assistants,” College & Undergraduate Libraries 22, no. 1 (January 2, 2015): 1–2, https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2015.1001240. 3. Sheets, “Role‐Playing as a Training Tool for Reference Student Assistants,” 37. 4. William Heinlen F., “Using Student Assistants in Academic Reference,” RQ 15, no. 4 (1976): 323–25; Willie Mae Dawkins and Jeffrey Jackson, “Enhancing Reference Services: Students as Assistants,” Technicalities 6, no. 8 (1986): 4–7; Prue Stelling, “Student to Student: Training Peer Advisors to Provide BI,” Research Strategies: RS 14 (1996): 50–55; Pat Flanagan and Lisa R Horowitz, “Exploring New Service Models: Can Consolidating Public Service Points Improve Response to Customer Needs?,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 26, no. 5 (September 2000): 329–38, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(00)00139-7; Allison Cow- gill, Joan Beam, and Lindsey Wess, “Implementing an Information Commons in a University Library,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 27, no. 6 (November 2001): 432–39, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(01)00257-9; Wendy Holliday and Cynthia Nordgren, “Extending the Reach of Librarians: Library Peer Mentor Program at Utah State University,” College & Research Librar- ies News 66, no. 4 (April 2005): 282–84; Gail Fensom et al., “Navigating Research Waters,” College & Undergraduate Libraries 13, no. 2 (July 18, 2006): 49–74, https://doi.org/10.1300/J106v13n02_05; Tamsin Bolton, Tina Pugliese, and Jill Singleton-Jackson, “Advancing the Promotion of Information Literacy Through Peer-Led Learning,” Communications in Information Literacy; Tulsa 3, no. 1 (2009): 20–30, http://dx.doi.org.proxy.brynmawr.edu/10.15760/comminfolit.2009.3.1.66; Andrea G. Stanfield and Russell L. Palmer, “Peer-Ing into the Information Commons: Making the Most of Student Assistants in New Library Spaces,” Reference Services Review; Bradford 38, no. 4 (2010): 634–46, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011090773; Faix et al., “Peer Reference Redefined”; Brett Bodemer, “They CAN and They SHOULD: Undergraduates Providing Peer Reference and Instruction,” College & Research Libraries 75, no. 2 (2014): 162–78; Allison Faix, “Peer Reference Revisited: Evolution of a Peer-Reference Model,” Refer- ence Services Review; Bradford 42, no. 2 (2014): 305–19; Laura Sbaffi et al., “NICE Evidence Search: Student Peers’ Views on Their Involvement as Trainers in Peer-Based Information Literacy Training,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 41, no. 2 (March 2015): 201–6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.08.002. 5. Rod D. Roscoe and Michelene T. H. Chi, “Understanding Tutor Learning: Knowledge-Building and Knowledge-Telling in Peer Tutors’ Explanations and Questions,” Review of Educational Research 77, no. 4 (December 2007): 560–61, https://doi. org/10.3102/0034654307309920; O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library,” 164. 6. Keith J. Topping and Stewart W. Ehly, Peer-Assisted Learning (Mahwah, N.J: LErlbaum Associates, 1998), 1; Nancy Falchikov, Learning Together: Peer Tutoring in Higher Education (London ; Routledge/Falmer, 2001), 3–4; Roscoe and Chi, “Understanding Tutor Learning,” 560–61; O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library,” 164–65; Bodemer, “They CAN and They SHOULD,” 163–64. 7. Donald Beagle, “Conceptualizing an Information Commons,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 25, no. 2 (March 1999): 82–89, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(99)80003-2; Cowgill, Beam, and Wess, “Implementing an Information Commons in a University Library”; Flanagan and Horowitz, “Exploring New Service Models.” 8. Bodemer, “They CAN and They SHOULD”; Stelling, “Student to Student: Training Peer Advisors to Provide BI,” 54; Faix et al., “Peer Reference Redefined,” 96–103; Stanfield and Palmer, “Peer-Ing into the Information Commons,” 637–38; O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library,” 166–67. 9. Heinlen, “Using Student Assistants in Academic Reference”; Dawkins and Jackson, “Enhancing Reference Services: Students as Assistants”; Stelling, “Student to Student: Training Peer Advisors to Provide BI”; Topping and Ehly, Peer-Assisted Learning; Sheets, “Role‐Playing as a Training Tool for Reference Student Assistants”; Deese-Roberts, Susan and Keating, Kathleen, Library Instruction: A Peer Tutoring Model (Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 2000); Falchikov, Learning Together; Chris Neuhaus, “Flexibility and Feedback: A New Approach to Ongoing Training for Reference Student Assistants,” Reference Services Review; Bradford 29, no. 1 (2001): 53–64; Holliday and Nordgren, “Extending the Reach of Librarians”; Fensom et al., “Navigat- ing Research Waters”; Mosley, “Assessing User Interactions at the Desk Nearest the Front Door”; Roscoe and Chi, “Understand- ing Tutor Learning”; Stanfield and Palmer, “Peer-Ing into the Information Commons”; Marta Lee, Jon Ritterbush, and Robert Sivigny, “Reference at the Commons: A Case Study,” Reference Services Review; Bradford 38, no. 1 (2010): 81–89, http://dx.doi. Laura Surtees ACRL 2019 • RECASTING THE NARRATIVE 816 https://doi.org/10.1108/00907329810307425 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020752 https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2015.1001240 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(00)00139-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(01)00257-9 https://doi.org/10.1300/J106v13n02_05 http://dx.doi.org.proxy.brynmawr.edu/10.15760/comminfolit.2009.3.1.66 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011090773 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.08.002 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307309920 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307309920 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(99)80003-2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020743 Bibliography Beagle, Donald. “Conceptualizing an Information Commons.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 25, no. 2 (March 1999): 82–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(99)80003-2. Bodemer, Brett. “They CAN and They SHOULD: Undergraduates Providing Peer Reference and Instruction.” College & Research Libraries 75, no. 2 (2014): 162–78. Bolton, Tamsin, Tina Pugliese, and Jill Singleton-Jackson. “Advancing the Promotion of Information Literacy Through Peer-Led Learn- ing.” Communications in Information Literacy; Tulsa 3, no. 1 (2009): 20–30. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.brynmawr.edu/10.15760/com- minfolit.2009.3.1.66. Brenza, Andrew, Michelle Kowalsky, and Denise Brush. “Perceptions of Students Working as Library Reference Assistants at a Univer- sity Library.” Reference Services Review; Bradford 43, no. 4 (2015): 722–36. Cowgill, Allison, Joan Beam, and Lindsey Wess. “Implementing an Information Commons in a University Library.” The Journal of Aca- demic Librarianship 27, no. 6 (November 2001): 432–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(01)00257-9. Dawkins, Willie Mae, and Jeffrey Jackson. “Enhancing Reference Services: Students as Assistants.” Technicalities 6, no. 8 (1986): 4–7. Deese-Roberts, Susan, and Keating, Kathleen. Library Instruction: A Peer Tutoring Model. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 2000. Dewey, John. How We Think. Boston: DCHeath & co, 1910. Faix, Allison. “Peer Reference Revisited: Evolution of a Peer-Reference Model.” Reference Services Review; Bradford 42, no. 2 (2014): 305–19. Faix, Allison I., Margaret H. Bates, Lisa A. Hartman, Jennifer H. Hughes, Casey N. Schacher, Brooke J. Elliot, and Alexander D. Woods. “Peer Reference Redefined: New Uses for Undergraduate Students.” Reference Services Review; Bradford 38, no. 1 (2010): 90–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020752. Falchikov, Nancy. Learning Together: Peer Tutoring in Higher Education. London; Routledge/Falmer, 2001. Fensom, Gail, Regina McCarthy, Kirsten Rundquist, Dorothy Sherman, and Carolyn B. White. “Navigating Research Waters.” College & Undergraduate Libraries 13, no. 2 (July 18, 2006): 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1300/J106v13n02_05. Flanagan, Pat, and Lisa R Horowitz. “Exploring New Service Models: Can Consolidating Public Service Points Improve Response to Customer Needs?” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 26, no. 5 (September 2000): 329–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099- 1333(00)00139-7. Gonnerman, Kasia, and Ken Johnson. “Peer Reference Assistants in a Small Liberal Arts College: Case Study.” Reference Services Re- view; Bradford 44, no. 3 (2016): 292–308. Heinlen, William, F. “Using Student Assistants in Academic Reference.” RQ 15, no. 4 (1976): 323–25. Holliday, Wendy, and Cynthia Nordgren. “Extending the Reach of Librarians: Library Peer Mentor Program at Utah State University.” College & Research Libraries News 66, no. 4 (April 2005): 282–84. Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. 2nd ed. Pearson Education, 2015. Lee, Marta, Jon Ritterbush, and Robert Sivigny. “Reference at the Commons: A Case Study.” Reference Services Review; Bradford 38, no. 1 (2010): 81–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020743. Mestre, Lori S., and Jessica M. LeCrone. “Elevating the Student Assistant: An Integrated Development Program for Student Library As- sistants.” College & Undergraduate Libraries 22, no. 1 (January 2, 2015): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2015.1001240. org/10.1108/00907321011020743; Faix et al., “Peer Reference Redefined”; Faix, “Peer Reference Revisited”; Bodemer, “They CAN and They SHOULD”; Andrew Brenza, Michelle Kowalsky, and Denise Brush, “Perceptions of Students Working as Library Refer- ence Assistants at a University Library,” Reference Services Review; Bradford 43, no. 4 (2015): 722–36; O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library”; Mestre and LeCrone, “Elevating the Student Assistant”; Sbaffi et al., “NICE Evidence Search”; Kasia Gonnerman and Ken Johnson, “Peer Reference Assistants in a Small Liberal Arts College: Case Study,” Reference Services Review; Bradford 44, no. 3 (2016): 292–308. 10. Neuhaus, “Flexibility and Feedback,” 53–54; Holliday and Nordgren, “Extending the Reach of Librarians,” 282–83. 11. I drew on examples of topics and questions for bi-weekly and monthly worksheets from Neuhaus, “Flexibility and Feedback,” Ap- pendix 1-3. 12. Roscoe and Chi, “Understanding Tutor Learning,” 560–61; O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library,” 164. 13. Neuhaus, “Flexibility and Feedback,” 53, Appendix 1-3. 14. Mosley, “Assessing User Interactions at the Desk Nearest the Front Door,” 164. 15. Sheets, “Role‐Playing as a Training Tool for Reference Student Assistants,” 38–40; Stanfield and Palmer, “Peer-Ing into the Infor- mation Commons,” 637–38. 16. Holliday and Nordgren, “Extending the Reach of Librarians”; Neuhaus, “Flexibility and Feedback.” 17. O’Kelly et al., “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library.” 18. David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, 2nd ed. (Pearson Education, 2015 [1984]). 19. John Dewey, How We Think. (Boston: DCHeath & co, 1910); Kolb, Experiential Learning. Training to Learn APRIL 10–13, 2019 • CLEVELAND, OHIO 817 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(99)80003-2 http://dx.doi.org.proxy.brynmawr.edu/10.15760/comminfolit.2009.3.1.66 http://dx.doi.org.proxy.brynmawr.edu/10.15760/comminfolit.2009.3.1.66 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(01)00257-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020752 https://doi.org/10.1300/J106v13n02_05 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(00)00139-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(00)00139-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020743 https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2015.1001240 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011020743 Mosley, Pixey Anne. “Assessing User Interactions at the Desk Nearest the Front Door.” Reference & User Services Quarterly; Chicago 47, no. 2 (Winter 2007): 159–67. Neuhaus, Chris. “Flexibility and Feedback: A New Approach to Ongoing Training for Reference Student Assistants.” Reference Services Review; Bradford 29, no. 1 (2001): 53–64. O’Kelly, Mary, Julie Garrison, Brian Merry, and Jennifer Torreano. “Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library.” Portal : Libraries and the Academy; Baltimore 15, no. 1 (January 2015): 163–82. Roscoe, Rod D., and Michelene T. H. Chi. “Understanding Tutor Learning: Knowledge-Building and Knowledge-Telling in Peer Tutors’ Explanations and Questions.” Review of Educational Research 77, no. 4 (December 2007): 534–74. https://doi. org/10.3102/0034654307309920. Sbaffi, Laura, Frances Johnson, Jillian Griffiths, Jennifer Rowley, and Anne Weist. “NICE Evidence Search: Student Peers’ Views on Their Involvement as Trainers in Peer-Based Information Literacy Training.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 41, no. 2 (March 2015): 201–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.08.002. Sheets, Janet. “Role-Playing as a Training Tool for Reference Student Assistants.” Reference Services Review 26, no. 1 (April 1, 1998): 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907329810307425. Stanfield, Andrea G., and Russell L. Palmer. “Peer-Ing into the Information Commons: Making the Most of Student Assistants in New Library Spaces.” Reference Services Review; Bradford 38, no. 4 (2010): 634–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011090773. Stelling, Prue. “Student to Student: Training Peer Advisors to Provide BI.” Research Strategies: RS 14 (1996): 50–55. Topping, Keith J., and Stewart W. Ehly. Peer-Assisted Learning. Mahwah, N.J: LErlbaum Associates, 1998. Laura Surtees ACRL 2019 • RECASTING THE NARRATIVE 818 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307309920 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307309920 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/00907329810307425 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321011090773 
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www-ala-org-73	----	Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education | Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Skip to main content A Division of the American Library Association ALA User Menu My Account ALA Contact ACRL Give ACRL Join ACRL Renew Login Toggle navigation !Left Navigation: ACRL My Account ALA Contact ACRL Give ACRL Join ACRL Renew Login About ACRL Give to ACRL Annual Reports Bylaws Directory of Leadership Elections History Staff List ACRL Strategic Planning Advocacy & Issues ACRL Speaks Out Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Information Literacy & Student Learning Legislation & Policy Liaison Activities Marketing The Academic Library The Role of the Community College Library in the Academy Scholarly Communication Value of Academic Research Libraries White Papers & Reports Awards & Scholarships Conferences & eLearning Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks Alphabetical List Listing by Topic Policies and Procedures for Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks Member Center Join ACRL Benefits Career Advancement Get Involved Volunteer Student Member Resources International Member Resources Member of the Week Working with ACRL Professional Tools Pandemic Resources for Academic Libraries Academic Library Building Design Communication and Idea Sharing Consulting Services Index to Section Created Resources JobList Personnel - New Position Descriptions Project Outcome Recruiting to the Profession TechConnect Toolkits Publications & Statistics Books and Digital Resources Journals and Magazines Statistics, White Papers, and More × Breadcrumb navigation ACRL Sites Feedback ALA > ACRL > Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks > Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks Alphabetical List Listing by Topic Access Joint Statement on Access to Research Materials in Archives and Special Collections Libraries Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians Education, Personnel, and Academic Status ACRL Guidelines for Academic Librarians Without Faculty Status ACRL Standards for Faculty Status for Academic Librarians ACRL Statement on Academic Freedom Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries Guideline for the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Academic Librarians Guideline on Collective Bargaining Guidelines for Recruiting Academic Librarians Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians Statement on the Certification & Licensing of Academic Librarians Statement on the Terminal Professional Degree for Academic Librarians Information Literacy and Instruction Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline Annotations Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Appendices Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy Information Literacy Competency Standards for Journalism Students and Professionals Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology Information Literacy Standards for Teacher Education Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Librarians Political Science Research Competency Guidelines Psychology Information Literacy Standards Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Libraries in Higher Education Guidelines for University Library Services to Undergraduate Students Standards for Libraries in Higher Education Rare Books, Manuscripts, Special Collections, and Archives ACRL/RBMS Guidelines For Interlibrary And Exhibition Loan Of Special Collections Materials Guidelines Regarding Security and Theft in Special Collections Guidelines on the Selection and Transfer of Materials from General Collections to Special Collections Guidelines: Competencies for Special Collections Professionals Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries Special Topics ACRL Proficiencies for Assessment Librarians and Coordinators Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries Standards for Distance Learning Library Services Policies and Procedures for Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Email Print Cite Share This Page Filed by the ACRL Board on February 2, 2015. Adopted by the ACRL Board, January 11, 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. PDF Version Print copies may be purchased from the Association of College and Research Libraries for $15.00 for a package of 10, including standard postage. Expedited shipping is available for an additional charge. To place your order over the phone with a credit card, please call 312-280-5277.  Payments with a check should be sent to: Association of College and Research Libraries Attn: Standards Fulfillment 225 N. Michigan Ave. Suite 1300 Chicago, IL 60601 If you have additional questions about ordering the Framework, please contact us at 312-280-5277, or email acrl@ala.org. ACRL has a history of supporting librarians in understanding and using the association’s standards and guidelines. 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Contents Introduction Frames Authority Is Constructed and Contextual Information Creation as a Process Information Has Value Research as Inquiry Scholarship as Conversation Searching as Strategic Exploration Appendix 1: Implementing the Framework Suggestions on How to Use the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Introduction for Faculty and Administrators For Faculty: How to Use the Framework For Administrators: How to Support the Framework Appendix 2: Background of the Framework Development Appendix 3: Sources for Further Reading For current news and resources see the Framework WordPress site Introduction This Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework) grows out of a belief that information literacy as an educational reform movement will realize its potential only through a richer, more complex set of core ideas. During the fifteen years since the publication of the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,1 academic librarians and their partners in higher education associations have developed learning outcomes, tools, and resources that some institutions have deployed to infuse information literacy concepts and skills into their curricula. However, the rapidly changing higher education environment, along with the dynamic and often uncertain information ecosystem in which all of us work and live, require new attention to be focused on foundational ideas about that ecosystem. Students have a greater role and responsibility in creating new knowledge, in understanding the contours and the changing dynamics of the world of information, and in using information, data, and scholarship ethically. Teaching faculty have a greater responsibility in designing curricula and assignments that foster enhanced engagement with the core ideas about information and scholarship within their disciplines. Librarians have a greater responsibility in identifying core ideas within their own knowledge domain that can extend learning for students, in creating a new cohesive curriculum for information literacy, and in collaborating more extensively with faculty. The Framework offered here is called a framework intentionally because it is based on a cluster of interconnected core concepts, with flexible options for implementation, rather than on a set of standards or learning outcomes, or any prescriptive enumeration of skills. At the heart of this Framework are conceptual understandings that organize many other concepts and ideas about information, research, and scholarship into a coherent whole. These conceptual understandings are informed by the work of Wiggins and McTighe,2 which focuses on essential concepts and questions in developing curricula, and also by threshold concepts3 which are those ideas in any discipline that are passageways or portals to enlarged understanding or ways of thinking and practicing within that discipline. This Framework draws upon an ongoing Delphi Study that has identified several threshold concepts in information literacy,4 but the Framework has been molded using fresh ideas and emphases for the threshold concepts. Two added elements illustrate important learning goals related to those concepts: knowledge practices,5 which are demonstrations of ways in which learners can increase their understanding of these information literacy concepts, and dispositions,6 which describe ways in which to address the affective, attitudinal, or valuing dimension of learning. The Framework is organized into six frames, each consisting of a concept central to information literacy, a set of knowledge practices, and a set of dispositions. The six concepts that anchor the frames are presented alphabetically: Authority Is Constructed and Contextual Information Creation as a Process Information Has Value Research as Inquiry Scholarship as Conversation Searching as Strategic Exploration Neither the knowledge practices nor the dispositions that support each concept are intended to prescribe what local institutions should do in using the Framework; each library and its partners on campus will need to deploy these frames to best fit their own situation, including designing learning outcomes. For the same reason, these lists should not be considered exhaustive. In addition, this Framework draws significantly upon the concept of metaliteracy,7 which offers a renewed vision of information literacy as an overarching set of abilities in which students are consumers and creators of information who can participate successfully in collaborative spaces.8 Metaliteracy demands behavioral, affective, cognitive, and metacognitive engagement with the information ecosystem. This Framework depends on these core ideas of metaliteracy, with special focus on metacognition,9 or critical self-reflection, as crucial to becoming more self-directed in that rapidly changing ecosystem. Because this Framework envisions information literacy as extending the arc of learning throughout students’ academic careers and as converging with other academic and social learning goals, an expanded definition of information literacy is offered here to emphasize dynamism, flexibility, individual growth, and community learning: Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning. The Framework opens the way for librarians, faculty, and other institutional partners to redesign instruction sessions, assignments, courses, and even curricula; to connect information literacy with student success initiatives; to collaborate on pedagogical research and involve students themselves in that research; and to create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond. Notes 1. Association of College & Research Libraries, Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Chicago, 2000). 2. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004). 3. Threshold concepts are core or foundational concepts that, once grasped by the learner, create new perspectives and ways of understanding a discipline or challenging knowledge domain. Such concepts produce transformation within the learner; without them, the learner does not acquire expertise in that field of knowledge. Threshold concepts can be thought of as portals through which the learner must pass in order to develop new perspectives and wider understanding. Jan H. F. Meyer, Ray Land, and Caroline Baillie. “Editors’ Preface.” In Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning, edited by Jan H. F. Meyer, Ray Land, and Caroline Baillie, ix–xlii. (Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2010). 4. For information on this unpublished, in-progress Delphi Study on threshold concepts and information literacy, conducted by Lori Townsend, Amy Hofer, Silvia Lu, and Korey Brunetti, see http://www.ilthresholdconcepts.com/. Lori Townsend, Korey Brunetti, and Amy R. Hofer. “Threshold Concepts and Information Literacy.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 11, no. 3 (2011): 853–69. 5. Knowledge practices are the proficiencies or abilities that learners develop as a result of their comprehending a threshold concept. 6. Generally, a disposition is a tendency to act or think in a particular way. More specifically, a disposition is a cluster of preferences, attitudes, and intentions, as well as a set of capabilities that allow the preferences to become realized in a particular way. Gavriel Salomon. “To Be or Not to Be (Mindful).” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Meetings, New Orleans, LA, 1994. 7. Metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share). This approach requires an ongoing adaptation to emerging technologies and an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in these spaces as producers, collaborators, and distributors. Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson. Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners. (Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2014). 8. Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson. “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy.” College and Research Libraries 72, no. 1 (2011): 62–78. 9. Metacognition is an awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes. It focuses on how people learn and process information, taking into consideration people’s awareness of how they learn. (Jennifer A. Livingston. “Metacognition: An Overview.” Online paper, State University of New York at Buffalo, Graduate School of Education, 1997. http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm.) Frames These six frames are presented alphabetically and do not suggest a particular sequence in which they must be learned. Authority Is Constructed and Contextual Information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility, and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that the information need may help to determine the level of authority required. Experts understand that authority is a type of influence recognized or exerted within a community. Experts view authority with an attitude of informed skepticism and an openness to new perspectives, additional voices, and changes in schools of thought. Experts understand the need to determine the validity of the information created by different authorities and to acknowledge biases that privilege some sources of authority over others, especially in terms of others’ worldviews, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural orientations. An understanding of this concept enables novice learners to critically examine all evidence—be it a short blog post or a peer-reviewed conference proceeding—and to ask relevant questions about origins, context, and suitability for the current information need. Thus, novice learners come to respect the expertise that authority represents while remaining skeptical of the systems that have elevated that authority and the information created by it. Experts know how to seek authoritative voices but also recognize that unlikely voices can be authoritative, depending on need. Novice learners may need to rely on basic indicators of authority, such as type of publication or author credentials, where experts recognize schools of thought or discipline-specific paradigms. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities define different types of authority, such as subject expertise (e.g., scholarship), societal position (e.g., public office or title), or special experience (e.g., participating in a historic event); use research tools and indicators of authority to determine the credibility of sources, understanding the elements that might temper this credibility; understand that many disciplines have acknowledged authorities in the sense of well-known scholars and publications that are widely considered “standard,” and yet, even in those situations, some scholars would challenge the authority of those sources; recognize that authoritative content may be packaged formally or informally and may include sources of all media types; acknowledge they are developing their own authoritative voices in a particular area and recognize the responsibilities this entails, including seeking accuracy and reliability, respecting intellectual property, and participating in communities of practice; understand the increasingly social nature of the information ecosystem where authorities actively connect with one another and sources develop over time. Dispositions Learners who are developing their information literate abilities develop and maintain an open mind when encountering varied and sometimes conflicting perspectives; motivate themselves to find authoritative sources, recognizing that authority may be conferred or manifested in unexpected ways; develop awareness of the importance of assessing content with a skeptical stance and with a self-awareness of their own biases and worldview; question traditional notions of granting authority and recognize the value of diverse ideas and worldviews; are conscious that maintaining these attitudes and actions requires frequent self-evaluation. Information Creation as a Process Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences. The information creation process could result in a range of information formats and modes of delivery, so experts look beyond format when selecting resources to use. The unique capabilities and constraints of each creation process as well as the specific information need determine how the product is used. Experts recognize that information creations are valued differently in different contexts, such as academia or the workplace. Elements that affect or reflect on the creation, such as a pre- or post-publication editing or reviewing process, may be indicators of quality. The dynamic nature of information creation and dissemination requires ongoing attention to understand evolving creation processes. Recognizing the nature of information creation, experts look to the underlying processes of creation as well as the final product to critically evaluate the usefulness of the information. Novice learners begin to recognize the significance of the creation process, leading them to increasingly sophisticated choices when matching information products with their information needs. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities articulate the capabilities and constraints of information developed through various creation processes; assess the fit between an information product’s creation process and a particular information need; articulate the traditional and emerging processes of information creation and dissemination in a particular discipline; recognize that information may be perceived differently based on the format in which it is packaged; recognize the implications of information formats that contain static or dynamic information; monitor the value that is placed upon different types of information products in varying contexts; transfer knowledge of capabilities and constraints to new types of information products; develop, in their own creation processes, an understanding that their choices impact the purposes for which the information product will be used and the message it conveys. Dispositions Learners who are developing their information literate abilities are inclined to seek out characteristics of information products that indicate the underlying creation process; value the process of matching an information need with an appropriate product; accept that the creation of information may begin initially through communicating in a range of formats or modes; accept the ambiguity surrounding the potential value of information creation expressed in emerging formats or modes; resist the tendency to equate format with the underlying creation process; understand that different methods of information dissemination with different purposes are available for their use. Information Has Value Information possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination. The value of information is manifested in various contexts, including publishing practices, access to information, the commodification of personal information, and intellectual property laws. The novice learner may struggle to understand the diverse values of information in an environment where “free” information and related services are plentiful and the concept of intellectual property is first encountered through rules of citation or warnings about plagiarism and copyright law. As creators and users of information, experts understand their rights and responsibilities when participating in a community of scholarship. Experts understand that value may be wielded by powerful interests in ways that marginalize certain voices. However, value may also be leveraged by individuals and organizations to effect change and for civic, economic, social, or personal gains. Experts also understand that the individual is responsible for making deliberate and informed choices about when to comply with and when to contest current legal and socioeconomic practices concerning the value of information. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation; understand that intellectual property is a legal and social construct that varies by culture; articulate the purpose and distinguishing characteristics of copyright, fair use, open access, and the public domain; understand how and why some individuals or groups of individuals may be underrepresented or systematically marginalized within the systems that produce and disseminate information; recognize issues of access or lack of access to information sources; decide where and how their information is published; understand how the commodification of their personal information and online interactions affects the information they receive and the information they produce or disseminate online; make informed choices regarding their online actions in full awareness of issues related to privacy and the commodification of personal information. Dispositions Learners who are developing their information literate abilities respect the original ideas of others; value the skills, time, and effort needed to produce knowledge; see themselves as contributors to the information marketplace rather than only consumers of it; are inclined to examine their own information privilege. Research as Inquiry Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field. Experts see inquiry as a process that focuses on problems or questions in a discipline or between disciplines that are open or unresolved. Experts recognize the collaborative effort within a discipline to extend the knowledge in that field. Many times, this process includes points of disagreement where debate and dialogue work to deepen the conversations around knowledge. This process of inquiry extends beyond the academic world to the community at large, and the process of inquiry may focus upon personal, professional, or societal needs. The spectrum of inquiry ranges from asking simple questions that depend upon basic recapitulation of knowledge to increasingly sophisticated abilities to refine research questions, use more advanced research methods, and explore more diverse disciplinary perspectives. Novice learners acquire strategic perspectives on inquiry and a greater repertoire of investigative methods. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities formulate questions for research based on information gaps or on reexamination of existing, possibly conflicting, information; determine an appropriate scope of investigation; deal with complex research by breaking complex questions into simple ones, limiting the scope of investigations; use various research methods, based on need, circumstance, and type of inquiry; monitor gathered information and assess for gaps or weaknesses; organize information in meaningful ways; synthesize ideas gathered from multiple sources; draw reasonable conclusions based on the analysis and interpretation of information. Dispositions Learners who are developing their information literate abilities consider research as open-ended exploration and engagement with information; appreciate that a question may appear to be simple but still disruptive and important to research; value intellectual curiosity in developing questions and learning new investigative methods; maintain an open mind and a critical stance; value persistence, adaptability, and flexibility and recognize that ambiguity can benefit the research process; seek multiple perspectives during information gathering and assessment; seek appropriate help when needed; follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information; demonstrate intellectual humility (i.e., recognize their own intellectual or experiential limitations). Scholarship as Conversation Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations. Research in scholarly and professional fields is a discursive practice in which ideas are formulated, debated, and weighed against one another over extended periods of time. Instead of seeking discrete answers to complex problems, experts understand that a given issue may be characterized by several competing perspectives as part of an ongoing conversation in which information users and creators come together and negotiate meaning. Experts understand that, while some topics have established answers through this process, a query may not have a single uncontested answer. Experts are therefore inclined to seek out many perspectives, not merely the ones with which they are familiar. These perspectives might be in their own discipline or profession or may be in other fields. While novice learners and experts at all levels can take part in the conversation, established power and authority structures may influence their ability to participate and can privilege certain voices and information. Developing familiarity with the sources of evidence, methods, and modes of discourse in the field assists novice learners to enter the conversation. New forms of scholarly and research conversations provide more avenues in which a wide variety of individuals may have a voice in the conversation. Providing attribution to relevant previous research is also an obligation of participation in the conversation. It enables the conversation to move forward and strengthens one’s voice in the conversation. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities cite the contributing work of others in their own information production; contribute to scholarly conversation at an appropriate level, such as local online community, guided discussion, undergraduate research journal, conference presentation/poster session; identify barriers to entering scholarly conversation via various venues; critically evaluate contributions made by others in participatory information environments; identify the contribution that particular articles, books, and other scholarly pieces make to disciplinary knowledge; summarize the changes in scholarly perspective over time on a particular topic within a specific discipline; recognize that a given scholarly work may not represent the only or even the majority perspective on the issue. Dispositions Learners who are developing their information literate abilities recognize they are often entering into an ongoing scholarly conversation and not a finished conversation; seek out conversations taking place in their research area; see themselves as contributors to scholarship rather than only consumers of it; recognize that scholarly conversations take place in various venues; suspend judgment on the value of a particular piece of scholarship until the larger context for the scholarly conversation is better understood; understand the responsibility that comes with entering the conversation through participatory channels; value user-generated content and evaluate contributions made by others; recognize that systems privilege authorities and that not having a fluency in the language and process of a discipline disempowers their ability to participate and engage. Searching as Strategic Exploration Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops. The act of searching often begins with a question that directs the act of finding needed information. Encompassing inquiry, discovery, and serendipity, searching identifies both possible relevant sources as well as the means to access those sources. Experts realize that information searching is a contextualized, complex experience that affects, and is affected by, the cognitive, affective, and social dimensions of the searcher. Novice learners may search a limited set of resources, while experts may search more broadly and deeply to determine the most appropriate information within the project scope. Likewise, novice learners tend to use few search strategies, while experts select from various search strategies, depending on the sources, scope, and context of the information need. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities determine the initial scope of the task required to meet their information needs; identify interested parties, such as scholars, organizations, governments, and industries, who might produce information about a topic and then determine how to access that information; utilize divergent (e.g., brainstorming) and convergent (e.g., selecting the best source) thinking when searching; match information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools; design and refine needs and search strategies as necessary, based on search results; understand how information systems (i.e., collections of recorded information) are organized in order to access relevant information; use different types of searching language (e.g., controlled vocabulary, keywords, natural language) appropriately; manage searching processes and results effectively. Dispositions Learners who are developing their information literate abilities exhibit mental flexibility and creativity understand that first attempts at searching do not always produce adequate results realize that information sources vary greatly in content and format and have varying relevance and value, depending on the needs and nature of the search seek guidance from experts, such as librarians, researchers, and professionals recognize the value of browsing and other serendipitous methods of information gathering persist in the face of search challenges, and know when they have enough information to complete the information task Footer navigation Committees Sections Interest Groups Discussion Groups Staff Copyright Statement Privacy Policy User Guidelines Site Index Feedback Work at ALA © 1996–2020 American Library Association ALA American Library Association 225 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1300 Chicago, IL 60601 | 1.800.545.2433 
www-ala-org-7536	----	770 Unleash Your Library’s HIPster: Transforming Student Library Jobs into High-Impact Practices Jill Markgraf Introduction At a time when higher education is facing unprece- dented external pressure to demonstrate its value and assess its outcomes, colleges and universities are ea- ger to articulate the myriad ways they benefit students and society. Brick and mortar institutions are look- ing to differentiate themselves from each other as well as from other initiatives such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) and for-profit online providers that could be seen as competitors. One way institutions are doing this is by offering and emphasizing high- impact practices. In higher education, high-impact practices (HIPs) are defined as transformative expe- riences that “require students to connect, reflect on, and integrate what they are learning from their classes with other life experiences.” HIPs enable students to “see firsthand the practical value of their classroom learning by applying it in real-life settings.”1 Studies show that HIPs contribute to student engagement and success. Experiences such as study abroad, collabora- tive research, living learning communities, service learning or internships are commonly cited as HIPs. They share characteristics such as engaging students in sustained and purposeful tasks and decision-mak- ing; they offer students the opportunity to interact regularly and in meaningful ways with faculty, staff or other mentors and receive regular feedback; they expose students to people different from themselves; and they provide opportunities for students to apply, synthesize and reflect on knowledge.2 These experi- ences nurture skills that align with those that employ- ers indicate they value when hiring college graduates. Employers cite critical thinking and problem-solving skills, communication skills, and the ability to apply learning to real-world situations as critical to work- place success.3 Those who employ student workers recognize that most, if not all, of these qualities can be developed and enhanced in student jobs. With inten- tionality and effort, student employment can be recast into a high-impact practice. The Value of Student Work Much has been written about the value of student employment, especially on-campus employment and part-time employment of fewer than 20 hours per week. While some studies suggest a correlation between part-time on-campus student employment and academic achievement,4 other findings are am- bivalent.5 But there is no disputing that a significant number of college students are working (41% of full- time students and 72% of part-time students).6 Mak- ing efforts to incorporate more qualities associated with high-impact practices into the work experience is likely to benefit those students who work while in college. While every campus has a wealth of examples of students engaging in meaningful and enriching work, there is a seeming reluctance to regard these experi- ences as HIPs, which may stem in part from the per- Jill Markgraf is Professor and Head of Research & Instruction, McIntyre Library, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, e-mail: markgrjs@uwec.edu Unleash Your Library’s HIPster: Transforming Student Library Jobs into High-Impact Practices March 25–28, 2015, Portland, Oregon 771 ceived roles and divisions between staff and faculty. Student supervisors are often not faculty, but rather “capable and trusted staff members who take an inter- est in students’ academic progress and general well- being—but, unlike faculty members, are not involved in evaluating their course work….” However, they “often become supportive mentors….[creating] rela- tionships that nurture ongoing ties to the institution.”7 Because it is often staff who supervise students and faculty who oversee students’ academic pursuits, the opportunity to draw connections between the two— an essential element of HIPs—is not fully exploited. Cheng and Alcántara call for institutional policies treating student employment as an “educationally purposeful activity outside the classroom.”8 The Uni- versity of Iowa’s Division of Student Life is answer- ing that call with its IOWA GROW (Guided Reflec- tion on Work) program.9 The program embraces the idea that student employment is a high-impact prac- tice and has institutionalized reflective practices into the student employment experience. Libraries, that typically employ a significant number of students, are well-positioned to propel similar initiatives on college campuses. Librarians Leading from the Middle Academic libraries in the U.S. employ more than 20,000 student assistants annually.10 Librarians su- pervise and work closely with these students, often for several hours per week over several years. The relationship that student employees have with their supervisors and colleagues may be among the most sustained interactions they have with the institution during their college careers. Librarians enjoy similari- ties with non-faculty university staff, such as those in student support services and student affairs. They of- fer services, work with students outside the confines of the classroom, manage facilities, and typically employ a relatively substantial number of student employees. In many institutions, librarians are also integrally in- volved in academic matters, sometimes holding fac- ulty status, often teaching classes, and in most cases working closely with teaching faculty. Librarians are thus uniquely positioned to build connections be- tween students’ curricular and work experiences. Examples of libraries providing meaningful work experiences abound, suggesting that librarians under- stand the value to both students and libraries of creat- ing rewarding work experiences for student employ- ees.11 It is less clear that these experiences, as well as those of other student work experiences on campus, are fully appreciated, acknowledged and promoted as HIPs to students, faculty, staff, administrators, em- ployers and other stakeholders. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire librar- ians hold faculty status and serve on several academic committees, including the academic policies com- mittee, the assessment committee and the university liberal education committee, as well as the university senate. For several years, these committees were fo- cused on revising the university’s liberal education core requirements, and in spring 2014 the campus ad- opted a new Liberal Education Framework.12 Among the goals of the new framework is an integration goal, aimed at connecting students’ academic experiences to other experiences within and outside of the class- room. Throughout the process of developing and implementing this framework, this goal was largely discussed as the integration of courses, and less atten- tion was focused on integrating curricular with extra- curricular experiences. In fact, several faculty were resistant to the idea that extracurricular experiences could address liberal education core requirements. But a librarian saw the emerging Liberal Education Framework as an ideal opportunity to raise awareness of the value of on-campus student work. While fac- ulty employ students, usually as research assistants in a one-on-one mentorship relationship, they are typi- cally less likely to view themselves as “student super- visors” and arguably less focused on the student work experience than are those on campus who employ and supervise more students. Student supervisors, on the other hand, are quite cognizant of the importance of the student work experience, both to the campus and to the student, and aware of the learning experi- ence that a campus job can afford students. However, Jill Markgraf ACRL 2015 772 they are for the most part removed from curricular discussions and decisions. At UW—Eau Claire, many were unaware of the liberal education revisions tak- ing place. A librarian, who bridges these two worlds, drew the connection between the on-campus student experience and the emerging liberal education goals. UW—Eau Claire’s McIntyre Library employs be- tween 50 and 60 students. And while the library could independently enhance the work experience of its students by incorporating characteristics of HIPs and liberal education, real support for and formal recog- nition of the student work experience as an integral piece of a liberal education would require efforts ex- tending beyond the library. Forging Alliances The librarian approached the director of financial aid about a possible collaboration. The director shared a keen interest in the student work experience, rec- ognizing that the university employed roughly 4000 students in a wide range of roles, many of which were high quality experiences but had not been defined or articulated as HIPs. Recognizing the potential impact of the student work experience in light of the new liberal education learning goals, the librarian and the director of financial aid weighed options for be- ginning a campus conversation. The two decided to create a learning community, a professional devel- opment model that was already in place through the campus Center for Teaching and Learning (CETL). The learning communities typically bring faculty to- gether to read and discuss issues related to teaching and learning. Learning communities often develop into “communities of practice” (COPs) that plan and implement projects based on ideas generated by the learning communities. Though a discussion group focusing on the student work experience could have formed and met independently of CETL, the two organizers were determined to offer this profession- al development opportunity under the auspices of CETL. Doing so would underscore the teaching and learning aspect of student employment that was the foundation of the idea. And it would include not only faculty but staff, emphasizing the teaching and men- torship roles of those who work with students outside of the classroom. Initially there was some resistance, as CETL typically provided support for classroom teaching. However, the two made a case for the learn- ing community, citing the liberal education learning goals under development and literature supporting the educational value of student work. Ultimately the “Maximizing the Student Work Experience Learn- ing Community” was offered in spring 2012 through CETL. Twenty one faculty and staff from across cam- pus signed up and met biweekly to discuss selected readings, share philosophies and develop strategies for maximizing the educational value of student work experiences. Sessions focused on four themes: • Contribution of the work experience to the liberal education goals • Supervisor as educator/mentor • Enhancing quality of the work experiences • Defining the parameters of on-campus internships A fifth theme on generational differences in the workplace was added at the request of participants. The series began with participants reading the draft of the university’s Liberal Education Frame- work13 that was being considered, discussed and debated by the university senate, several academic committees and faculty throughout the institution. Not surprisingly, this introduction to the Liberal Edu- cation Framework was the first time that many staff members were made aware of an issue that had been consuming the energies and attention of their faculty colleagues for years. It didn’t take long for learning community participants to identify goals in the new Liberal Education Framework to which the student work experience contributed. For example, the goal to “develop intellectual and practical skills, including… inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, written and oral communication, qualitative litera- cy, information literacy, and teamwork and problem solving” immediately had participants talking about the experiences their student employees had that developed these skills. Examples included students Unleash Your Library’s HIPster: Transforming Student Library Jobs into High-Impact Practices March 25–28, 2015, Portland, Oregon 773 conducting interviews and writing news releases for the news bureau, solving technology problems at the campus help desk, developing programming for the residence halls, serving as peer guides for internation- al students and responding to reference questions at the library reference desk. The second segment of the discussion series fo- cused on supervisors as student mentors and edu- cators, exploring the similarities and differences be- tween these roles. There was hesitation among some staff to refer to themselves as educators, and frankly there was resistance among some faculty to cede any part of that role to colleagues outside of the classroom. However, the liberal education goal of “integrat[ing] learning across courses and disciplines, and between campus and community life” offered an invitation— even a mandate—for those in and out of the class- room to collaborate in the liberal education mission. Once learning community participants began to embrace their roles in contributing to the liberal edu- cation experience of their students, the discussions turned to more practical matters such as enhancing the work experiences and helping students to rec- ognize and articulate the value of those experiences. Acknowledging that the development of a meaning- ful work experience began before a student was hired, participants practiced rewriting student position de- scriptions. As the first communication that student employers will have with their student workers, the wording of the position description could begin to model and convey the value of an on-campus work experience. Suggestions included rethinking the title of the position itself to explicitly including a section on the position description that spells out the benefits to the student of holding such a position. For exam- ple, the library changed the title of a student position from “Reference Desk Student” to “Library Research & Instruction Assistant.” Included in the position de- scription was a section with the heading “Benefits” that included: • Development of high level research skills to assist in academic and lifelong learning • Mentoring from library faculty and staff • Opportunity for progressively independent work and increased responsibility • Development of valuable professional skills, including problem-solving, communication, customer service and critical thinking. • Increased awareness of the many different aspects of campus life and activities The interview process is another area that was identified for its potential as a teachable moment. Though many learning community participants ad- mitted to conducting minimal, if any, interviews in their hiring processes, they recognized that this could be the only opportunity some students would get to practice interviewing before they entered the post- graduation job market. Treating the hiring process professionally, by modeling professional behavior, asking “real” interview questions, requesting resumés and references, and even providing some feedback af- terwards, provides students with valuable experience. Learning community members considered approach- es for building upon this theme once students were hired. They discussed using periodic performance re- views as opportunities to guide students in reflecting on their work experience and its connection to their academic endeavors and future goals. Participants turned to the University of Iowa’s IOWA GROW (Guided Reflection on Work) program for inspira- tion. The IOWA GROW program, recognizing that students may not always draw connections between their jobs and classroom learning, promotes conver- sations between students and their supervisors built on four questions: • How is this job fitting in with your academ- ics? • What are you learning here that’s helping you in school? • What are you learning in class that you can apply here at work? • Can you give me a couple of examples of things you’ve learned here that you think you’ll use in your chosen profession?14 As with many of the ideas that were generated during the course of the learning community discus- Jill Markgraf ACRL 2015 774 sions, participants—including the librarian—took these ideas back to their departments and experi- mented with implementing them. In the library, these four initial questions led to discussions with the stu- dents about how their library jobs might be enhanced to strengthen this connection between the student’s academic interests and their job. As librarians learned more about the students’ interests and abilities, they were able to assign projects to the students that would utilize their strengths. One student, for example, was considering a photography major, so he was tasked with developing a collection of stock library photos that librarians could use in teaching, promotional materials and presentations. Another student was en- rolled in an events planning class and was tapped to assist with planning upcoming events in the library. A marketing student was tasked with creating promo- tional videos for the library. Moving Ideas to Action Due to popularity, a second learning community was offered the following semester, and participants con- tinued to consider and implement ideas generated from the shared readings and discussions into their own practices. But organizers were still committed to making an impact at the institutional level. To that end a community of practice (COP) was formed to bring ideas emanating from the learning communi- ties to campuswide action. The COP pulled together eight people, including the librarian, active in student employment on campus. Building on a recommenda- tion that emerged from the learning communities, it set out to create a series of workshops for student su- pervisors that would empower them to see themselves as mentors and educators, and foster the connection between the liberal education learning goals and the work experience of students. The COP developed three 3-hour workshops: • Nuts and bolts. This workshop introduces the concept of “supervisor as educator” and the liberal education learning goals. Participants engage in hands-on activities to develop meaningful position descriptions and en- hance hiring and orientation processes to model professionalism. • Leadership for Supervisors of Student Em- ployees. This workshop focuses on identify- ing and developing leadership styles as they relate to supervising and mentoring stu- dents. Participants use case studies to reflect on their own leadership style predispositions and expand their repertoire of approaches to deal with issues such as providing construc- tive feedback. Participants explore the con- cept of situational leadership for managing and mentoring students in various circum- stances and levels of development. • Maximizing the Student Work Experience. The third workshop in the series expands on the previous workshops by coaching supervi- sors in conducting structured conversations with student employees on identifying and articulating skills they have acquired. Par- ticipants explore more deeply the concepts of high-impact practice and professionalism. A panel of area employers shares their perspec- tives on characteristics and attributes valued in employees. The series of workshops, piloted in 2013, contin- ues to be revised and offered twice a year. Facilitated primarily by members of the original COP, the work- shops are attracting additional presenters and partici- pants who bring diverse and valuable experience and perspectives to the project. The impact of the work- shops is beginning gain traction at the institutional level. The director of financial aid’s position was recon- figured to include “student work” in her title, providing a home and oversight to continued efforts. The univer- sity provost and chancellor have expressed support for the work being done, and workshop evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive. As the university com- munity continues its efforts to develop criteria for as- sessing the new liberal education learning outcomes, it remains to be seen how the work experience will be viewed and incorporated, but the groundwork has been laid and the conversations are in progress. Unleash Your Library’s HIPster: Transforming Student Library Jobs into High-Impact Practices March 25–28, 2015, Portland, Oregon 775 Bringing it Home The value of the librarian’s involvement in the cam- pus student work initiatives has been twofold. First, by championing the potential of student work, she has played a role in raising awareness and quality of student work experiences across campus. Second, by working with a wide range of university colleagues, the librarian has been exposed to the collective ex- pertise and ideas of effective and innovative managers and educators across campus. Gradually these ideas are being implemented in the library. For example, in addition to ideas mentioned above, such as revising the hiring and review processes, the librarian imple- mented regular departmental meetings for her student assistants. The ability to work in teams is a skill valued not only in the university liberal education learning goals, but also by potential employers. Students who staff the reference desk usually do not work together, so implementing regular meetings gave the students the opportunity to meet each other and coalesce as a team. Initially, the meetings focused on training in ar- eas such as customer service, conducting a reference interview, and exploring databases. As students be- came increasingly comfortable with their colleagues, the meetings evolved into brainstorming sessions, where students floated ideas for improving library services. Librarians observed student employees be- coming more engaged and invested in the library, and more confident in sharing ideas for improvement. Seeing the positive outcome from the meetings of a relatively small library department led to the idea of expanding meetings to students in other depart- ments. A recent student meeting focused on devel- oping resumés and articulating student library work effectively—a direct result of the supervisor work- shops. A staff member from the Career Services office facilitated the meeting, and an invitation to this meet- ing was extended to all library student employees. In considering how to best reflect their library jobs on their resumés, students were asked questions similar to those adapted from IOWA GROW and used in in- dividual performance reviews. The group discussion yielded wide-ranging and insightful reflections, aug- menting students’ individual perceptions with those of their peers on the value of their work experiences. For example, when asked what skills they were devel- oping in their jobs, a reference desk student replied, “Asking questions. Listening is more important than having an immediate answer.” A technical services student offered an unanticipated response, “Creativ- ity. When I have to mend a book I’m given free rein in deciding how best to do it.” Her comment sparked a conversation on the creative aspects of jobs that stu- dents hadn’t previously thought of in that way. Assessment As the library becomes more intentional about elevat- ing student work experiences to HIPs, it is mindful of assessing its efforts. A survey of students employed in the library during the past 10 years was conducted in January 2015. Of approximately 250 students and former students contacted via email or Facebook, 96 completed the survey, for a response rate of 38 per- cent. Intended to serve as a baseline survey that can be repeated in a couple of years, after more efforts to implement high-impact practices have been put in place, the initial survey nonetheless provided valuable feedback on student perceptions of their work experi- ences. Students were asked to identify to what extent they believed they learned or developed a set of skills while working in the library. Responses varied de- pending on the nature of the students’ work, with results skewing toward the more numerous techni- cal service students. The ability to work indepen- dently, attention to detail, and interpersonal skills ranked high overall. Students in public service also identified communication skills, customer service and problem-solving among the skills they obtained. Technical service students cited analytical skills, or- ganizational skills, and time management. A majority of students indicated that they had learned or devel- oped skills aligning with liberal education learning goals, such as information literacy (research skills), critical thinking and problem-solving, communica- tion and analytical skills. Jill Markgraf ACRL 2015 776 We have long suspected, as have others on cam- pus who employ students, that the student work expe- rience often influences a student’s future career path. We asked survey respondents if they had enrolled in, or ever considered enrolling in, a graduate program in library science. We then asked those who responded affirmatively (59%) if they had been thinking about it before working at McIntyre Library. Fifty-eight per- cent responded no. If part of a liberal education is ex- posing students to new ideas and possibilities, there is no question that the work experience does just that. Conclusion UW—Eau Claire, as part of the University of Wiscon- sin system, is facing unprecedented budget cuts from the state that threaten to increase the economic bur- den on students while drastically reducing the number of instructors on campus and the ability to maintain or expand traditionally recognized high-impact prac- tices. Yet the university administration has stated that HIPs remain a priority even in the face of substantially reduced resources. At the same time, students are fac- ing increased pressure to work while in school. These unfortunate circumstances may provide a new land- scape in which those who have been resistant to rec- ognizing extracurricular experiences on campuses as valid educational experiences are willing to give them credit, figuratively or literally. Efforts to enhance and recognize the student work experience can only benefit students and colleges, especially in challenging times, and librarians can be the ones leading this charge. Notes 1. George D. Kuh, “Maybe Experience Really Can Be the Best Teacher,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 57, no. 14 (Novem- ber 26): A20. http://search.ebscohost.com. 2. George D. Kuh, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter (Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2008). 3. It Takes More Than A Major: Employer Priorities for Col- lege Learning and Student Success. (Washington, DC: Hart Research Associates, 2013), 12. http:// www.aacu.org/sites/ default/files/files/LEAP/2013_EmployerSurvey.pdf . 4. Gary R. Pike, George D. Kuh, and Ryan Massa-McKinle, “First-Year Students’ Employment, Engagement, and Aca- demic Achievement: Untangling the Relationship between Work and Grades.” NASPA Journal (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, Inc.) 45, no. 4 (2008): 560- 82. 5. Steven C. Riggert et al., “Student Employment and Higher Education: Empiricism and Contradiction,” Review of Edu- cational Research 76 (2006): 63-92. 6. “Characteristics of Postsecondary Students,” National Cen- FIGURE 1 Student Perception of Skills Learned Working in Library (% Indicating “A Lot” Or “Some”) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 Writing Supervisory skills Management skills Research skills Analytical skills Technology skills Critical thinking Confidence Time management Customer service Problem-solving Communication skills Organizational skills Interpersonal skills Attention to detail Ability to work independently FIGURE 1 Student perception of skills learned working in library (% indicating "a lot" or "some") Unleash Your Library’s HIPster: Transforming Student Library Jobs into High-Impact Practices March 25–28, 2015, Portland, Oregon 777 ter for Education Statistics (May 2014), http://nces.ed.gov/ programs/coe/indicator_csb.asp. 7. Noel-Levitz, Enhancing Student Success by Treating ‘Student Jobs’ as ‘Real Jobs’ [White paper] (2010), 3, https://www. noellevitz.com/documents/shared/Papers_and_Re- search/2010/StudentEmployeeSuccess.pdf. 8. David X. Cheng and Lucia Alcántara, “Assessing Working Students’ College Experiences: a Grounded Theory Ap- proach,” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 32, no. 3 (2007): 309. 9. University of Iowa, Division of Student Life, IOWA GROW, accessed February 1, 2015, http://vp.studentlife.uiowa.edu/ initiatives/grow. 10. Tai Phan, Laura Hardesty, and Jamie Hug, Academic Librar- ies: 2012. NCES 2014-038. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics (2014): 9. http://nces.ed.gov/ pubs2014/2014038.pdf. 11. Jamie Seeholzer, “Making it Their Own: Creating Mean- ingful Opportunities for Student Employees in Academic Library Services,” College & Undergraduate Libraries 20, no. 2 (2013): 215-223, doi 10.1080/10691316.2013.789690; Kate Burke and Belinda Lawrence, “The Accidental Mentorship: Library Managers’ Roles in Student Employees’ Academic Professional Lives,” College & Research Libraries News 72 (2011):99-101. 12. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Liberal Education Framework, Learning Outcomes, and Rubrics, last modified Dec. 30, 2014, http://www.uwec.edu/ULEC/Liberal-Educa- tion-Framework-Learning-Outcome-and-Rubrics.htm. 13. Ibid. 14. University of Iowa. _Ref412131001 _Ref412131002 _Ref412131003 _Ref412131004 _Ref412131005 _Ref412131006 _Ref412131007 _Ref412131008 _Ref412131009 _Ref412131010 _Ref412131011 _Ref412131012 _GoBack _Ref412131013 _Ref412131014 
www-ala-org-7747	----	BridgingBoundaries Bridging Boundaries to Create a New Workforce: A Survey of Spectrum Scholarship Recipients, 1998-2003 Commissioned by the American Library Association Prepared by Dr. Loriene Roy, Principal Investigator Glendora Johnson-Cooper Cynthia Tysick Daisy Waters With assistance from: Jorge Chavez Kara Huggard Antony Cherian The ALA Office for Diversity © 2006 American Library Association Survey Methodology Survey questions are organized into three sections: (1) Questions for all Spectrum Scholarship recipients; (2) Questions for those who have completed their graduate degree or library media certification; and (3) Questions for those who did not complete their degree plan and are not currently enrolled as students. The instrument was developed in cooperation with the ALA Office for Diversity and pretested by selected LIS faculty and students who shared demographic characteristics with Spectrum Scholars. The survey instrument was housed on the ALA Office for Diversity Web site with a non- fillable version of the instrument posted on a Web site hosted by the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Scholars were invited to complete the form in early May 2004 Scholarship recipients by ALA’s Office for Diversity. A separate contact list was also complied and invitations sent to each scholar for whom there was available contact information. Copies of the instrument were forwarded via e-mail as plain text, as MS Word attachments, or in paper format as needed. Four follow-up reminders were issued to increase the response rate. Research Assistants coded the responses into data files using the SPSS statistical analysis package. A total of 164 completed surveys were received from the potential pool of 257 scholars for a response rate of 64 percent. As not every respondent answered all questions, the total number of responses to any given question may be less than 164. Bridging Boundaries to Create a New Workforce Survey Responses Respondents This survey sought responses from the first six cohorts of Spectrum Scholarship recipients. 164 of 257 scholars responded, for a response rate of 64 percent. Responses were received from students within each of the six cohorts. Table 1 shows the number and percentage of responses from each cohort as well as the percentage of total surveys contributed per cohort from 1998-1999 to 2003-2004. Since a balanced number of surveys were received from each Spectrum class, responses should reflect experiences shared across Spectrum cohorts. Table 1. Surveys Received by Spectrum Scholarship Year Spectrum Year Number Received Total Number of Scholars Percent of Cohort Responding Percent of Total Surveys Received 1998- 1999 31 50 62 19 1999- 2000 30 50 60 18 2000- 2001 26 50 52 16 2001- 2002 33 52 63 20 2002- 2003 22 27 81 13 2003- 2004 22 28 79 13 Total 164 257 100 In presenting the findings to key questions results are indicated as numbers and percentages of respondents to relevant survey questions—not as percentages of total number of survey respondents. Scholar Demographics: Ethnicity, Gender, Disability, and Age Answers to basic demographic questions help provide a profile of the respondents’ national origin, gender, race and ethnicity. Ninety-six percent (n=157) of respondents indicated that they were U.S. citizens with three percent (n=5) Permanent Residents and one percent (n=1) Canadian citizen. Approximately three fourths (77 percent, n=114) of the respondents indicated that they were born in the United States with 23 percent (n=34) indicating other countries of origin. Sixteen respondents did not answer this question. Of those respondents born outside of the United States, half (53 percent, n=18)were from Asia followed by the Caribbean (26 percent, n=9). In terms of gender, 86 percent (n=141) of the respondents were female; 14 percent (n=23), male.i The difference in gender indicates that alternative approaches may need to be instituted in order to recruit male students of color into LIS programs. Spectrum Scholarships applicants were originally asked to self-identify from four ethnic groups. In 2001, the Asian /Pacific Islander category was split into two categories Asian, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander to conform to the revisions of the standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity promulgated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in October 1997. The largest number of respondents indicated that they were Black/African American/African Canadian (42 percent, n=67), followed by Hispanic/Latino (30 percent, n=49), Asian (22 percent, n=36), and Native peoples (6 percent, n=9). These results are shown below in Table 2. Three respondents did not answer this question. Table 2. Respondents by Race or Ethnicity (n=161; 3 nonrespondents) Race or Ethnicity Number Percent American Indian/Native 9 6 Asian 36 22 African American 67 42 Hispanic/Latino 49 30 Total 161 100 When asked, “Would you also describe yourself as a person of mixed or blended ancestry,” nearly half (49 percent, n=80), of the respondents responded that they would. A chi-square test, shown in Table 3, reveals significant differences (p<.005) when respondents’ race or ethnicity is compared to their self-identification as a person with mixed or blended ancestry; these data elements were available for 151 of the 164 respondents. Hispanic/Latino respondents were more apt to identify themselves as persons of mixed heritage with smaller numbers of African American or Asian students doing so.ii Sixty-nine percent (34 of the 49 respondents who indicated that their race/family origin was “other”) noted that their heritage was best categorized as Mexican, Chicano, Mextizo, or two or more cultures, including Mexican-American (Caucasian Hispanic or White Hispanic), Spanish-Mexican-Indian (or Native American), and Chicana/Asian/American Indian. Note that the Native respondents are not included in this cross-tabulation analysis due to their small inclusion in the sample. Nevertheless, LIS programs might especially keep in mind that a large number of prospective students of color might be more responsive to an application process and financial aid structure that acknowledges people of mixed heritage. Table 3. Race/Ethnicity and Mixed/Blended Ancestry Cross Tabulation (n=151) Mixed Ancestry Race or Ethnicity No Yes Total Number 25 11 36 Asian Percent 69.4 30.6 100.0 Number 40 26 66 Black Percent 60.6 39.4 100.0 Number 15 34 49 Hispanic Percent 30.6 69.4 100.0 Number 80 71 151 Total Percent 53.0 47.0 100.0 Pearson Chi-Square value of 15.299; significance level <.005 Six percent (n=9) of the respondents reported that they one or more disability. The 2002 Census indicates that nearly 19 percent of the U.S. population from 16 to 64 years has a disability.iii Individuals with disabilities appear to be underrepresented among Spectrum Scholars when compared to the population as a whole. Table 4 groups the ages of the survey respondents at the time they received their scholarships into six categories from 21 to 25 years of age to 46 years old and older; 158 respondents provided this information. Results show that over half (54 percent, n=86) of the respondents were thirty or younger at the time they received their award. Age at time of scholarship ranged from 21 to 61 with a mean age of 32. Cross-analyzing age with other variables resulted in one finding of possible interest: students in each of the three largest ethnic groups (Asian, African/American, and Hispanic/Latino) had representatives in all age categories except one. No scholarships were awarded to Asian students over 45. Table 4. Age at Time of Receiving Spectrum Scholarship (n=158) Age Number Percent 21-25 33 21 26-30 53 34 31-35 26 16 36-40 16 10 41-45 17 11 46 and over 13 8 Total 158 100 Developing Interest in Librarianship as a Career These data provide rich information that helps us understand more fully the recruitment of people of color into LIS professions. Whether students had prior experience working in libraries, at what point in their lives they decided to enroll in a LIS program, what criteria influenced this decision, how they learned about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, and whether they felt it influenced their decision to pursue further education were also key areas of interest raised in this survey. A majority (62 percent, n=101) of respondents had degrees in social sciences disciplines such as education, psychology, or history. Thirty-two percent (n=53) of respondents had a humanities related degree with only five percent (n=8) with prior degrees in the sciences. In addition to completing an undergraduate degree, 15 percent (n=25) of the respondents had completed another master’s degree prior to starting their LIS programs. Over half (57 percent, n=93) of the respondents first made their decision to enroll in a LIS program after completing their undergraduate degree, 18 percent (n=29) made this decision while still undergraduates and another 15 percent (n=25) did so after completing another graduate program. The most productive recruitment programs might be those that are tailored for individuals at these points in their lives. Table five illustrates these results. One respondent did not answer this question. Table 5. Time When Decision to Enter LIS Program Was Made (n= 163) Time Span Number Percent Before completing high school 2 1 After completing high school 2 1 While completing an undergraduate degree 29 18 After completing an undergraduate degree 93 57 While enrolled in another graduate program 12 7 After completing another graduate program 25 15 Total 163 100* *Rounded. The single most predictive indicator of whether a scholar would enter a LIS program was prior experience working in a library. Respondents provided details on their experience working in libraries throughout their lives. Seventy-six percent (n=125) of respondents had prior experience working in paid positions in libraries with twenty percent (n=25) working both during and after receiving their undergraduate degrees. Twenty-one percent (n=35) of the respondents had never worked in a library prior to receiving their Spectrum Scholarship. Sixty-five percent (n=106) had worked only in prior paid positions, with twelve percent (n=19) working both in paid and in volunteer positions and only two percent (n=4) having worked solely as library volunteers. Over half (59 percent, n=96) of the respondents were working in a library at the time they made the decision to attend an LIS program. There were no significant differences between Spectrum Cohorts 1998-99 through 2003-2004, indicating that this is a consistent finding. As a result, recruiters might find the most promising prospective LIS students of color to be individuals with prior experience in paid library positions who have just completed their undergraduate degrees. Table 6. Library Work Prior to Receiving Spectrum Scholarship** Work Experience Number Percent No 35 21 Yes, only in a paid position 106 65 Yes, only as volunteer 4 2 Yes, both in a paid position and as a volunteer 19 12 Total 164 100 Yes, in a paid position 125* 76 Paid, during high school 17 10 Paid, while an undergraduate 73 45 Paid, after completing undergraduate degree 67 41 Paid, while enrolled in another graduate program 26 16 Paid, after completing another graduate program 18 11 Yes, as a volunteer 23* 14 Volunteer, during high school 9 6 Volunteer, while an undergraduate 5 3 Volunteer, after completing undergraduate degree 5 3 Volunteer, while enrolled in another graduate program 4 2 Volunteer, after completing another graduate program 5 3 *Respondents could provide more than one response. **N varies As shown in Table 7, below, a significantly greater (p<.05) percentage of male respondents were working in libraries when they decided to attend their LIS programs. Two of the 164 respondents did not answer this question. Table 7. Gender of Respondent and Working at Time of LIS Decision Cross tabulation Gender of Respondent Working in Library at Time of Decision to Attend LIS Program No Yes Total Number 5 18 23 Male Percent 21.7 78.3 100.0 Number 61 78 139 Female Percent 43.9 56.1 100.0 Number 66 96 162 Total Percent 40.7 59.3 100.0 Pearson Chi-Square value of 4.009; significance level <.05 Respondents identified multiple reasons why they decided to pursue librarianship as a career. They were attracted to the flexibility of the career options, agreeing that librarianship would be able to let them use their talents (97 percent, n=157). Respondents were strongly attracted to the service aspects of the field: 95 percent (n=155) agreed that they thought the career would give them the opportunity to help others. The next highest-rated reason for enrolling in library school was enjoyment using libraries in the past; 93 percent (n=151) indicated that this was one reason why they sought a career in librarianship. Over 80 percent of the respondents also felt that the degree would give them opportunities to advance professionally (90 percent, n=145), would complement their education (89 percent, n=145), and would give them skills that were marketable (84 percent, n=134). Students agreed least with the statement, “I always wanted to work in libraries:” Fewer than half (43 percent, n=70) of students always wanted to work to libraries. Answers to these questions are shown in Table 8. Table 8. Factors Influencing Scholar’s Decision to Pursue Career in Librarianship Agree (%) Disagree (%) I thought this career would let me use my talents 97 3 I thought the field would enable me to help others 95 5 I had enjoyed using libraries in the past 93 7 I felt I would have opportunities to advance 90 10 The degree would complement my education 89 11 I though librarianship would give me marketable skills 84 16 I knew a librarian who enjoyed his or her work 79 21 I thought the field would enable me to help my ethnic/racial community 79 21 I had enjoyed working in libraries 76 24 I desired a career change 73 27 Someone suggested that I would be successful in the field 73 27 I thought I would earn a good income 64 36 I always wanted to work in libraries 43 57 Geographically, respondents were residing in 38 states at the time they decided to apply to a LIS school. Of those states, ten or more respondents were residing in five states: California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas. Nearly 50 percent (47 percent, n=75) of respondents were living in these five states at the time they made their decision to return to school. Almost one out of three (29 percent, n=47) respondents moved from 65 to 5000 miles to attend a LIS program. The average relocation distance was nearly 1000 (957) miles. Applying to the Spectrum Scholarship Program Results indicate that the most effective means for marketing Spectrum was the ALA Web site; a third of respondents (35 percent, n=57) learned about the Spectrum Scholarship Program by visiting www.ala.org. Among respondents who used the Web site to learn about Spectrum, those who were already ALA members used the ala.org Web site at roughly the same rate as those who were not ALA members. Respondents also learned about Spectrum from co-workers in a library (21 percent, n=34), from a university librarian (10 percent, n=17), from the LIS program to which they applied (10 percent, n=17), or from a university professor (9 percent, n=15). One out of four respondents (29 percent, n=47) said that they would not have pursued their education without a Spectrum Scholarship. Two thirds (68 percent, n=111) of respondents were working in a library or information center at the time they applied for their Spectrum Scholarship with two thirds (68 percent, n=75 ) of these working full-time. Half of the respondents were employed in two types of library settings: 26 percent (n=43) of respondents were working in college or university libraries and 24 percent (n=39) respondents were in mid-sized to large public libraries. Choosing a LIS Program Spectrum Scholarships are awarded to individuals who have completed up to one third of their LIS program coursework. Four out of ten respondents (41 percent, n=67) were enrolled in a LIS program at the time they applied for their scholarships. A greater number of scholarships were awarded to students newly recruited into LIS programs. Respondents attended forty-one different LIS programs including forty programs with ALA accredited master’s programs and one nationally recognized NCATE-AASL reviewed/approved program in school library media education. There were no significant differences between how respondents enrolled in LIS programs and those not enrolled learned about the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Table 9 shows that approximately equal numbers of respondents found initial information about the Spectrum Scholarship Program through the ALA Web site, through contacts at LIS programs, publications, and practicing librarians. Table 9. Enrollment in LIS Program at Spectrum Application and Source of Information about Spectrum Scholarship Program Learned about Spectrum From Enrolled in LIS Program (#) / (%) Not Enrolled in LIS Program (#) / (%) ALA Web site 23 (34) 34 (35) Co-Worker 11 (16) 23 (24) College Librarian 10 (15) 7 (7) Publication 7 (10) 5 (5) Library School 6 (9) 11 (12) University Professor 6 (9) 8 (8) Public Librarian 5 (8) 7 (7) Half of respondents (51 percent, n=83) said their school demonstrated special recognition of Spectrum recipients. Of these students, the most frequently mentioned recognition was additional financial support through matching funds, other scholarship awards, and salaried appointments—especially graduate assistantships. Other respondents were introduced at social events such as receptions, awards dinners, in class, or at convocation. Some LIS programs also identified their respondents in their newsletters, on their Web sites and electronic lists and in alumni or university-wide publications. Some recognition was less formal: several respondents indicated having easy access to LIS program faculty and administrators was a form of recognition. Twelve percent (n=19) of respondents were unaware of any recognition organized by their LIS program; none of these students were involved in their program’s graduate student organization, indicating that that this may have led to greater awareness of information about local support of Spectrum Scholarship recipients. LIS programs might also ensure that consistent communication reaches all students in their programs. Once admitted and enrolled in a LIS program, Spectrum respondents did not leave that program to transfer to another program. Over 90 percent (93 percent, n=153) of scholars completed coursework at only one LIS program. Few students (3 percent, n=5) were enrolled in dual-degree programs. In-residence programs were the preferred program format for Spectrum Scholars, with 70 percent enrolled in such programs, three out of ten (30 percent, n=49) were enrolled in a distance delivery program. About half of students (55 percent, n=90) were enrolled full-time. As might be expected, those who moved to attend a LIS program were more apt (p<.005) to be full-time students when they enrolled. A significantly greater (p<.005) number of students enrolled in distance programs were fully employed, part-time students. The top criterion in selecting an LIS program was cost: 85 percent (n=139) of the respondents agreed that their decision was influenced by the cost associated with attending a given program. Other criteria ranked as important were reputation of the school (83 percent, n=135), financial assistance provided (82 percent, n=132) and nearness to home (81 percent, n=131). Ranked as less important were standard of living of the community (45 percent, n=73) where the program was located, a visit to the campus (42 percent, n=67), or the availability of a distance education program (36 percent, n=58). Table 10. Importance of Various Criteria Influencing Choice of LIS Program Factor Important (%) Unimportant (%) Cost of attending school 85 15 Reputation of the school 83 17 Nearness to home 81 19 Financial assistance provided 82 18 Specific program of study 79 21 Responsiveness of staff and/or faculty 77 23 Reputation of the faculty 72 28 Diversity 55 45 Recommendation from someone 53 47 Standard of living where school is Located 45 55 Campus visit 42 58 Distance education program available 36 64 Nearly three-fourths (74 percent, n=121) of respondents received additional financial support including financial awards, scholarships, fellowships, grants, stipends, tuition waivers, or salaried appointments as work study students, graduate student assistantships or teaching assistants. Ninety percent of respondents (42 of 47) who relocated to attend their LIS program received additional funding, differing significantly (p<.005) from those who did not relocate. A significant number of respondents (p<.05) receiving additional funding also were recognized in some way by their LIS schools. Significantly fewer students (p<.025) in distance programs received additional funding. Significantly fewer students (p<.005) employed full-time received these graduate awards, possibly due to funding requirements limiting many awards to those who can take more than one class. Experiences in LIS Programs Respondents reported a high degree of satisfaction with many aspects of their graduate programs, as shown in Table 11. While more than half (55 percent, n=89) of the respondents reported that standard of living was not a factor influencing their choice of LIS program, a high percentage of respondents (91 percent, n=142) were satisfied with this aspect of their graduate experience. A majority (87 percent, n=142) of students identified proximity to home as a key factor in choosing their school; respondents expressed satisfaction with this characteristic of their life as students. Students incorporated the financial assistance offered into their choice of LIS programs and their expectations appear to have been met: 83 percent (n=134) of respondents were somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with the financial assistance they received. Responsiveness of staff and faculty probably were slightly above their expectations: 82 percent (n=135) of respondents reported satisfaction with these interactions while 77 percent (n=127) indicated this contributed to their decision to attend a particular school. A high percentage (83 percent, n=134) were also satisfied with the quality of their interactions with classmates. Cost of attending a program was a key factor in choosing a program: 81 percent (n=132) of respondents were satisfied with these expenses. A majority (71 percent, n=92) of those respondents enrolled in distance education were satisfied with their distance education program. Respondents were least satisfied with two environmental features of student life: extra- curricular experiences and opportunities and diversity. Some degree of the dissatisfaction with events outside of class may be explained by the low degree of involvement of respondents in their LIS program student organization. One of three (31 percent, n=51) respondents reported that they were not involved in their student organization. Involvement in the student organization may lead to knowledge of and participation in events held outside of formal class meetings. While diversity was not a major factor in the student’s decision in choosing a program, respondents expressed the greatest dissatisfaction with this aspect of their choice once they were enrolled. Diversity as an environmental factor might speak to student body characteristics, campus environment, diversity among the faculty, and diversity in the curriculum. Spectrum Scholars able to study with classmates of similar backgrounds in undergraduate programs may find less diversity in their graduate programs. Campus diversity efforts also might focus more on the undergraduate experience. The resources and support Spectrum Scholars found as undergraduates might not have been available to them as graduate students. Scholars might also find lack of diversity among LIS faculty; when faculty with diverse backgrounds are present they may be overstretched in other responsibilities. Scholars might also not find diversity within the curriculum and the lack of specific courses on diverse topics or lack of content in other courses. Table 11. Degree of Satisfaction with Chosen LIS Program Factor Satisfied (%) Unsatisfied (%) Standard of living where school is located 91 9 Nearness to home 87 13 Financial assistance provided 83 17 Responsiveness of staff and/or faculty 82 18 Quality of interaction with classmates 83 17 Quality of teaching 83 17 Cost of attending school 81 19 Specific program of study 79 21 Distance education program available 71 29 Extra-curricular experiences and opportunities 66 34 Diversity 58 42 Nearly all respondents (95 percent, n=155) were employed while pursing their degrees, with around half of these respondents (57 percent, n=87) employed full-time. As expected, a significantly greater number (p<.005) of respondents enrolled in distance programs were also employed full-time while attending their LIS program. Similarly, significantly fewer of those employed full-time during their graduate studies (p<.005) relocated to enroll in their selected LIS program. Eighty percent of those employed (122) worked in a library setting, most often in a college or university library (34 percent, n=56) or a mid-sized to large public library (19 percent, n= 31). Scholars were asked to indicate their initial areas of study by identifying one or more information settings and types of work assignments that appealed to them when they first enrolled in their LIS programs. Respondents mentioned traditional information settings more frequently than other work settings: 43 percent (n=70) were interested in working in a college or university library, 34 percent (n=56) in a mid-sized to large public library, and 13 percent (n=22) in a school library. Within those settings, half of scholars (50 percent, n=82) initially considered a career in reference services. Table 12 shows the work setting and assignment preferences selected by ten or more respondents. Table 12. Scholars’ Initial Career Plans: Settings and Work Areas Information Setting Identified by (%) University or College Library 43 Mid-Sized or Large Public Library 34 School Library 13 Archives 9 Community College Library 7 Non-Profit Organization 7 Corporate Library 6 Work Area Reference 50 Collection Development 16 Youth Services 15 Cataloging and Classification 13 Library Instruction 12 Media Specialty 11 Archives 10 Administration 9 Acquisitions 7 Automation/Systems 7 Circulation 6 Solo Librarian 6 Web Master 6 Only about a third (31 percent, n=51) of respondents reported being involved in their LIS program’s student organization. Their involvement was influenced by their status as full- time or part-time students: predictably, a significantly greater number (p<.01) of full-time students were involved with their student organization. Along with the scholarship, students received one year’s membership in ALA. Over half of all respondents (56 percent, n=91) indicated that they also joined a Division of ALA. The Divisions with the largest number of Spectrum Scholar student members were ACRL (16 percent, n=26), PLA (10 percent, n=17), RUSA (9 percent, n=15), and YALSA (10 percent, n=16). One out of four (27 percent, n=44) respondents joined an ALA Round Table during their years as a student. This membership was most often with the New Members Round Table (15 percent, n=24). Half of the respondents (52 percent, n=86) also joined an ethnic library association affiliated with ALA. Higher percentages of respondents indicated they had joined the Black Caucus of ALA (18 percent, n=29), REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (16 percent, n=27), and APALA, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (12 percent, n=20). A third (37 percent, n=61) also joined a statewide library association. Over half (64 percent, n=105) of the respondents attended an ALA Midwinter Meeting or Annual Conference while they were a student. They funded their attendance through various sources—from a grant or scholarship (42 percent, n=44), their own funding (22 percent, n=23), or their employer (17 percent, n=18). Nearly a quarter (24 percent, n=39) of respondents participated in some way at ALA through serving on a committee, giving a presentation, or assisting at a conference event such as the Diversity Fair or the Scholarship Bash. A third (34 percent, n=56) of the respondents attended a statewide or regional library conference, with 41 percent (n=22) of the respondents funding their own attendance and 24 percent (n=13) receiving funding from their employer. A significantly greater percentage of respondents (p<.005) enrolled in distance programs attended a statewide conference when compared with respondents enrolled in residence programs. Over half of respondents (69 percent, n=113) reported that they received formal or informal mentoring while they were a student. The top four mentoring sources were library practitioners (34 percent, n=56), faculty advisors (24 percent, n=40), professors or course instructors (18 percent, n=29) or co-workers (15 percent, n=24). Only 15 percent (n=24) of respondents were involved in a mentoring experience through an organization. Half of those who did not receive mentoring through associations (49 percent, n=60) simply did not know about any mentoring opportunities. Another quarter of the respondents (27 percent, n=33) were unable to participate in organization-based mentoring due to time constraints. There was one statistical difference (p<.005) between respondents who received mentoring and those who did not: respondents who were involved in mentoring were more satisfied with extra-curricular activities. Nearly all (95 percent, n=43) of respondents involved in mentoring rated their experience as beneficial. In addition to mentoring, a number of respondents (28 percent, n=46) completed an internship during their LIS studies. A significantly greater number of respondents who relocated to attend their graduate programs (p<.005) also completed an internship. Those who did not relocate were possibly unable to add an internship experience due to work and/or family responsibilities. Similarly, a significantly greater number (p<.005) of respondents employed part-time also participated in internships. A significantly greater number of respondents involved in their student organization (p<.005) also completed an internship. Students involved in their organization might hear of internship opportunities and/or may have more time to devote to experiences outside of formal coursework. One out of four scholars (23 percent, n=37) received an additional honor while they were a student. Most frequently, and for over half of those who received another honor (68 percent, n=25), this was induction into Beta Phi Mu. Of those who have completed their programs, 4 percent (n=5) planned to pursue a PhD while 42 percent (n=49) indicated that they might consider doing so. The remaining respondents indicated that they definitely were not interested in continuing into a doctoral program. At the time the survey was administered, about three-fourths of the respondents (74 percent, n=118) had completed their graduate library degrees or certificates with another 18 percent still enrolled and planning to complete their programs. Spectrum graduates were enrolled in their program of studies from ten to seventy-two months and took an average of twenty-four months to complete their degrees. Eight percent of the respondents, thirteen individuals, had not completed their programs and were not currently enrolled. Significantly fewer of the respondents who did not complete their degrees (p<.005) attended the Spectrum Leadership Institute. This may reflect the importance of the support of the leadership institute in the lives of these respondents. It might also indicate that respondents unable to attend the leadership institute also had difficulties completing their programs due to other responsibilities or to the stresses of health or family issues. All of those who did not complete their degrees expressed satisfaction with the faculty and quality of teaching at their LIS programs, indicating that these factors likely did not contribute to them not receiving their degrees. None of the respondents who did not complete their programs participated in their school’s student organization or received honors while they were a scholar, indicating, to some degree, their possible isolation within their programs, inability to spend time on campus, or lack of social connection within their schools. None of those who did not complete their degrees had plans to complete a PhD in the future. Spectrum graduated and non-graduated respondents differed significantly from each other in another way. When comparing why they selected their particular LIS program, a significantly greater number of those who finished their degrees (p<.05) considered the reputation of their school an important criterion for selection. This may indicate that a school’s reputation imparts a sense of responsibility on its students or help them frame a greater sense of commitment to their degrees. The 13 non-graduates attended ten different LIS programs.. Half of the non-graduates (54 percent, n=6) completed at least one course towards their LIS degree or certificate with two students completing as many as twelve courses. All but one respondent provided one or more reasons why they did not complete their degree. No one reason was predominant as respondents cited financial constraints, personal health reasons, family needs, uninteresting coursework in their programs, or change in accreditation status of their preferred LIS program. At least three of these students enrolled in and/or completed studies toward a degree in an education field. Five non-graduates were currently working in library or information setting and a majority (73 percent, n=8) indicated that they would re-enter their LIS program if given the opportunity. About a third (31 percent, n=4) noted that more financial assistance might encourage them to reenter a LIS program. One or two respondents each mentioned other factors that might lead to their readmissions, including the option of enrolling in a distance education program, an opportunity to participate in a mentoring experience, greater flexibility in program requirements, and the ability to work on an interesting project. Only two suggested that the Spectrum Scholarship Program could have helped them more in their pursuit of their degree. Current Employment Respondents who graduated from their LIS programs provided details about their current employment and the degree to which they are currently involved in professional organizations. Most of the 118 graduated respondents are working full time (100 individuals, n=85 percent) or part-time (4 percent, n=5) in a library or information setting. Table 13 presents these data. Those not working in a LIS setting provided several reasons including the lack of available jobs and family commitments. Table 13. Spectrum Scholarship Graduates and Current Employment Status (n=118) Current Employment Status Number Percent Employed Full-Time in LIS Setting 100 85 Employed Part-Time in LIS Setting 5 4 Employed Full-Time in Another Setting 3 3 Employed Part-Time in Another Setting 2 2 Self-Employed 1 1 Temporarily Unemployed/Seeking Work 6 5 Other: Full-Time PhD student 1 1 Table 14 shows data on the income of the 100 graduated respondents employed full- time. About half of the graduated respondents (46 percent, n=45) earn salaries in the range of $40,000 to $49,000, well above the mean beginning salary of $38,918 for librarians nationally and comparable to the national average salary of $45,554 for librarians in non-supervisory positions and the national average of $46,648 for those supervising support staff.iv Table 14. Current Income Before Taxes of Graduates in Full-Time Positions (n=97)* Salary Range Number Percent $20,000 - $29,000 4 4 $30,000 - $39,000 27 28 $40,000 - $49,000 45 46 $50,000 - $59,000 14 14 $60,000 and higher 7 7 *Three respondents did not provide this information. The survey asked respondents to describe the work area and the type of library or information setting of their current library position. Since respondents could indicate more than one work area, these results are presented in terms of the percentage working in each area. Table 15 presents these results and compares the 115 graduated respondents’ current work responsibilities with the work area that initially interested them when they enrolled in their LIS programs. There was a certain degree of stability across many of the work areas. Among graduated, employed respondents reference services was the top career choice—with half (54 percent, n=57) of the scholars originally choosing this area and a drop to 42 percent (n=44) working in reference at the time they completed the survey. Fewer graduated respondents who initially considered collection development as a career were working in this area. While only 7 percent of graduated respondents considered a career in administration during their programs, 16 percent reported currently working in administrative positions. Library instruction saw a more moderate increase (5 percent) between planned work area and current position while only half of the respondents initially planning careers in cataloging/classification were working in this area. The top employment venues also remained relatively stable between the time students started their programs and continued into their present work settings with slight drops over time between planned work environment and actual work setting. Initially, scholarship recipients were interested in careers in nineteen areas; respondents ultimately were employed in thirteen of these settings. At present, respondents appear to be working in traditional areas with nearly two-thirds of graduates employed in mid- sized or large public libraries or university or college libraries. No respondents are currently working in historical societies, theological libraries, tribal libraries, museums, library cooperatives/networks, library schools, or in publishing. It may be that these are career paths that evolve over time. Initially, students might express broad interests and ultimately develop a focus through their coursework or the job market. Table 15. Spectrum Graduates Initial Career Plans and Current Library Position: Settings and Work Areas* (n=115) Settings Initial Career Plan (%) Current Library Position (%) Mid-Sized or Large Public Library 39 34 University or College Library 37 37 School Library 12 11 Archives 10 4 Community College Library 8 2 Medical Library 5 4 Law Library 4 1 Small Public Library 3 1 Non-Profit Organization 4 3 Museum 6 0 Corporate Library 5 1 Government Library 5 4 Historical Society 3 0 Library Cooperative/Network 2 0 Vendor 2 1 Library School 1 0 Publishing 1 0 Theological Library 1 0 Tribal Library 1 0 Rural Public Library 0 2 Work Area Initial Career Plan (%) Current Library Position (%) Reference 54 42 Collection Development 21 14 Youth Services 17 13 Cataloging and Classification 14 7 Library Instruction 14 19 Media Specialty 10 11 Archives 9 7 Administration 7 16 Automation/Systems 7 6 Acquisitions 6 7 Government Documents 6 6 Solo Librarian 5 3 Web Master 5 4 Circulation 4 6 Information Systems/Architecture 4 3 Records Management 4 3 Conservation 2 2 Indexing 1 0 Interlibrary Loan 1 1 Competitive Intelligence 1 1 Usability Specialist 1 2 Competitive Intelligence 1 1 Information Broker 2 1 Preservation 1 1 *Graduates could indicate more than one work area Respondents were asked to indicate the relative importance of twelve factors in making the decision to accept their current position. The top three choices, each rated important by 90% or more of the respondents, were salary and benefits, the match of the new position to the graduate’s skills and interests, and the opportunity the position provided to develop new skills. By far the two least important variables were the opportunity to pursue another graduate degree and the ability to return to work in a library where one had worked in the past, both rated as unimportant by over half of the respondents. Nearness to home featured prominently in the decision to choose a LIS program and remained a factor in selecting a position, though not the key factor. The importance of diversity was rated higher as a workplace selection criterion than it was as a criterion for selecting a specific LIS program: 70 percent of graduated respondents indicated that diversity was an important factor impacting their decision to accept their current position while 55 percent of respondents rated diversity as a important criterion influencing their selection of a LIS program. Table 16. Importance of Various Criteria Affecting Decision to Choose Current Position (n=115) Criteria Important (#) Unimportant (#) Salary/benefits 95 5 Match of position to my skills/interests 94 6 Opportunity to develop new skills 93 7 Career advancement opportunities 86 14 Support for professional development 86 14 Standard of living 83 17 Nearness of home 78 22 Reputation of institution 74 26 Opportunity to help racial/ethnic community 73 27 Responsiveness of institution to diversity 72 28 Reputation of staff 66 34 Opportunity to continue in present library 57 43 Opportunity for research or writing 48 52 Opportunity to pursue another graduate degree 38 62 Ability to return to work in a past library 33 67 A majority of graduated, employed respondents (82 percent, n=or 83) indicated that they did not experience any special recruitment efforts as a result of their status as a Spectrum Scholar. A significantly greater number of those working in reference or in university libraries (p<.05) noted such special recruitment efforts compared with those not working in reference or information services or in university libraries. Three-fourths (74 percent, n=76) of graduated respondents employed full-time indicated that they felt their distinction as a Spectrum Scholar was beneficial. Twenty-six percent (n=27) responded that they felt their Spectrum Scholar status was somewhat or very unbeneficial. There were several significant differences between full-time employed graduates who rated their Spectrum Scholar status as beneficial and those who rated it as unbeneficial. Significantly more of those who rated Spectrum beneficial also indicated that they considered diversity an important factor in accepting their current position (p<.05). They also considered more important the reputation of the institution that hired them (p<.005) and recommendations from friends or colleagues when they made this decision (p<.005). In other words, those respondents that rated Spectrum unbeneficial in their job search were not concerned about recommendations from friends or colleagues, the reputation of their institution, or the degree to which their employer was responsive to diversity. A strong majority of respondents who had graduated and were employed full-time (89 percent, n=92) would accept their current position and nearly as many (82 percent, n= 84) felt somewhat or very satisfied with this position. Most (89 percent, n=90) were confident that they would find a satisfying position in librarianship should they chose to leave their current position. The scholars hinted at several areas where their work setting could be improved. Nearly one out of four graduates employed full-time (23 percent, n=23) did not feel that they had as many opportunities for advancement as did others in the same work environment. Similarly, 24 percent (n=23) did not think their current institution was supportive of diversity initiatives. Respondents who indicated that their current employer is supportive of diversity initiatives credited residency programs, travel support to conferences, the hiring of diverse staff, diverse collections and programming for library patrons, international diversity, and staff training on diversity topics. Those who did not feel their employment setting supported diversity had lack of diversity among professional and administrative staff, inadequate continuing education about diversity issues, and avoidance of diversity action. Respondents described these environments as “it’s all talk and no action” and “Most institutions talk about diversity, but how many actually know what it is?” Management style could contribute to an environment not conducive to support of diversity. Several respondents explained the lack of attention to diversity by adding statements such as, “Key figures in the library who were instrumental in advancing diversity initiatives have moved on to new responsibilities. Library administration has not hired anyone to serve this function.” Almost all of the graduated respondents (92 percent, n=94) felt that their employer provided opportunities to attend continuing education programs. Professional Affiliations Table 17 provides data on professional involvement both when the graduated respondents were students and after they were employed in their current full-time positions, charting their membership, conference attendance, and conference involvement during their time as students and once graduated and fully-employed in a library/information setting. Table 17. Fully-Employed Graduated Respondents’ Professional Involvement as Students and in Current Employment (n=100) Number Percent Membership In ALA, as a LIS student 100 100 In ALA, as a fully-employed graduate 68 68 In ALA Division, as a LIS student 55 55 In ALA Division, as a fully-employed graduate 37 37 In ALA Round Table, as a LIS student 30 30 In ALA Round Table, as a fully-employed graduate 22 22 In Ethnic Affiliated Organization, as a LIS student 56 56 In Ethnic Affiliated Organization, as a fully- employed graduate 30 30 In State Library Association, as a LIS student 46 46 In State Library Association, as a fully-employed graduate 6 6 Attendance At ALA Conference, as a LIS student 67 67 At ALA Conference, as a fully-employed graduate 45 45 At State/Regional Conference, as a LIS student 38 38 At State/Regional Conference, as a fully- employed graduate 35 35 Participation At ALA Conference, as a LIS student 17 17 At ALA Conference, as a fully-employed graduate 4 4 At State/Regional Conference, as a LIS student 17 17 At State/Regional Conference, as a fully- employed graduate 17 17 Membership level in ALA dropped by about thirty percent from the time the respondents were students to when they accepted their latest position. Note that all Spectrum Scholars are ALA members at least during their scholarship year. Over half of graduated respondents reported they were members of Divisions while they were students and nearly a third were members of Round Tables. Membership in Divisions and Round Tables also dropped once they were fully employed. Over half (68 percent, n=68) of graduated respondents now working in libraries are ALA members, a third (37 percent, n=37) are members of ALA Divisions, and one out of five (22 percent, n=22) is a member of an ALA Round Table. Fewer than half of the respondents who had graduated and were employed full-time (45 percent, n=44) attended an ALA conference after graduation. A significantly greater number of graduated respondents employed in university libraries (p<.005) attended at least one ALA Midwinter Meeting or Annual conference, indicating that these institutions may be more supportive of conference attendance and advocate and/or provide financial support for such activities. In fact, 64 percent (n=30) of those employed in a university library who attended an ALA conference reported that their attendance was funded by their employer. While nearly one out of five (17 percent, n=17) were actively involved while at an ALA conference such involvement dropped (4 percent, n=4) once they graduated and were employed. Graduated respondents also reported on their membership in an ethnic library association affiliated with ALA. About a third (30 percent, n=30) retained their membership once they were employed full-time, indicating that ethnic library association membership was nearly equivalent to ALA Round Table membership (22 percent, n=22). The largest drop in membership was in state library association membership: nearly half (46 percent, n=46) of graduated respondents joined a state library association while a student but only 6 percent (n=6) were members once they were fully-employed in a library/information setting. Attendance and participation in state library conferences, though, was relatively stable: those who attended and participated in these events while students continued their engagement when they were employed. A high percentage (88 percent, n=87) found their participation in professional associations beneficial. When asked why they decided to join a professional association, the most common answer (42 percent, n=42) was to gain access to professional tools provided by the organization. Other responses included the opportunity for mentoring and peer support (22 percent, n=22), the availability of complimentary membership (19 percent, n=19), access to new job opportunities (16 percent or 16), and career advancement opportunities (12 percent, n=12). Along with involvement in professional associations, fully employed graduates were asked to indicate whether they participated in mentoring opportunities. While over half of all graduated respondents reported receiving mentoring while a student, only twelve full-time employed graduates reported receiving mentoring; three-fourths of these worked in a university library. A greater number of these respondents (19 percent, n=19) participated in leadership training with half of those receiving leadership training (50 percent, n=9) employed in university libraries. Respondents’ Recommendations and Reflections on the Spectrum Scholarship Program The final section of this report presents the respondents’ narrative responses to several questions: (1) What suggestions do you have for recruiting others into the field of library and information science? (2) What do you feel are the strengths of the ALA Scholarship Program? (3) What do you feel are the weaknesses of the ALA Scholarship Program? (4) Do you believe that the Spectrum Scholarship Program is necessary? Why or why not? (5) What impact, if any, has the Spectrum Scholarship Program had on your life? Recommendations for Recruitment Neely summarizes what is known about minority student recruitment: To date, no one solution or method has been proven to be the most effective or successful for recruiting diverse peoples to the professional of librarianship.v Respondents were asked to provide suggestions on how to recruit others into the LIS field. They identified a number of partners who might collaborate to increase recruitment of students of color. These partners included LIS schools, those in specific information settings such as archives and musicology, historically Black Colleges and Universities, two-year colleges and trade schools. They also mentioned working on recruitment with museums, heritage foundations, and school districts and associations such as NABE (National Association for Bilingual Education). They suggested groups of individuals who might be especially effective in recruiting including representatives of ALA, Spectrum Scholars, university professors, and all librarians, especially librarians of color. Many respondents recommended recruiting at career fairs and targeting young students and library staff without MLS degrees. They mentioned other targeted recruitment audiences including socioeconomically challenged individuals, grocery store baggers, and “disaffected publishing/literary/junior academic types.” In addition to presenting at career fairs, other recruitment approaches included a job shadow program with librarians, marketing in various media outlets such as local newspapers and television, scholarships and internships for undergraduate students who promise to pursue MLS degrees. Respondents warned, “We can’t afford to wait until someone expresses interest.” And they reminded us that recruitment is continuous and can occur in all locations: “We should show off our passion, values, and overall concern for the greatest good through our quest to contribute to the building of a more information literate and educated society.” Spectrum Strengths Respondents identified what they felt were Spectrum’s strengths. These are grouped into six categories: funding, prestige, socialization, career support, fellow respondents, and the leadership institute. Funding They acknowledged the importance of the scholarship money. While $5,000 does not cover all of the expenses of a graduate degree or, in most cases, even the expenses incurred in one semester of graduate education, the respondents acknowledged that the funding “helped ease the financial burden of graduate school.” Along with this, respondents were grateful for the opportunity to leverage the scholarship for additional funding from other sources. The financial assistance improved the quality of life of students; “I didn’t have to work extra hours at my job and I was able to concentrate on my studies and get involved in library associations.” And in other cases, the scholarship was the critical element that affected whether or not a student of color would begin or continue his or her education. As one scholar observed: “Simply stated, without the funding from Spectrum, it would have been nearly impossible for me to go back to school.” At the same time, respondents reflected that Spectrum is “not just the $$, though that is VERY important.” They appreciated the other elements of the Spectrum package including the support to travel to an ALA Annual conference site and ALA membership. Prestige and Socialization Spectrum brought the benefits of socialization and networking in a collegial atmosphere that opened doors for them. They learned from each other, from ALA staff involved in diversity, and from role models in the field, including individuals they recognized as “some of the top library thinkers” and “library luminaries of color.” They benefited from their connection to a highly visible, prestigious program. One scholar noted “a feeling of celebrity status” by being a Spectrum Scholar. Career Support Respondents noted the inspirational features of the Spectrum experience that helped them set the stage for future professional careers. The scholars predicted that the Spectrum Scholarship Program would continue to impact them and the field. • “It has parlayed me to easily carve out a solid service agenda by presenting an almost guaranteed acceptance…” • “Spectrum has made me much more conscious of my community, the resources available to me, and my responsibility to give something back.” • [Spectrum] nurtures an ethos of responsibility to continue “the work” in the scholars and, thus, it builds a strong web of diversity advocates. • “This initiative has direct impact on the students it supports but it has a larger immeasurable, long-lasting effect on the larger "majority" communities like ethnic groups, low income people, women, etc. because the scholars are like ambassadors of empowerment regardless of their assigned job. I often find myself helping people unintentionally, just [because] this nature and value has been developed in me.” • “The ALA Spectrum [Scholarship] Program has become my guardian angel. I know that the people who are associated with the program will always be there if I need them. I know they are always trying to help someone who is discriminated against and hopefully with perseverance the day will come when there will be no discrimination.” Leadership Institute One of the unique features of the Spectrum Scholarship Program is the three-day leadership institute. This venue includes presentations by leading librarians involved in diversity initiatives and socialization through cultural expression and engaged discussion. Over three-fourths (83 percent, n=134) of respondents attended a Spectrum Scholarship Program Leadership Institute. As noted earlier in this report, the one characteristic shared by respondents who did not complete their degrees was attendance at a leadership institute. They reflected on attending the Spectrum Leadership Institute: • “I found the Leadership Institute to be one of the most powerful experiences of my life.” • “The Spectrum [Scholarship Program] was very intense for me. It opened my eyes to thoughtful consideration and understanding of different cultures and brought a more balanced view or perspective of diversity in learning and multicultural styles of learning.” • “I came away from the Institute, in particular, feeling like I was a part of something very important.” • “I wish that I could attend the Spectrum Leadership Institute every year. I would pay to attend this event!” Fellow Respondents They credited their fellow scholars: “I met [at the Institute] 50 of the best, most emotionally balanced, people to be found in my generation of librarians.” “When I attended the Institute [I] met other scholars--some of the smartest, most interesting people I've ever met.” Spectrum Weaknesses While some twenty respondents felt there were no weaknesses in the Spectrum Scholarship Program, others contributed over 120 comments about perceived weaknesses. A few suggested that additional funding be granted or that scholarships be renewed. Several suggested revisions to the application process to also include a requirement that scholars stay involved or otherwise “give back” to ALA in exchange for the support. Respondents focused their criticisms on four categories: marketing Spectrum more widely; improving the leadership institute; strengthening the promised mentoring program; and improving communication among scholars, especially after the scholarship year. Marketing Spectrum About 10 percent observed that Spectrum should be marketed more widely. • “I never would have known if I didn't talk to someone in the human resources department at the library [where] I worked.” • “This is not really a weakness of the. program but of the school I attended—it was basically ignored by the school…” • “Many people still have no idea the program exists. My library school did not advertise the scholarship and the only way I learned of it when I applied is through a scholarship database.” The Spectrum Leadership Institute While respondents were supportive of the leadership institute they recommended some changes in the format to incorporate more social and ‘down time.’ Sample comments include: • “It would have been better to have a few free hours to relax, see the sights and absorb. By the end of the Institute I felt so burned out and overloaded.” • “The schedule was relentless—with speakers and programs even at meals. It was hard to find downtime to know people casually when we weren’t exhausted.” Mentoring While there may be a divergence of opinions on the definition and scope of mentoring, it is widely accepted that the process of mentoring can be an important factor in recruitment and retention. In its 1989 handbook on recruitment, ALA’s Office for Library Personnel Resources (now, Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment), states: “Mentoring and individual recruitment stand out as two of the most effective techniques that exit [in recruiting new students to the profession of librarianship].”vi Not all respondents were involved in the mentoring program and those who were indicated that this was the area of the Spectrum Scholarship Program that needed the most improvement. Some mentors did not contact students. In other cases the match between mentor and mentee was not logical. Why did the mentoring aspect of Spectrum not flourish? At what point in a scholar’s career preparation did the mentoring feature of Spectrum fail to catch fire? Mentoring arrangements are often framed within a specific organizational setting, often a college or university environment. Perhaps the lack of the institutional support led to the difficulty of Spectrum mentor/mentee pairs from successfully forming. Spectrum has had to prioritize its activities which encompass recruitment, selection, marketing, and seeking sources of sustaining the program. Those involved in Spectrum may have thought that mentoring would naturally occur within LIS programs through contacts developed at the leadership institute or in the work place. Since librarians of color may not have traditionally been included in mentoring arrangements prospective mentors may have needed not only encouragement but also training on how to be responsive. It may simply be that mentoring is a difficult task. In a survey conducted in fall 1998 of 122 Association of Research Libraries members, only one of out four institutions (26 percent) had formal mentoring programs.vii Within those mentoring programs, nearly three-fourths (71 percent) had policies or procedures on mentoring while organization did not extend to incorporating an evaluation component: over half of the mentoring programs (62 percent) did not have assessment or evaluation. In half of the programs (53 percent), the mentee selected his or her mentor. Those involved in mentoring recommended that libraries be flexible in their approach, avoid requiring mentoring, and add a training element for mentors and mentees. Concern with mentoring extends beyond the impact on a given scholar: certainly, a Spectrum Scholar’s experience as a mentee may impact his or her decision to serve as a mentor in the future. Both partners in the mentoring relationship need to be involved. In some models, even the initial pairing is directed by the mentee: with mentees selecting a prospective mentor from a list or database of willing mentors. Mentors can also assist the process by clearly setting goals and suggesting how they would like to assess their mentoring experience. Clearly, such a program would need to be more structured though in a way that need not be burdensome. While it is important for mentors and mentee pairs to be able to communicate via email, it is difficult to establish long-distance mentoring programs without at least the expectation of some future face-to-face contact. This becomes increasingly difficult after scholars graduate and are employed in library settings. As this survey reveals, this is a time when their professional involvement drops off. The mentoring program should also provide some benefit for mentors, perhaps through some recognition at ALA meetings, a note on the ALA Web site, or a roster published in the ALA conference program. Another incentive might be published profiles of mentor/mentee pairs and perhaps even the opportunity to apply for conference attendance support. Perhaps innovative mentoring models needs to be developed. Are there alternatives to one-on-one mentoring which will always be subject to the dedication of two individuals at a very personal level? Can mentoring be available to any scholar especially at critical moments? Communication Finally, 21 percent (n=34) of respondents recommended that communication be improved. One described this as “a sense of disconnection once you graduate.” They recommended starting local or regional chapters of Spectrum scholars, an online and/or print newsletter, and a discussion board. Impact of Spectrum on Respondents When asked what impact Spectrum had on their professional lives, respondents noted psychological impacts such as improved self esteem, pride, and greater confidence: “It changed my life in that I am a librarian and it is a great job.” A focus on diversity prompted some respondents to reflect deeply on their identity: “I tend to identify myself first as an individual and only second as part of an ethnic or racial group. I also tend to put emphasis on personal responsibility. But the Spectrum [Scholarship Program] has shown me that I need structural support— something bigger than my will and my brain to truly participate, both as a servant and as a leader, in democratic institutions like public libraries.” Status as a Spectrum Scholar brought career opportunities: Respondents acknowledged the Spectrum Scholarship Program’s impact on their professional development and professional mobility: • “Once potential employers hear I am a Spectrum Scholar, they are very impressed. When I finish my two-year residency program my options are wide open should I choose to take them.” • “I've gone from being a disabled, unemployed, pregnant woman/single mother on welfare to being a corporate information worker for a Fortune 500 company. Spectrum certainly helped with that journey.” • “Spectrum was my transition from para-professional administrative task to the world of professional interactions in library and information science.” • “I feel like it put me ahead 5 years into the profession!” • “I am a librarian! I’m happy being a librarian.” • “Once I got Spectrum it seemed everything was opening. Doors were opening… Spectrum has opened the door and a lot of things are coming my way and I want to take advantage of every opportunity that I can.” Conclusion and Recommendations This study has provided information on recruitment of students of color into LIS professions and helped addressed how such students select their LIS programs, and how satisfied they are with their educational experience. It reflects their perceptions about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, including perceived strengths and weaknesses and how the program has impacted their early professional careers. As a recruitment effort, Spectrum has worked. It has, year after year, awarded scholarships to students of color. Spectrum has reversed the sentiment within the field that diversity issues are being deferred.viii These students are, for the most part, graduating from their LIS programs and taking positions in traditional settings in traditional roles. Prior to the Spectrum Scholarship Program ALA hosted a minority intern program where one information professional of color was supported. The Spectrum Scholarship Program has elevated ALA’s goal from recruiting and supporting one student of color per year to producing, in five years a minimum of 100 librarians of color. The Spectrum Scholarship Program has enabled ALA to advance its goals of diversity in the workplace at a rate that would have taken one hundred years to accomplish, based on ALA’s previous program of sponsoring one minority internship a year. It is and remains a highly visible, rewarding, and productive program that indeed has the potential to change the face of librarianship today and into the future. This report closes by offering the following recommendations for LIS faculty and administrators; professional organizations, especially ALA; Spectrum Scholars; employers who desire a diverse staff; and librarians. Recommendations for LIS faculty and administrators: • Develop recruitment programs for undergraduate students currently employed in large public, college or university libraries geographically close to where your schools are located. • Arrange to meet with undergraduates or recent graduates from social science disciplines such as education, history, psychology, and sociology. • Consider tailoring recruitment material for prospective male students of color currently employed in library/information settings. • Review recruitment material, including awards committee documents, to insure that the terminology recognizes that many students of color identify with more than one cultural or ethnic community. • Recognize Spectrum Scholarship recipients who are admitted to your programs. • Consider how to create environments more conducive to diversity. How is diversity reflected among students and faculty? How does the curriculum provide opportunities to learn about and work with diverse communities? How is the LIS program aligned with diversity efforts locally, especially campus-wide initiatives, and nationally in professional efforts? • Consider how LIS student organizations can increase student involvement. • Ensure that Spectrum Scholarship recipients receive communication about LIS program activities. • Arrange to meet Scholars Scholarship recipients enrolled in distance programs at state/regional library conferences. • Encourage and facilitate Spectrum Scholarship recipients’ attendance at the Spectrum Leadership Institute. • Stay in touch with Spectrum Scholarship recipients who might consider entering doctoral programs. • Consider how to contribute to continued mentoring of Spectrum Scholarship recipients. • Invite area Spectrum Scholarship recipients to LIS events. • Explore ways to support gatherings of Spectrum Scholarship recipients. • Offer recruitment packages to Spectrum Scholarship recipients. • Ensure that all prospective LIS students are aware of the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Recommendations for ALA and other professional organizations: • Identify mentoring opportunities that exist across the ALA and its units. • Promote mentoring opportunities in conjunction with LIS programs. • Recognize successful mentor/mentee pairs through such means as published accounts, recognition on the ALA Web site or in ALA conference programs, and/or financial support for conference attendance. • Provide ample opportunities for prospective employers to post job vacancy announcements directly to Spectrum Scholarship recipients or otherwise assist prospective employers in reaching scholars. • Support more communication among Spectrum Scholarship recipients, including ongoing events. • Provide more information about Spectrum Scholarship recipients, including biographies. • Seek data on the workplace inclusion of people with disabilities. • Red-flag Spectrum Scholarship recipients who are unable to attend their Spectrum Leadership Institute, as they are more likely to not complete their LIS programs. • Track Spectrum Scholarship recipients, including those who did not complete their programs, and maintain contact with them. • Conduct biennial surveys of Spectrum Scholars. Recommendations for Spectrum Scholars: • Attend the Spectrum Leadership Institute. • Participate in LIS program student organizations. • Stay connected with ALA’s Office for Diversity by sharing current contact information and participating in Spectrum’s electronic list. • Consider how to provide support and mentoring services for each other. • Volunteer for professional service to ALA and other professional organizations. • Participate in recruiting additional scholars. • Take a proactive role in personal career development. Recommendations for employers who desire diverse staff: • Examine salary and benefits packages. • Market job vacancies to prospective employees who possess needed skills and interests. • Provide employees with opportunities to develop new skills. • Develop recruitment programs targeted for Spectrum Scholarship recipients. • Provide all staff with opportunities for advancement. • Support diversity initiatives and make this support known. • Develop and include new staff members in mentoring opportunities. Recommendations for practitioners within the field: • Consider mentoring a Spectrum Scholarship recipient. • As a mentor, communicate with other mentors. • Arrange to meet Spectrum Scholarship recipients at professional gatherings, especially state library conferences. iIn 1998, ALA found that 68 percent of academic librarians surveyed and 79 percent of public librarians were female. Results of the Spectrum Scholarship Program indicate a slightly higher percentage of female scholarship recipients (86 percent). ii“The Hispanic question of multiculturalism is even more complicated than the African- American. “Hispanic” refers to Spanish language, cultural heritage and national origin (Mexico, Spain, Cuba, etc.). Hispanic does not designate a race; there are black Hispanics and white Hispanics. Interestingly a sizeable proportion of Hispanics do not designate race on census forms.” Peterson, Lorna, “Teaching the Practitioners: One Professor’s Attempt at Library Education and Sensitivity to Multicultural Diversity,” The Reference Librarian 45/46 (1994), 26. iiiU.S. Census Bureau. QT-P21. Disability Status by Sex: 2000. Data Set: Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4)- Sample Data. Available through FactFinder at http://www.factfinder.census.gov. Accessed on 8 August 2005. ivLynch, Mary Jo, “Librarian Salaries Increase Less Than Other Civilian Workers,” American Libraries 35 (10) (November 2004): 49. vNeely, Teresa Y., “Minority Student Recruitment in LIS Education: New Profiles for Success,” In Wheeler, Maurice, B., Ed., Unfinished Business: Race, Equity, and Diversity in Library and Information Science Education (Lanham, MD; Toronto; Oxford: Scarecrow, 2005), 93. viAmerican Library Association. Office for Library Personnel Resources. Each One Reach One: Recruiting for the Profession. Action Handbook. (Chicago: ALA, 1989), 2. vii Wittkopf, Barbara, Mentoring Programs in ARL Libraries (A SPEC Kit). Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, 1999, 4. viii De la Pena McCook and Geist, “Diversity Deferred: Where Are the Minority Librarians?” Library Journal (November 1, 1993), 35. 
www-ala-org-9438	----	Information Literacy for Higher Education Framework for This Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education booklet is available for download at: http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/issues/infolit/framework.pdf. Additional copies may be purchased from the Association of College and Research Libraries. E-mail acrl@ala.org for more information. The Association of College and Research Libraries A division of the American Library Association Chicago, Illinois Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Filed by the ACRL Board of Directors February 2, 2015 Adopted by the ACRL Board January 11, 2016 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Contents Introduction ......................................................................... 7 The Frames .........................................................................11 These six frames are presented alphabetically and do not suggest a particular sequence in which they must be learned. Authority Is Constructed and Contextual ................................ 12 Information Creation as a Process .............................................. 14 Information Has Value .................................................................... 16 Research as Inquiry .......................................................................... 18 Scholarship as Conversation ........................................................ 20 Searching as Strategic Exploration ............................................ 22 Appendix 1: Implementing the Framework .....................24 Suggestions on How to Use the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education ............................. 24 Introduction for Faculty and Administrators .......................... 26 For Faculty: How to Use the Framework ................................... 27 For Administrators: How to Support the Framework ............... 28 Appendix 2: Background of the Framework Development ...........................................29 Appendix 3: Sources for Further Reading .......................32 Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 7 Introduction This Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework) grows out of a belief that information literacy as an educational reform movement will realize its potential only through a richer, more complex set of core ideas. During the fifteen years since the publication of the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,1 academic librarians and their partners in higher education associations have developed learning outcomes, tools, and resources that some institutions have deployed to infuse information literacy concepts and skills into their curricula. However, the rapidly changing higher education environment, along with the dynamic and often uncertain information ecosystem in which all of us work and live, require new attention to be focused on foundational ideas about that ecosystem. Students have a greater role and responsibility in creating new knowledge, in understanding the contours and the changing dynamics of the world of information, and in using information, data, and scholarship ethically. Teaching faculty have a greater responsibility in designing curricula and assignments that foster enhanced engagement with the core ideas about information and scholarship within their disciplines. Librarians have a greater responsibility in identifying core ideas within their own knowledge domain that can extend learning for students, in creating a new cohesive curriculum for information literacy, and in collaborating more extensively with faculty. The Framework offered here is called a framework intentionally because it is based on a cluster of interconnected core concepts, with flexible options for implementation, rather than on a set of standards or learning outcomes, or any prescriptive enumeration of skills. At the heart of this Framework are conceptual understandings that organize many other concepts and ideas about information, research, and scholarship into a coherent whole. These conceptual understandings are informed by the work of Wiggins and McTighe,2 which focuses on essential concepts and questions in developing curricula, and also by threshold concepts3 which are those ideas in any discipline that are passageways or portals to enlarged understanding or ways of thinking and practicing within that discipline. This Framework draws upon an ongoing Delphi Study that has identified several threshold concepts in information literacy,4 but the Framework has been molded using fresh ideas and emphases for the threshold concepts. Two added elements illustrate important learning goals related to those concepts: knowledge practices,5 which are 8 Association of College and Research Libraries demonstrations of ways in which learners can increase their understanding of these information literacy concepts, and dispositions,6 which describe ways in which to address the affective, attitudinal, or valuing dimension of learning. The Framework is organized into six frames, each consisting of a concept central to information literacy, a set of knowledge practices, and a set of dispositions. The six concepts that anchor the frames are presented alphabetically: y Authority Is Constructed and Contextual y Information Creation as a Process y Information Has Value y Research as Inquiry y Scholarship as Conversation y Searching as Strategic Exploration Neither the knowledge practices nor the dispositions that support each concept are intended to prescribe what local institutions should do in using the Framework; each library and its partners on campus will need to deploy these frames to best fit their own situation, including designing learning outcomes. For the same reason, these lists should not be considered exhaustive. In addition, this Framework draws significantly upon the concept of metaliteracy,7 which offers a renewed vision of information literacy as an overarching set of abilities in which students are consumers and creators of information who can participate successfully in collaborative spaces.8 Metaliteracy demands behavioral, affective, cognitive, and metacognitive engagement with the information ecosystem. This Framework depends on these core ideas of metaliteracy, with special focus on metacognition,9 or critical self-reflection, as crucial to becoming more self-directed in that rapidly changing ecosystem. Because this Framework envisions information literacy as extending the arc of learning throughout students’ academic careers and as converging with other academic and social learning goals, an expanded definition of information literacy is offered here to emphasize dynamism, flexibility, individual growth, and community learning: Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning. The Framework opens the way for librarians, faculty, and other institutional partners to redesign instruction sessions, assignments, courses, and even curricula; to connect Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 9 information literacy with student success initiatives; to collaborate on pedagogical research and involve students themselves in that research; and to create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond. Notes 1. Association of College & Research Libraries, Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Chicago, 2000). 2. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004). 3. Threshold concepts are core or foundational concepts that, once grasped by the learner, create new perspectives and ways of understanding a discipline or challenging knowledge domain. Such concepts produce transformation within the learner; without them, the learner does not acquire expertise in that field of knowledge. Threshold concepts can be thought of as portals through which the learner must pass in order to develop new perspectives and wider understanding. Jan H. F. Meyer, Ray Land, and Caroline Baillie. “Editors’ Preface.” In Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning, edited by Jan H. F. Meyer, Ray Land, and Caroline Baillie, ix–xlii. (Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2010). 4. For information on this unpublished, in-progress Delphi Study on threshold concepts and information literacy, conducted by Lori Townsend, Amy Hofer, Silvia Lu, and Korey Brunetti, see http://www.ilthresholdconcepts.com/. Lori Townsend, Korey Brunetti, and Amy R. Hofer. “Threshold Concepts and Information Literacy.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 11, no. 3 (2011): 853–69. 5. Knowledge practices are the proficiencies or abilities that learners develop as a result of their comprehending a threshold concept. 6. Generally, a disposition is a tendency to act or think in a particular way. More specifically, a disposition is a cluster of preferences, attitudes, and intentions, as well as a set of capabilities that allow the preferences to become realized in a particular way. Gavriel Salomon. “To Be or Not to Be (Mindful).” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Meetings, New Orleans, LA, 1994. 7. Metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share). This approach requires an ongoing adaptation to emerging technologies and an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in these spaces as producers, collaborators, and distributors. Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson. Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners. (Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2014). 8. Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson. “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy.” College and Research Libraries 72, no. 1 (2011): 62–78. 9. Metacognition is an awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes. It focuses on how people learn and process information, taking into consideration people’s awareness of how they learn. (Jennifer A. Livingston. “Metacognition: An Overview.” Online paper, State University of New York at Buffalo, Graduate School of Education, 1997. http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm.) http://www.ilthresholdconcepts.com/ http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm The Frames 12 Association of College and Research Libraries Authority Is Constructed and Contextual Information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility, and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that the information need may help to determine the level of authority required. Experts understand that authority is a type of influence recognized or exerted within a community. Experts view authority with an attitude of informed skepticism and an openness to new perspectives, additional voices, and changes in schools of thought. Experts understand the need to determine the validity of the information created by different authorities and to acknowledge biases that privilege some sources of authority over others, especially in terms of others’ worldviews, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural orientations. An understanding of this concept enables novice learners to critically examine all evidence—be it a short blog post or a peer-reviewed conference proceeding—and to ask relevant questions about origins, context, and suitability for the current information need. Thus, novice learners come to respect the expertise that authority represents while remaining skeptical of the systems that have elevated that authority and the information created by it. Experts know how to seek authoritative voices but also recognize that unlikely voices can be authoritative, depending on need. Novice learners may need to rely on basic indicators of authority, such as type of publication or author credentials, where experts recognize schools of thought or discipline-specific paradigms. Knowledge Practices Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y define different types of authority, such as subject expertise (e.g., scholarship), societal position (e.g., public office or title), or special experience (e.g., participating in a historic event); y use research tools and indicators of authority to determine the credibility of sources, understanding the elements that might temper this credibility; y understand that many disciplines have acknowledged authorities in the sense of well-known scholars and publications that are widely considered “standard,” and yet, even in those situations, some scholars would challenge the authority of those sources; Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 13 y recognize that authoritative content may be packaged formally or informally and may include sources of all media types; y acknowledge they are developing their own authoritative voices in a particular area and recognize the responsibilities this entails, including seeking accuracy and reliability, respecting intellectual property, and participating in communities of practice; y understand the increasingly social nature of the information ecosystem where authorities actively connect with one another and sources develop over time. DISPOSITIONS Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y develop and maintain an open mind when encountering varied and sometimes conflicting perspectives; y motivate themselves to find authoritative sources, recognizing that authority may be conferred or manifested in unexpected ways; y develop awareness of the importance of assessing content with a skeptical stance and with a self-awareness of their own biases and worldview; y question traditional notions of granting authority and recognize the value of diverse ideas and worldviews; y are conscious that maintaining these attitudes and actions requires frequent self-evaluation. 14 Association of College and Research Libraries Information Creation as a Process Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences. The information creation process could result in a range of information formats and modes of delivery, so experts look beyond format when selecting resources to use. The unique capabilities and constraints of each creation process as well as the specific information need determine how the product is used. Experts recognize that information creations are valued differently in different contexts, such as academia or the workplace. Elements that affect or reflect on the creation, such as a pre- or post-publication editing or reviewing process, may be indicators of quality. The dynamic nature of information creation and dissemination requires ongoing attention to understand evolving creation processes. Recognizing the nature of information creation, experts look to the underlying processes of creation as well as the final product to critically evaluate the usefulness of the information. Novice learners begin to recognize the significance of the creation process, leading them to increasingly sophisticated choices when matching information products with their information needs. KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y articulate the capabilities and constraints of information developed through various creation processes; y assess the fit between an information product’s creation process and a particular information need; y articulate the traditional and emerging processes of information creation and dissemination in a particular discipline; y recognize that information may be perceived differently based on the format in which it is packaged; y recognize the implications of information formats that contain static or dynamic information; y monitor the value that is placed upon different types of information products in varying contexts; Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 15 y transfer knowledge of capabilities and constraints to new types of information products; y develop, in their own creation processes, an understanding that their choices impact the purposes for which the information product will be used and the message it conveys. DISPOSITIONS Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y are inclined to seek out characteristics of information products that indicate the underlying creation process; y value the process of matching an information need with an appropriate product; y accept that the creation of information may begin initially through communicating in a range of formats or modes; y accept the ambiguity surrounding the potential value of information creation expressed in emerging formats or modes; y resist the tendency to equate format with the underlying creation process; y understand that different methods of information dissemination with different purposes are available for their use. 16 Association of College and Research Libraries Information Has Value Information possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination. The value of information is manifested in various contexts, including publishing practices, access to information, the commodification of personal information, and intellectual property laws. The novice learner may struggle to understand the diverse values of information in an environment where “free” information and related services are plentiful and the concept of intellectual property is first encountered through rules of citation or warnings about plagiarism and copyright law. As creators and users of information, experts understand their rights and responsibilities when participating in a community of scholarship. Experts understand that value may be wielded by powerful interests in ways that marginalize certain voices. However, value may also be leveraged by individuals and organizations to effect change and for civic, economic, social, or personal gains. Experts also understand that the individual is responsible for making deliberate and informed choices about when to comply with and when to contest current legal and socioeconomic practices concerning the value of information. KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation; y understand that intellectual property is a legal and social construct that varies by culture; y articulate the purpose and distinguishing characteristics of copyright, fair use, open access, and the public domain; y understand how and why some individuals or groups of individuals may be underrepresented or systematically marginalized within the systems that produce and disseminate information; y recognize issues of access or lack of access to information sources; y decide where and how their information is published; Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 17 y understand how the commodification of their personal information and online interactions affects the information they receive and the information they produce or disseminate online; y make informed choices regarding their online actions in full awareness of issues related to privacy and the commodification of personal information. DISPOSITIONS Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y respect the original ideas of others; y value the skills, time, and effort needed to produce knowledge; y see themselves as contributors to the information marketplace rather than only consumers of it; y are inclined to examine their own information privilege. 18 Association of College and Research Libraries Research as Inquiry Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field. Experts see inquiry as a process that focuses on problems or questions in a discipline or between disciplines that are open or unresolved. Experts recognize the collaborative effort within a discipline to extend the knowledge in that field. Many times, this process includes points of disagreement where debate and dialogue work to deepen the conversations around knowledge. This process of inquiry extends beyond the academic world to the community at large, and the process of inquiry may focus upon personal, professional, or societal needs. The spectrum of inquiry ranges from asking simple questions that depend upon basic recapitulation of knowledge to increasingly sophisticated abilities to refine research questions, use more advanced research methods, and explore more diverse disciplinary perspectives. Novice learners acquire strategic perspectives on inquiry and a greater repertoire of investigative methods. KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y Formulate questions for research based on information gaps or on reexamination of existing, possibly conflicting, information; y determine an appropriate scope of investigation; y deal with complex research by breaking complex questions into simple ones, limiting the scope of investigations; y use various research methods, based on need, circumstance, and type of inquiry; y monitor gathered information and assess for gaps or weaknesses; y organize information in meaningful ways; y synthesize ideas gathered from multiple sources; y draw reasonable conclusions based on the analysis and interpretation of information. Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 19 DISPOSITIONS Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y consider research as open-ended exploration and engagement with information; y appreciate that a question may appear to be simple but still disruptive and important to research; y value intellectual curiosity in developing questions and learning new investigative methods; y maintain an open mind and a critical stance; y value persistence, adaptability, and flexibility and recognize that ambiguity can benefit the research process; y seek multiple perspectives during information gathering and assessment; y seek appropriate help when needed; y follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information; y demonstrate intellectual humility (i.e., recognize their own intellectual or experiential limitations). 20 Association of College and Research Libraries Scholarship as Conversation Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations. Research in scholarly and professional fields is a discursive practice in which ideas are formulated, debated, and weighed against one another over extended periods of time. Instead of seeking discrete answers to complex problems, experts understand that a given issue may be characterized by several competing perspectives as part of an ongoing conversation in which information users and creators come together and negotiate meaning. Experts understand that, while some topics have established answers through this process, a query may not have a single uncontested answer. Experts are therefore inclined to seek out many perspectives, not merely the ones with which they are familiar. These perspectives might be in their own discipline or profession or may be in other fields. While novice learners and experts at all levels can take part in the conversation, established power and authority structures may influence their ability to participate and can privilege certain voices and information. Developing familiarity with the sources of evidence, methods, and modes of discourse in the field assists novice learners to enter the conversation. New forms of scholarly and research conversations provide more avenues in which a wide variety of individuals may have a voice in the conversation. Providing attribution to relevant previous research is also an obligation of participation in the conversation. It enables the conversation to move forward and strengthens one’s voice in the conversation. KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y cite the contributing work of others in their own information production; y contribute to scholarly conversation at an appropriate level, such as local online community, guided discussion, undergraduate research journal, conference presentation/poster session; y identify barriers to entering scholarly conversation via various venues; y critically evaluate contributions made by others in participatory information environments; y identify the contribution that particular articles, books, and other scholarly pieces make to disciplinary knowledge; Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 21 y summarize the changes in scholarly perspective over time on a particular topic within a specific discipline; y recognize that a given scholarly work may not represent the only or even the majority perspective on the issue. DISPOSITIONS Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y recognize they are often entering into an ongoing scholarly conversation and not a finished conversation; y seek out conversations taking place in their research area; y see themselves as contributors to scholarship rather than only consumers of it; y recognize that scholarly conversations take place in various venues; y suspend judgment on the value of a particular piece of scholarship until the larger context for the scholarly conversation is better understood; y understand the responsibility that comes with entering the conversation through participatory channels; y value user-generated content and evaluate contributions made by others; y recognize that systems privilege authorities and that not having a fluency in the language and process of a discipline disempowers their ability to participate and engage. 22 Association of College and Research Libraries Searching as Strategic Exploration Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops. The act of searching often begins with a question that directs the act of finding needed information. Encompassing inquiry, discovery, and serendipity, searching identifies both possible relevant sources as well as the means to access those sources. Experts realize that information searching is a contextualized, complex experience that affects, and is affected by, the cognitive, affective, and social dimensions of the searcher. Novice learners may search a limited set of resources, while experts may search more broadly and deeply to determine the most appropriate information within the project scope. Likewise, novice learners tend to use few search strategies, while experts select from various search strategies, depending on the sources, scope, and context of the information need. KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y determine the initial scope of the task required to meet their information needs; y identify interested parties, such as scholars, organizations, governments, and industries, who might produce information about a topic and then determine how to access that information; y utilize divergent (e.g., brainstorming) and convergent (e.g., selecting the best source) thinking when searching; y match information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools; y design and refine needs and search strategies as necessary, based on search results; y understand how information systems (i.e., collections of recorded information) are organized in order to access relevant information; y use different types of searching language (e.g., controlled vocabulary, keywords, natural language) appropriately; y manage searching processes and results effectively. Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 23 DISPOSITIONS Learners who are developing their information literate abilities y exhibit mental flexibility and creativity; y understand that first attempts at searching do not always produce adequate results; y realize that information sources vary greatly in content and format and have varying relevance and value, depending on the needs and nature of the search; y seek guidance from experts, such as librarians, researchers, and professionals; y recognize the value of browsing and other serendipitous methods of information gathering; y persist in the face of search challenges, and know when they have enough information to complete the information task. 24 Association of College and Research Libraries Appendix 1: Implementing the Framework Suggestions on How to Use the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education The Framework is a mechanism for guiding the development of information literacy programs within higher education institutions while also promoting discussion about the nature of key concepts in information in general education and disciplinary studies. The Framework encourages thinking about how librarians, faculty, and others can address core or portal concepts and associated elements in the information field within the context of higher education. The Framework will help librarians contextualize and integrate information literacy for their institutions and will encourage a deeper understanding of what knowledge practices and dispositions an information literate student should develop. The Framework redefines the boundaries of what librarians teach and how they conceptualize the study of information within the curricula of higher education institutions. The Framework has been conceived as a set of living documents on which the profession will build. The key product is a set of frames, or lenses, through which to view information literacy, each of which includes a concept central to information literacy, knowledge practices, and dispositions. The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) encourages the library community to discuss the new Framework widely and to develop resources such as curriculum guides, concept maps, and assessment instruments to supplement the core set of materials in the frames. As a first step, ACRL encourages librarians to read through the entire Framework and discuss the implications of this new approach for the information literacy program at their institution. Possibilities include convening a discussion among librarians at an institution or joining an online discussion of librarians. In addition, as one becomes familiar with the frames, consider discussing them with professionals in the institution’s center for teaching and learning, office of undergraduate education, or similar departments to see whether some synergies exist between this approach and other institutional curricular initiatives. The frames can guide the redesign of information literacy programs for general education courses, for upper level courses in students’ major departments, and for Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 25 graduate student education. The frames are intended to demonstrate the contrast in thinking between novice learner and expert in a specific area; movement may take place over the course of a student’s academic career. Mapping out in what way specific concepts will be integrated into specific curriculum levels is one of the challenges of implementing the Framework. ACRL encourages librarians to work with faculty, departmental or college curriculum committees, instructional designers, staff from centers for teaching and learning, and others to design information literacy programs in a holistic way. ACRL realizes that many information literacy librarians currently meet with students via one-shot classes, especially in introductory level classes. Over the course of a student’s academic program, one-shot sessions that address a particular need at a particular time, systematically integrated into the curriculum, can play a significant role in an information literacy program. It is important for librarians and teaching faculty to understand that the Framework is not designed to be implemented in a single information literacy session in a student’s academic career; it is intended to be developmentally and systematically integrated into the student’s academic program at a variety of levels. This may take considerable time to implement fully in many institutions. ACRL encourages information literacy librarians to be imaginative and innovative in implementing the Framework in their institution. The Framework is not intended to be prescriptive but to be used as a guidance document in shaping an institutional program. ACRL recommends piloting the implementation of the Framework in a context that is useful to a specific institution, assessing the results and sharing experiences with colleagues. HOW TO USE THIS FRAMEWORK y Read and reflect on the entire Framework document. y Convene or join a group of librarians to discuss the implications of this approach to information literacy for your institution. y Reach out to potential partners in your institution, such as departmental curriculum committees, centers for teaching and learning, or offices of undergraduate or graduate studies, to discuss how to implement the Framework in your institutional context. y Using the Framework, pilot the development of information literacy sessions within a particular academic program in your institution, and assess and share the results with your colleagues. y Share instructional materials with other information literacy librarians in the online repository developed by ACRL. 26 Association of College and Research Libraries Introduction for Faculty and Administrators CONSIDERING INFORMATION LITERACY Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning. This Framework sets forth these information literacy concepts and describes how librarians as information professionals can facilitate the development of information literacy by postsecondary students. CREATING A FRAMEWORK ACRL has played a leading role in promoting information literacy in higher education for decades. The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Standards), first published in 2000, enabled colleges and universities to position information literacy as an essential learning outcome in the curriculum and promoted linkages with general education programs, service learning, problem-based learning, and other pedagogies focused on deeper learning. Regional accrediting bodies, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and various discipline- specific organizations employed and adapted the Standards. It is time for a fresh look at information literacy, especially in light of changes in higher education, coupled with increasingly complex information ecosystems. To that end, an ACRL Task Force developed the Framework. The Framework seeks to address the great potential for information literacy as a deeper, more integrated learning agenda, addressing academic and technical courses, undergraduate research, community- based learning, and co-curricular learning experiences of entering freshman through graduation. The Framework focuses attention on the vital role of collaboration and its potential for increasing student understanding of the processes of knowledge creation and scholarship. The Framework also emphasizes student participation and creativity, highlighting the importance of these contributions. The Framework is developed around a set of “frames,” which are those critical gateway or portal concepts through which students must pass to develop genuine expertise within a discipline, profession, or knowledge domain. Each frame includes a knowledge practices section used to demonstrate how the mastery of the concept leads to application in new situations and knowledge generation. Each frame also includes a set of dispositions that address the affective areas of learning. Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 27 For Faculty: How to Use the Framework A vital benefit in using threshold concepts as one of the underpinnings for the Framework is the potential for collaboration among disciplinary faculty, librarians, teaching and learning center staff, and others. Creating a community of conversations about this enlarged understanding should engender more collaboration, more innovative course designs, and a more inclusive consideration of learning within and beyond the classroom. Threshold concepts originated as faculty pedagogical research within disciplines. Because information literacy is both a disciplinary and a transdisciplinary learning agenda, using a conceptual framework for information literacy program planning, librarian-faculty collaboration, and student co-curricular projects can offer great potential for curricular enrichment and transformation. As a faculty member, you can take the following approaches: y Investigate threshold concepts in your discipline and gain an understanding of the approach used in the Framework as it applies to the discipline you know. — What are the specialized information skills in your discipline that students should develop, such as using primary sources (history) or accessing and managing large data sets (science)? y Look for workshops at your campus teaching and learning center on the flipped classroom and consider how such practices could be incorporated into your courses. — What information and research assignments can students do outside of class to arrive prepared to apply concepts and conduct collaborative projects? y Partner with your IT department and librarians to develop new kinds of multimedia assignments for courses. — What kinds of workshops and other services should be available for students involved in multimedia design and production? y Help students view themselves as information producers, individually and collaboratively. — In your program, how do students interact with, evaluate, produce, and share information in various formats and modes? y Consider the knowledge practices and dispositions in each information literacy frame for possible integration into your own courses and academic program. 28 Association of College and Research Libraries — How might you and a librarian design learning experiences and assignments that will encourage students to assess their own attitudes, strengths/weaknesses, and knowledge gaps related to information? For Administrators: How to Support the Framework Through reading the Framework document and discussing it with your institutions’ librarians, you can begin to focus on the best mechanisms to implement the Framework in your institution. As an administrator, you can take the following approaches: y Host or encourage a series of campus conversations about how the institution can incorporate the Framework into student learning outcomes and supporting curriculum y Provide the resources to enhance faculty expertise and opportunities for understanding and incorporating the Framework into the curriculum y Encourage committees working on planning documents related to teaching and learning (at the department, program, and institutional levels) to include concepts from the Framework in their work y Provide resources to support a meaningful assessment of information literacy of students at various levels at your institution y Promote partnerships between faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and others to develop meaningful ways for students to become content creators, especially in their disciplines Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 29 Appendix 2: Background of the Framework Development The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education were published in 2000 and brought information literacy into higher education conversations and advanced our field. These, like all ACRL standards, are reviewed cyclically. In July 2011, ACRL appointed a Task Force to decide what, if anything, to do with the current Standards. In June 2012, that Task Force recommended that the current Standards be significantly revised. This previous review Task Force made recommendations that informed the current revision Task Force, formed in 2013, with the following charge: to update the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education so they reflect the current thinking on such things as the creation and dissemination of knowledge, the changing global higher education and learning environment, the shift from information literacy to information fluency, and the expanding definition of information literacy to include multiple literacies, for example, transliteracy, media literacy, digital literacy, etc. The Task Force released the first version of the Framework in two parts in February and April of 2014 and received comments via two online hearings and a feedback form available online for four weeks. The committee then revised the document, released the second draft on June 17, 2014, and sought extensive feedback through a feedback form, two online hearings, an in-person hearing, and analysis of social media and topical blog posts. On a regular basis, the Task Force used all of ACRL’s and American Library Association’s (ALA) communication channels to reach individual members and ALA and ACRL units (committees, sections, round tables, ethnic caucuses, chapters, and divisions) with updates. The Task Force’s liaison at ACRL maintained a private e-mail distribution list of over 1,300 individuals who attended a fall, spring, or summer online forum; provided comments to the February, April, June, or November drafts; or were otherwise identified as having strong interest and expertise. This included 30 Association of College and Research Libraries members of the Task Force that drafted the Standards, leading Library Information Science (LIS) researchers and national project directors, members of the Information Literacy Rubric Development Team for the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education initiative. Via all these channels, the Task Force regularly shared updates, invited discussion at virtual and in-person forums and hearings, and encouraged comments on public drafts of the proposed Framework. ACRL recognized early on that the effect of any changes to the Standards would be significant both within the library profession and in higher education more broadly. In addition to general announcements, the Task Force contacted nearly 60 researchers who cited the Standards in publications outside LIS literature, more than 70 deans, associate deans, directors or chairs of LIS schools, and invited specific staff leaders (and press or communications contacts) at more than 70 other higher education associations, accrediting agencies, and library associations and consortia to encourage their members to read and comment on the draft. The Task Force systematically reviewed feedback from the first and second drafts of the Framework, including comments, criticism, and praise provided through formal and informal channels. The three official online feedback forms had 562 responses; numerous direct e-mails were sent to members of the Task Force. The group was proactive in tracking feedback on social media, namely blog posts and Twitter. While the data harvested from social media are not exhaustive, the Task Force made its best efforts to include all known Twitter conversations, blog posts, and blog commentary. In total, there were several hundred feedback documents, totaling over a thousand pages, under review. The content of these documents was analyzed by members of the Task Force and coded using HyperResearch, a qualitative data analysis software. During the drafting and vetting process, the Task Force provided more detail on the feedback analysis in an online FAQ document. The Task Force continued to revise the document and published the third revision in November 2014, again announcing broadly and seeking comments via a feedback form. As of November 2014, the Task Force members included the following: y Craig Gibson, Professor, Ohio State University Libraries (Co-chair) y Trudi E. Jacobson, Distinguished Librarian and Head, Information Literacy Department, University at Albany, SUNY, University Libraries (Co-chair) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 31 y Elizabeth Berman, Science and Engineering Librarian, University of Vermont (Member) y Carl O. DiNardo, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Library Instruction/Science Librarian, Eckerd College (Member) y Lesley S. J. Farmer, Professor, California State University–Long Beach (Member) y Ellie A. Fogarty, Vice President, Middle States Commission on Higher Education (Member) y Diane M. Fulkerson, Social Sciences and Education Librarian, University of South Florida in Lakeland (Member) y Merinda Kaye Hensley, Instructional Services Librarian and Scholarly Commons Co-coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Member) y Joan K. Lippincott, Associate Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information (Member) y Michelle S. Millet, Library Director, John Carroll University (Member) y Troy Swanson, Teaching and Learning Librarian, Moraine Valley Community College (Member) y Lori Townsend, Data Librarian for Social Sciences and Humanities, University of New Mexico (Member) y Julie Ann Garrison, Associate Dean of Research and Instructional Services, Grand Valley State University (Board Liaison) y Kate Ganski, Library Instruction Coordinator, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee (Visiting Program Officer, from September 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014) y Kara Malenfant, Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives, Association of College and Research Libraries (Staff Liaison) In December 2014, the Task Force made final changes. Two other ACRL groups reviewed and provided feedback on the final drafts: the ACRL Information Literacy Standards Committee and the ACRL Standards Committee. The latter group submitted the final document and recommendations to the ACRL Board for its review at the 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. Note: Filed by the ACRL Board February 2, 2015; Adopted by the ACRL Board January 11, 2016. 32 Association of College and Research Libraries Appendix 3: Sources for Further Reading The following sources are suggested readings for those who want to learn more about the ideas underpinning the Framework, especially the use of threshold concepts and related pedagogical models. Some readings here also explore other models for information literacy, discuss students’ challenges with information literacy, or offer examples of assessment of threshold concepts. Landmark works on threshold concept theory and research on this list are the edited volumes by Meyer, Land, and Baillie (Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning) and by Meyer and Land (Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practicing within the Disciplines). In addition, numerous research articles, conference papers, reports, and presentations on threshold concepts are cited on the regularly updated website Threshold Concepts: Undergraduate Teaching, Postgraduate Training, and Professional Development; A Short Introduction and Bibliography, available at http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/~mflanaga/thresholds.html. ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards Review Task Force. “Task Force Recommendations.” ACRL AC12 Doc 13.1, June 2, 2012. http://www.ala.org/ acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/ils_recomm.pdf. American Association for School Librarians. Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. Chicago: American Library Association, 2007. http://www.ala.org/ aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/ AASL_LearningStandards.pdf. Blackmore, Margaret. “Student Engagement with Information: Applying a Threshold Concept Approach to Information Literacy Development.” Paper presented at the 3rd Biennial Threshold Concepts Symposium: Exploring Transformative Dimensions of Threshold Concepts, Sydney, Australia, July 1–2, 2010. Carmichael, Patrick. “Tribes, Territories, and Threshold Concepts: Educational Materialisms at Work in Higher Education.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 44, no. S1 (2012): 31–42. Coonan, Emma. A New Curriculum for Information Literacy: Teaching Learning; Perceptions of Information Literacy. Arcadia Project, Cambridge University Library, July 2011. http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/emma_report_final.pdf. Cousin, Glynis. “An Introduction to Threshold Concepts.” Planet 17 (December 2006): 4–5. http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/%7Emflanaga/thresholds.html http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/ils_recomm.pdf http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/ils_recomm.pdf http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/emma_report_final.pdf Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education 33 ———. “Threshold Concepts, Troublesome Knowledge and Emotional Capital: An Exploration into Learning about Others.” In Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, edited by Jan H. F. Meyer and Ray Land, 134–47. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. Gibson, Craig, and Trudi Jacobson. “Informing and Extending the Draft ACRL Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education: An Overview and Avenues for Research.” College and Research Libraries 75, no. 3 (May 2014): 250–4. Head, Alison J. “Project Information Literacy: What Can Be Learned about the Information-Seeking Behavior of Today’s College Students?” Paper presented at the ACRL National Conference, Indianapolis, IN, April 10–13, 2013. Hofer, Amy R., Lori Townsend, and Korey Brunetti. “Troublesome Concepts and Information Literacy: Investigating Threshold Concepts for IL Instruction.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 12, no. 4 (2012): 387–405. Jacobson, Trudi E., and Thomas P. Mackey. “Proposing a Metaliteracy Model to Redefine Information Literacy.” Communications in Information Literacy 7, no. 2 (2013): 84–91. Kuhlthau, Carol C. “Rethinking the 2000 ACRL Standards: Some Things to Consider.” Communications in Information Literacy 7, no. 3 (2013): 92–7. ———. Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004. Limberg, Louise, Mikael Alexandersson, Annika Lantz-Andersson, and Lena Folkesson. “What Matters? Shaping Meaningful Learning through Teaching Information Literacy.” Libri 58, no. 2 (2008): 82–91. Lloyd, Annemaree. Information Literacy Landscapes: Information Literacy in Education, Workplace and Everyday Contexts. Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2010. Lupton, Mandy Jean. The Learning Connection: Information Literacy and the Student Experience. Blackwood: South Australia: Auslib Press, 2004. Mackey, Thomas P., and Trudi E. Jacobson. Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2014. Martin, Justine. “Refreshing Information Literacy.” Communications in Information Literacy 7, no. 2 (2013): 114–27. Meyer, Jan, and Ray Land. Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practicing within the Disciplines. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh, 2003. Meyer, Jan H. F., Ray Land, and Caroline Baillie. “Editors’ Preface.” In Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning, edited by Jan H. F. Meyer, Ray Land, and Caroline Baillie, ix–xlii. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2010. 34 Association of College and Research Libraries Middendorf, Joan, and David Pace. “Decoding the Disciplines: A Model for Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 98 (2004): 1–12. Oakleaf, Megan. “A Roadmap for Assessing Student Learning Using the New Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 40, no. 5 (September 2014): 510–4. Secker, Jane. A New Curriculum for Information Literacy: Expert Consultation Report. Arcadia Project, Cambridge University Library, July 2011. http://ccfil.pbworks. com/f/Expert_report_final.pdf. Townsend, Lori, Korey Brunetti, and Amy R. Hofer. “Threshold Concepts and Information Literacy.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 11, no. 3 (2011): 853–69. Tucker, Virginia, Christine Bruce, Sylvia Edwards, and Judith Weedman. “Learning Portals: Analyzing Threshold Concept Theory for LIS Education.” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 55, no. 2 (2014): 150–65. Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004. http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/Expert_report_final.pdf http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/Expert_report_final.pdf Citing the Framework American Psychological Association (APA Style) Framework for information literacy for higher education. (2015). Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries. Online citation Framework for information literacy for higher education. (2015) Retrieved [insert month-day-year accessed] from http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/issues/ infolit/framework.pdf Chicago Manual of Style Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2015. Online citation Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Association of College & Research Libraries, 2015; http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/issues/ infolit/framework.pdf (accessed month-day-year). Modern Language Association (MLA Style) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2015. Online citation “Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.” 2015. Association of College & Research Libraries. [Day-month-year accessed] < http://www. ala.org/acrl/files/issues/infolit/framework.pdf > 50 East Huron Street| Chicago, IL 60611 T. 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Blixrud Memorial Leadership Legislation LibQUAL+ Libraries That Learn Library Administration Library Publishing Library Services LibValue Licensing Marketplace MINES for Libraries Net Neutrality New Models Open Access Open Data Open Educational Resources Open Scholarship Open Science Orphan Works Peer Review Planning and Visioning Preservation Press to Libraries (P2L) Privacy, Security, and Civil Liberties Public Access Policies Public Domain Publishing Models Repositories Research Collections Research Library Impact Framework Scenario Planning Scholarly Communication Scholarly Dissemination Engine Section 108 SHARE Space, Facilities, and Services Special Collections and Archives StatsQUAL Technology Telecommunications Policies Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) Transparency Treaties University Publishing USA PATRIOT Act Workforce Workforce Transformation Cancel Search with Filters Home News ARL News Sylvester Johnson on Humanism in Our Technological Age Sylvester Johnson on Humanism in Our Technological Age Kaylyn Groves | 202-296-2296 | kaylyn@arl.org | November 13, 2019 Share Tweet Email Sylvester Johnson As a follow-up to Research Library Issues no. 299 on the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI), Association of Research Libraries (ARL) executive director Mary Lee Kennedy talked with author Sylvester Johnson, founding director of the Center for Humanities and assistant vice provost for the humanities at Virginia Tech. With Kennedy, Johnson discussed such ideas as the need for humanistic expertise to address radical inequality in a world shaped by technology. He also considered the library’s role, as a “lever for public good,” in managing the creation of knowledge by AI systems as well as by humans. The full interview follows. Kennedy: What are the essential humanistic expertises and informed considerations with regard to our humanity today? Johnson: I think radical inequality is the greatest challenge humanity faces today. This means that expertise in the human condition—broadly conceived—wedded to a cultivated understanding of how social power works, will become even more essential for shaping a viable human future. It is not enough to insist that knowledge should exist only for the sake of knowledge. All knowledge—in humanities, business, and STEM disciplines—has inherent value. So, no one should ever doubt the intrinsic value of learning. Ultimately, however, knowledge should exist for the sake of people—all people—and this means supporting well-being and human thriving. We should be wary, furthermore, of easy recourse to reductionist claims that humanities education “should not solve problems.” This assertion itself is in part a product of histories of power and privilege that would adopt a posture of learning about humanity while elevating as the ideal a radical disregard for the most vulnerable humans in our global society. It is no accident that areas such as gender and sexuality studies, critical ethnic studies, and similar disciplines created in recent decades are easily excluded for a “traditional humanities” paradigm. These newer disciplines emerged with a clear concern for addressing problems of human suffering, disparity, and structural constraints on the human condition. So, although there is no consensus among humanists about what lies at the core of humanities, I want to emphasize that actual humans and human-centered outcomes should be treated as a vital part of humanities scholarship. So, what does this imply for expertise? Today’s innovation economy is bringing tremendous benefits, but it is also concentrating wealth at an unprecedented scale. This trend is intersecting with historical, institutional forms of injustice. As we focus on advancing the interests of human thriving, we must forge new opportunities for humanists to lead a society that is increasingly technological and that is being reshaped by innovation. This translates into many different approaches. Some examples are historical insights into how systems of power actually function; theoretical and ethnographic analyses of democracy; studies of such issues as race, gender, disability, and sexuality; and creativity, composition, performance, and other forms of communicating human experience that can inspire human flourishing. We must also continue to foster breadth of curiosity and analysis. As David Epstein has emphasized in a recent book, an expansive range of learning, which has been a historic feature of humanities education, will ensure that humanities experts excel in a hyper-specialized world. Kennedy: What is the same or different about the need for these as compared to past technological innovations such as the internet? Johnson: That’s a great question, because it probes the interface of the familiar and the new. As a human phenomenon, technology is classic. Humans have manipulated our environment and our own bodies throughout the history of our species. But recent digital technologies are introducing profoundly new quandaries, as we advance our ability to design machines that can, to a considerable degree, replace us. Machines are increasingly adept at performing cognitive tasks and, to a lesser extent, mechanical, tactile ones. High-end labor automation will continue to advance. “Cognitive” computing systems (AIs) are increasingly working alongside humans to make decisions that affect the lives of billions of people. Moreover, intelligent machine systems are advancing alongside the enhancement of humans with AI-enabled machine parts—prosthetic limbs and brain chips are key examples. Genetic engineering will eventually make the design of humans from the cellular level upward the most game-changing technology in human history. All of this means that we will be forced to reckon with profound questions in the coming years, such as determining who or what gets to count as human. Although we can look to histories of racism and colonialism to see precedent for debating or denying people’s humanity, these new technologies are creating truly novel, unprecedented challenges. So, I think you can summarize the new challenge this way: Technology is becoming the essential means to shaping and governing human society at almost every level. It will be important that we not be distracted by any claims that nothing fundamentally new is happening and that “we have seen it all before.” Machines have never before made decisions about our lives and our society. That is now beginning to happen. In a world that is increasingly governed by non-human systems that humans have designed, we will need humanists who can govern technology—who can guide its design, implementation, regulation, and societal impact to achieve human-centered outcomes rooted in fairness. Kennedy: Given what is the same and different, is there a way to “future proof” our humanity through consistent ethical practices across time? Johnson: I think you’ve probably asked the most difficult question on this topic! Kai-Fu Lee, a venture capitalist and innovation expert, has devoted the past few years to addressing the question of where humans will fit in a future where human labor may very well be increasingly replaced by automation. He emphasizes that the challenges deriving from this possible future of labor will be compounded by the most uneven creation of wealth in human history. Economists anticipate the next decade will see a global net increase of approximately $100 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP) deriving from digital technologies; most of that will belong to a small number of private companies in concentrated regions of the United States and China. So, I think one lesson for future-proofing humanity is learning from history. The United States carceral system is truly world class—we are the most carceral nation on the planet, specializing in treating millions of humans as expendable, compounding precarity among the poor and racial minorities with generational consequences. It is no exaggeration to say that our carceral system commoditizes cruelty by investing in institutional racism and classism. Unless we transform this political economy, we will likely extend this expendability to new populations for whom there is no place in an innovation economy. This is one of the most important reasons why technology cannot be treated as simply a technical issue. Our humanists must lead efforts to reshape a different possible future for capital. This also demonstrates why reductively insisting that “humanities should not solve problems” is a harmful strategy, one that will never “save the humanities.” We must celebrate the inherent value of learning across any and all disciplines—including STEM—while also seizing new opportunities for leadership and pathways to careers by preparing a new generation of humanists to shape a viable, human-centered future. Kennedy: Where do you see the most need for leadership and progress? Are there exemplars that stand out? Johnson: In the coming years, we will witness a steep demand for greater leadership from humanists in the public arena as well as private sector. Contrary to years of pessimistic forecasts, a significant part of this will be driven by technology innovation. For decades, legislative assemblies throughout the nation propelled efforts to devalue humanistic, comprehensive education. Various academic pundits have also joined in asserting that liberal arts education is increasingly irrelevant. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have witnessed some of the greatest societal challenges at the nexus of technology and human society. The moral of this story is that technology is not only a STEM issue. It is a human one that is thoroughly comprehensive. Humanists must participate in leadership of technology by leveraging expertise in human complexity, interpreting culture, advancing thought-leadership, analyzing power to forge ethical outcomes, and so forth. This is inclusive of but not reducible to studying about technology. We must govern technology. That is different from the past. There are examples of humanists addressing this issue. Will.i.am is a creative artist who is now working to transform our society from one rooted in data monarchy—a few private companies controlling data and monetizing it exclusively—to data democracy, which would advance shared participation in the ownership and commoditization of data. He has argued compellingly that creative humanists must begin to create the technology that shapes our lives. Major philanthropists are driving a new vision for humanities leadership of a technological society. Witness Stephen Schwarzman’s recent gift to the University of Oxford to create a humanities center that will lead ethical governance of technology. The Ford Foundation has joined efforts with other major philanthropic organizations in partnership with the New America think tank to create a network of universities focusing on public-interest technology—developing new pathways for technology to focus on public good rather than exclusively benefiting private capital. Stanford University recently launched a $1 billion capital campaign to fund a new institute for human-centered AI. At Virginia Tech, we have launched a university-wide Tech for Humanity initiative to advance human-centered approaches to technology; as part of this effort, we are redefining what it means to be a technologist to include not only technical skills but also humanistic knowledge and skilled understanding of societal impact and the human condition. Kennedy: What would you ask of the research library community in securing the “very future of humanity in a technological age”? Johnson: That’s a great question. Libraries have been extraordinary repositories of information for centuries. Information has always been a commodity, but never before on the scale that we are witnessing today. Throughout history, the production of knowledge has been an exclusively human affair. One of the most difficult challenges we will face in the coming years will be managing the creation of knowledge by non-human agents—AI systems. AIs are already creating music and handling decision services across domains such as finance, transportation, and healthcare. This is going to expand into knowledge service—creating new research insights, drawing conclusions, participating in deciding public policy, and advancing education. Some of this challenge will be cultural—who can blame people for being unsettled by such a ground-shift? Other challenges will be logistical and architectural in the institutional sense. Currently, the most powerful agents who control the relationship between repositories of information and capital are artificial people known as private corporations. Our society is experiencing tremendous benefits from the innovation that private capital is creating. But we are also reaching a point of existential crisis. In this new reality, our libraries will need to prepare to disseminate knowledge and make it accessible in new ways. They must also become major players participating in the value creation surrounding the production of knowledge (by humans and AIs) and its delivery. This will have to occur in an innovation environment where the revenue models in higher education and information services are changing drastically. In order for our colleges and universities to remain financially viable, for instance, libraries cannot simply become tenants in the platform ecosystem of private capital, handing over billions of dollars to a small number of data landlords in exchange for storage, access, and analytics services. Libraries will either become bankrupt in this new environment, or they will become active agents on the value-creation side, not as vehicles for private capital but levers for public good. This is just one way that libraries must play a central and active role in governing technology innovation. And it exemplifies the urgency for new models to institutionalize relations among private capital, public interest, and knowledge curation. This is a complicated challenge, but it is one that we must meet to help secure the future of humanity in a technological age. Research Library Issues Inside News ARL News Community Updates Day in Review Press Coverage Statements Tweets by ARLnews Affiliates Association of Research Libraries 21 Dupont Circle NW #800 Washington, DC 20036 202 296 2296 | webmgr@arl.org © Association of Research Libraries Accessibility Privacy Land Acknowledgment Contact Us This site uses cookies. By clicking 'I understand', you are agreeing to our use of cookies.I understandMore info... 
www-ascd-org-425	----	What Is Action Research? home store ASCD.org Store Blog Virtual Events Navigate Applications ASCD Activate myTeachSource PD In Focus PD Online Streaming Video Help ASCD Customer Service Phone Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. 1-800-933-ASCD (2723) Address 1703 North Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 Complete Customer Service Details Log In ASCD Header Logo Click to Search Topics Assessment and Grading Building Racial Justice and Equity Curriculum Design and Lesson Planning Differentiated Instruction Distance Learning Instructional Leadership Personalized Learning Social-Emotional Learning Browse All Topics Books & Publications Browse Books New Books Member Books ASCD Arias Quick Reference Guides Education Update ASCD Express Newsletters Meet the Authors Write for ASCD ASCD Books in Translation Educational Leadership Current Issue Browse EL Archives Digital EL EL Podcast Subscribe Upcoming Themes Write for EL Tell Us About Contact EL Membership Benefits Team Memberships Member-Only Webinars Communities Virtual Events Webinars Symposiums Leadership Summit PreK and K Conference Annual Conference Exhibit with Us Professional Learning ASCD Activate PD Online Courses PD In Focus ASCD myTeachSource On-Site & Virtual PD Success Stories Request an ASCD Speaker Streaming Videos White Papers Emerging Leaders Books & Pubs Browse Books Meet the Authors New Books Member Books Buy Premium Member Book (May 2000) Guiding School Improvement with Action Research by Richard Sagor Table of Contents Chapter 1. What Is Action Research? A succinct definition of action research appears in the workshop materials we use at the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education. That definition states that action research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her actions. Practitioners who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Action research has this positive effect for many reasons. Obviously, the most important is that action research is always relevant to the participants. Relevance is guaranteed because the focus of each research project is determined by the researchers, who are also the primary consumers of the findings. Perhaps even more important is the fact that action research helps educators be more effective at what they care most about—their teaching and the development of their students. Seeing students grow is probably the greatest joy educators can experience. When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a real difference in their students' lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem worthwhile. The Action Research Process Educational action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school. Whatever the scenario, action research always involves the same seven-step process. These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the inquiring teacher, are the following: Selecting a focus Clarifying theories Identifying research questions Collecting data Analyzing data Reporting results Taking informed action Step 1—Selecting a Focus The action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy of a busy teacher's time. Considering the incredible demands on today's classroom teachers, no activity is worth doing unless it promises to make the central part of a teacher's work more successful and satisfying. Thus, selecting a focus, the first step in the process, is vitally important. Selecting a focus begins with the teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking: What element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate? Step 2—Clarifying Theories The second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives the researchers hold relating to their focus. For example, if teachers are concerned about increasing responsible classroom behavior, it will be helpful for them to begin by clarifying which approach—using punishments and rewards, allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their behaviors, or some other strategy—they feel will work best in helping students acquire responsible classroom behavior habits. Step 3—Identifying Research Questions Once a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the inquiry. Step 4—Collecting Data Professional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their classroom or school. To ensure reasonable validity and reliability, action researchers should avoid relying on any single source of data. Most teacher researchers use a process called triangulation to enhance the validity and reliability of their findings. Basically, triangulation means using multiple independent sources of data to answer one's questions. Triangulation is like studying an object located inside a box by viewing it through various windows cut into the sides of the box. Observing a phenomenon through multiple “windows” can help a single researcher compare and contrast what is being seen through a variety of lenses. When planning instruction, teachers want the techniques they choose to be appropriate for the unique qualities of their students. All teachers have had the experience of implementing a “research-proven” strategy only to have it fail with their students. The desire of teachers to use approaches that “fit” their particular students is not dissimilar to a doctor's concern that the specific medicine being prescribed be the correct one for the individual patient. The ability of the action research process to satisfy an educator's need for “fit” may be its most powerful attribute. Because the data being collected come from the very students and teachers who are engaged with the treatment, the relevance of the findings is assured. For the harried and overworked teacher, “data collection” can appear to be the most intimidating aspect of the entire seven-step action research process. The question I am repeatedly asked, “Where will I find the time and expertise to develop valid and reliable instruments for data collection?”, gives voice to a realistic fear regarding time management. Fortunately, classrooms and schools are, by their nature, data-rich environments. Each day a child is in class, he or she is producing or not producing work, is interacting productively with classmates or experiencing difficulties in social situations, and is completing assignments proficiently or poorly. Teachers not only see these events transpiring before their eyes, they generally record these events in their grade books. The key to managing triangulated data collection is, first, to be effective and efficient in collecting the material that is already swirling around the classroom, and, second, to identify other sources of data that might be effectively surfaced with tests, classroom discussions, or questionnaires. Step 5—Analyzing Data Although data analysis often brings to mind the use of complex statistical calculations, this is rarely the case for the action researcher. A number of relatively user-friendly procedures can help a practitioner identify the trends and patterns in action research data. During this portion of the seven-step process, teacher researchers will methodically sort, sift, rank, and examine their data to answer two generic questions: What is the story told by these data? Why did the story play itself out this way? By answering these two questions, the teacher researcher can acquire a better understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and as a result can end up producing grounded theory regarding what might be done to improve the situation. Step 6—Reporting Results It is often said that teaching is a lonely endeavor. It is doubly sad that so many teachers are left alone in their classrooms to reinvent the wheel on a daily basis. The loneliness of teaching is unfortunate not only because of its inefficiency, but also because when dealing with complex problems the wisdom of several minds is inevitably better than one. The sad history of teacher isolation may explain why the very act of reporting on their action research has proven so powerful for both the researchers and their colleagues. The reporting of action research most often occurs in informal settings that are far less intimidating than the venues where scholarly research has traditionally been shared. Faculty meetings, brown bag lunch seminars, and teacher conferences are among the most common venues for sharing action research with peers. However, each year more and more teacher researchers are writing up their work for publication or to help fulfill requirements in graduate programs. Regardless of which venue or technique educators select for reporting on research, the simple knowledge that they are making a contribution to a collective knowledge base regarding teaching and learning frequently proves to be among the most rewarding aspects of this work. Step 7—Taking Informed Action Taking informed action, or “action planning,” the last step in the action research process, is very familiar to most teachers. When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered (about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. Although all teaching can be classified as trial and error, action researchers find that the research process liberates them from continuously repeating their past mistakes. More important, with each refinement of practice, action researchers gain valid and reliable data on their developing virtuosity. Three Purposes for Action Research As stated earlier, action research can be engaged in by an individual teacher, a collaborative group of colleagues sharing a common concern, or an entire school faculty. These three different approaches to organizing for research serve three compatible, yet distinct, purposes: Building the reflective practitioner Making progress on schoolwide priorities Building professional cultures Building the Reflective Practitioner When individual teachers make a personal commitment to systematically collect data on their work, they are embarking on a process that will foster continuous growth and development. When each lesson is looked on as an empirical investigation into factors affecting teaching and learning and when reflections on the findings from each day's work inform the next day's instruction, teachers can't help but develop greater mastery of the art and science of teaching. In this way, the individual teachers conducting action research are making continuous progress in developing their strengths as reflective practitioners. Making Progress on Schoolwide Priorities Increasingly, schools are focusing on strengthening themselves and their programs through the development of common focuses and a strong sense of esprit de corps. Peters and Waterman (1982) in their landmark book, In Search of Excellence, called the achievement of focus “sticking to the knitting.” When a faculty shares a commitment to achieving excellence with a specific focus—for example, the development of higher-order thinking, positive social behavior, or higher standardized test scores—then collaboratively studying their practice will not only contribute to the achievement of the shared goal but would have a powerful impact on team building and program development. Focusing the combined time, energy, and creativity of a group of committed professionals on a single pedagogical issue will inevitably lead to program improvements, as well as to the school becoming a “center of excellence.” As a result, when a faculty chooses to focus on one issue and all the teachers elect to enthusiastically participate in action research on that issue, significant progress on the schoolwide priorities cannot help but occur. Building Professional Cultures Often an entire faculty will share a commitment to student development, yet the group finds itself unable to adopt a single common focus for action research. This should not be viewed as indicative of a problem. Just as the medical practitioners working at a “quality” medical center will hold a shared vision of a healthy adult, it is common for all the faculty members at a school to share a similar perspective on what constitutes a well-educated student. However, like the doctors at the medical center, the teachers in a “quality” school may well differ on which specific aspects of the shared vision they are most motivated to pursue at any point in time. Schools whose faculties cannot agree on a single research focus can still use action research as a tool to help transform themselves into a learning organization. They accomplish this in the same manner as do the physicians at the medical center. It is common practice in a quality medical center for physicians to engage in independent, even idiosyncratic, research agendas. However, it is also common for medical researchers to share the findings obtained from their research with colleagues (even those engaged in other specialties). School faculties who wish to transform themselves into “communities of learners” often empower teams of colleagues who share a passion about one aspect of teaching and learning to conduct investigations into that area of interest and then share what they've learned with the rest of the school community. This strategy allows an entire faculty to develop and practice the discipline that Peter Senge (1990) labeled “team learning.” In these schools, multiple action research inquiries occur simultaneously, and no one is held captive to another's priority, yet everyone knows that all the work ultimately will be shared and will consequently contribute to organizational learning. Why Action Research Now? If ever there were a time and a strategy that were right for each other, the time is now and the strategy is action research! This is true for a host of reasons, with none more important than the need to accomplish the following: Professionalize teaching. Enhance the motivation and efficacy of a weary faculty. Meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. Achieve success with “standards-based” reforms. Professionalizing Teaching Teaching in North America has evolved in a manner that makes it more like blue-collar work than a professional undertaking. Although blue-collar workers are expected to do their jobs with vigilance and vigor, it is also assumed that their tasks will be routine, straightforward, and, therefore, easily handled by an isolated worker with only the occasional support of a supervisor. Professional work, on the other hand, is expected to be complex and nonroutine, and will generally require collaboration among practitioners to produce satisfactory results. With the exploding knowledge base on teaching and learning and the heightened demands on teachers to help all children achieve mastery of meaningful objectives, the inadequacy of the blue-collar model for teaching is becoming much clearer. When the teachers in a school begin conducting action research, their workplace begins to take on more of the flavor of the workplaces of other professionals. The wisdom that informs practice starts coming from those doing the work, not from supervisors who oftentimes are less in touch with and less sensitive to the issues of teaching and learning than the teachers doing the work. Furthermore, when teachers begin engaging their colleagues in discussions of classroom issues, the multiple perspectives that emerge and thus frame the dialogue tend to produce wiser professional decisions. Enhancing Teacher Motivation and Efficacy The work of teaching has always been difficult. But now it isn't just the demands of the classroom that are wearing teachers down. Students increasingly bring more problems into the classroom; parental and societal expectations keep increasing; and financial cutbacks make it clear that today's teachers are being asked to do more with less. Worse still, the respect that society had traditionally placed upon public school teachers is eroding, as teacher bashing and attacks on the very value of a public education are becoming a regular part of the political landscape. Consequently, teacher burnout has become the plague of the modern schoolhouse. Many teachers now ask, “Am I making any difference?” Regardless of all the negative pressures on teachers, the sheer nobility of the work keeps many dedicated educators on the job, but only so long as they can get credible answers to the “efficacy” question. However, without credible evidence that the work of teaching is making a difference, it is hard to imagine the best and brightest sticking with such a difficult and poorly compensated line of work. Fortunately, evidence has shown that teachers who elect to integrate the use of data into their work start exhibiting the compulsive behavior of fitness enthusiasts who regularly weigh themselves, check their heart rate, and graph data on their improving physical development. For both teachers and athletes, the continuous presence of compelling data that their hard work is paying off becomes, in itself, a vitally energizing force. Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Student Body In a homogeneous society in which all students come to school looking alike, it might be wise to seek the one right answer to questions of pedagogy. But, as anyone who has recently visited an American classroom can attest, it is rare to find any two children for whom the same intervention could ever be “right on target.” The days are gone when it was possible to believe that all a teacher had to do was master and deliver the grade-level curriculum. It is now imperative that classroom teachers have strong content background in each of the subjects they teach, be familiar with the range of student differences in their classrooms, and be capable of diagnosing and prescribing appropriate instructional modifications based upon a knowledge of each child's uniqueness. Crafting solutions to these dynamic and ever changing classroom issues can be an exciting undertaking, especially when one acknowledges that newer and better answers are evolving all the time. Nevertheless, great personal satisfaction comes from playing a role in creating successful solutions to continually changing puzzles. Conversely, if teachers are expected to robotically implement outdated approaches, especially when countless new challenges are arriving at their door, the frustration can become unbearable. Achieving Success in a Standards-Based System In most jurisdictions standards-driven accountability systems have become the norm. Although they differ somewhat from state to state and province to province, fundamentally these standards-based systems have certain things in common. Specifically, most education departments and ministries have declared that they expect the standards to be rigorous and meaningful, and that they expect all students to meet the standards at the mastery level. The stakes in the standards movement are high. Students face consequences regarding promotion and graduation. Teachers and schools face ridicule and loss of funding if they fail to meet community expectations. Of course, none of that would be problematic if we as a society knew with certainty how to achieve universal student success. However, the reality is that no large system anywhere in the world has ever been successful in getting every student to master a set of meaningful objectives. If we accept the truth of that statement, then we need to acknowledge the fact that achieving the goal of universal student mastery will not be easy. That said, most people will agree it is a most noble endeavor in which to invest energy and a worthy goal for any faculty to pursue. The reality is that our public schools will not prevail with the challenges inherent in the standards movement unless they encourage experimentation, inquiry, and dialogue by those pioneers (the teachers) who are working toward meeting those challenges. For this reason, it is imperative that these 21st century pioneers, our classroom teachers, conduct the research on “standards attainment” themselves. So the time is right for action research. The teachers, schools, and school systems that seize this opportunity and begin investing in the power of inquiry will find that they are re-creating the professional practice of education in their locale as a meaningful and rewarding pursuit. Conversely, school systems that enter the 21st century unwilling to invest in the “wisdom of practice” will likely find it increasingly hard to fill their classrooms with enough teachers who are both capable of and willing to tackle the challenges that lie ahead. Copyright © 2000 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved. No part of this publication—including the drawings, graphs, illustrations, or chapters, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles—may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from ASCD. Requesting Permission For photocopy, electronic and online access, and republication requests, go to the Copyright Clearance Center. Enter the book title within the "Get Permission" search field. 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www-bls-gov-8440	----	College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006 : The Economics Daily: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Skip to Content An official website of the United States government Here is how you know United States Department of Labor The .gov means it's official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site. The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Follow Us | Release Calendar | Blog Search button Search: Menu Search button Search: Home About BLS » History Our Leadership Budget and Performance Questions and Answers A-Z Index Glossary Careers at BLS BLS Speakers Available Errata Contact BLS Overview of BLS Statistics » Demographics Industries Business Costs Occupations Geography Resources For » Business Leaders Consumers Developers Economists Investors Jobseekers Media Public Policymakers Researcher Students & Teachers Survey Respondents Subjects Inflation & Prices » Consumer Price Index Producer Price Indexes Import/Export Price Indexes Contract Escalation Price Index Research Pay & Benefits » Employment Costs National Compensation Data Wage Data by Area & Occupation Earnings by Demographics Earnings by Industry County Wages Benefits Compensation Research Strikes & Lockouts Spending & Time Use » Consumer Expenditures How Americans Spend Time Unemployment » National Unemployment Rate State & Local Unemployment Rates Unemployment Research Employment » National Employment State & Local Employment County Employment Worker Characteristics Employment Projections Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey COVID-19 Business Response Employment by Occupation Work Experience Over Time Business Employment Dynamics Foreign Direct Investment Employment Research Workplace Injuries » Occupational Requirements » Productivity » Labor Productivity & Costs Multifactor Productivity Productivity Research International » International Technical Cooperation Import/Export Price Indexes Geographic Information » New England (Boston) New York-New Jersey (NY City) Mid-Atlantic (Philadelphia) Southeast (Atlanta) Midwest (Chicago) Southwest (Dallas) Mountain-Plains (Kansas City) West (San Francisco) Data Tools Data Retrieval Tools » BLS Popular Series Series Report Top Picks, One Screen, Multi-Screen, Maps, and Calculators Data Finder Public Data API Customized Tables » U.S. Economy at a Glance Regions, States & Areas at a Glance Industry at a Glance Text Files News Release Tables More Sources of Data » Restricted Data Access Discontinued Databases Questions & Answers Special Notices Publications Latest Publications » The Economics Daily Monthly Labor Review Beyond the Numbers Spotlight on Statistics Reports Commissioner's Corner Videos Career Outlook Occupational Outlook Handbook Geographic Profile Handbook of Methods Research Papers Copyright Information Contact & Help Weekly Update Economic Releases Latest Releases » Major Economic Indicators » Schedules for news Releases » By Month By News Release Current Year Prior Years Archived News Releases » Employment & Unemployment » Monthly Quarterly, annual, and other Inflation & Prices » Pay & Benefits & Workplace Injuries » Productivity & Technology » Employment Projections » Regional News Releases » Classroom K-12 Student & Teacher Resources » Games & Quizzes Student´s Desk Teacher´s Desk History of BLS Questions & Answers Beta COVID-19 Economic Trends » Redesigned News Releases » Industry Productivity Viewer » Comparing Pay Measures » FONT SIZE: PRINT: TED HOME TOPICS ARCHIVE BY YEAR ARCHIVE BY PROGRAM ABOUT TED SUBSCRIBE College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006 August 30, 2016 Back to school season is here! Whether your kids are off to nursery school, college, or a private elementary or high school, paying for tuition, housing, textbooks, and other school-related expenses may pose a challenge to the family budget. From January 2006 to July 2016, the Consumer Price Index for college tuition and fees increased 63 percent, compared with an increase of 21 percent for all items. Over that period, consumer prices for college textbooks increased 88 percent and housing at school (excluding board) increased 51 percent. Chart Image Chart Data Consumer price indexes for tuition and school-related items, not seasonally adjusted, January 2006–July 2016 (January 2006 = 100) Month All items College tuition and fees Elementary and high school tuition and fees Child care and nursery school Technical and business school tuition and fees Housing at school, excluding board College textbooks Jan 2006 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Feb 2006 100.2 100.0 100.0 99.9 100.0 100.0 100.8 Mar 2006 100.8 100.0 100.1 99.9 100.1 99.9 101.0 Apr 2006 101.6 100.1 100.3 100.0 100.2 99.9 101.0 May 2006 102.1 100.3 100.5 100.0 101.1 100.6 101.5 Jun 2006 102.3 100.6 101.2 100.4 101.5 100.8 102.1 Jul 2006 102.6 101.3 101.8 100.8 102.1 101.1 102.0 Aug 2006 102.8 104.2 104.7 101.6 102.9 103.0 103.2 Sep 2006 102.3 106.2 105.9 103.6 103.2 104.7 104.0 Oct 2006 101.8 106.5 105.9 103.9 103.2 105.0 105.1 Nov 2006 101.6 106.8 105.8 103.9 103.4 105.0 105.1 Dec 2006 101.8 106.8 105.9 104.1 103.9 105.0 105.4 Jan 2007 102.1 106.6 105.9 104.3 103.1 105.1 107.1 Feb 2007 102.6 106.7 106.1 104.6 103.4 105.2 107.7 Mar 2007 103.6 106.7 106.1 104.6 104.4 105.3 109.3 Apr 2007 104.2 106.6 106.1 104.8 104.1 105.3 109.4 May 2007 104.9 106.8 106.3 104.8 105.1 105.9 109.6 Jun 2007 105.1 106.9 106.7 104.8 105.5 105.9 109.9 Jul 2007 105.0 107.6 107.2 105.3 104.4 106.4 110.6 Aug 2007 104.8 110.4 109.8 105.6 107.2 108.5 113.0 Sep 2007 105.1 112.0 111.1 107.9 107.7 110.2 113.8 Oct 2007 105.4 112.9 111.4 108.0 108.2 110.4 114.2 Nov 2007 106.0 113.3 111.7 108.0 108.5 110.4 114.1 Dec 2007 105.9 113.3 111.7 108.1 109.1 110.4 114.9 Jan 2008 106.4 113.4 111.7 109.0 108.4 110.5 115.9 Feb 2008 106.8 113.3 111.7 109.1 108.3 110.5 116.3 Mar 2008 107.7 113.2 111.9 109.1 108.4 110.5 116.6 Apr 2008 108.3 113.4 112.0 109.1 108.8 110.5 117.1 May 2008 109.2 113.6 112.3 109.2 109.5 110.8 117.5 Jun 2008 110.3 113.7 112.7 109.5 110.7 110.9 117.6 Jul 2008 110.9 114.4 113.3 109.8 111.1 111.3 117.9 Aug 2008 110.5 117.4 116.2 111.0 112.5 113.7 122.0 Sep 2008 110.3 119.5 118.0 112.8 112.9 115.1 123.1 Oct 2008 109.2 119.8 118.3 113.3 112.6 115.5 123.4 Nov 2008 107.1 119.9 118.5 113.3 112.6 115.6 123.0 Dec 2008 106.0 119.9 118.5 113.5 112.8 115.6 123.5 Jan 2009 106.5 120.0 118.5 113.8 112.9 115.9 124.6 Feb 2009 107.0 119.9 118.5 113.9 113.2 116.1 125.0 Mar 2009 107.3 119.8 118.6 114.0 113.5 116.1 125.7 Apr 2009 107.5 119.9 118.7 114.0 113.6 116.2 125.9 May 2009 107.8 120.3 118.8 114.0 115.2 116.2 125.9 Jun 2009 108.8 120.4 119.0 114.2 115.8 116.2 127.1 Jul 2009 108.6 121.1 119.8 114.4 117.0 116.9 128.4 Aug 2009 108.8 125.1 122.2 114.7 117.9 119.7 130.6 Sep 2009 108.9 127.1 123.3 116.0 116.8 121.0 131.7 Oct 2009 109.0 127.5 123.2 116.0 116.8 121.3 131.8 Nov 2009 109.1 127.1 123.2 116.0 116.8 121.4 132.3 Dec 2009 108.9 127.1 123.2 116.1 117.1 121.4 132.6 Jan 2010 109.3 126.9 123.2 116.4 117.0 121.6 133.7 Feb 2010 109.3 126.8 123.3 117.2 117.2 121.6 134.5 Mar 2010 109.7 127.0 123.5 117.4 117.4 121.6 134.5 Apr 2010 109.9 127.2 123.6 117.8 118.0 121.6 134.1 May 2010 110.0 127.3 123.7 117.7 118.3 121.8 134.5 Jun 2010 109.9 127.4 124.0 118.1 119.4 121.9 135.1 Jul 2010 109.9 128.1 125.1 118.3 120.5 122.3 135.1 Aug 2010 110.1 131.5 126.5 118.9 121.1 125.1 135.3 Sep 2010 110.2 132.7 128.1 120.0 121.7 126.2 136.3 Oct 2010 110.3 132.3 128.0 119.8 121.8 126.5 136.7 Nov 2010 110.3 132.4 128.0 119.9 121.8 126.5 136.6 Dec 2010 110.5 132.2 128.0 120.4 121.9 126.5 137.7 Jan 2011 111.1 132.7 128.0 120.7 122.1 126.7 139.9 Feb 2011 111.6 132.8 128.0 120.8 122.1 126.7 139.7 Mar 2011 112.7 132.8 128.2 120.8 122.1 126.8 140.3 Apr 2011 113.4 132.7 128.2 121.0 123.8 126.8 140.4 May 2011 114.0 133.1 128.3 121.1 123.9 126.9 140.6 Jun 2011 113.8 133.0 128.8 121.2 124.7 127.0 140.7 Jul 2011 113.9 134.2 129.9 121.4 126.8 127.5 141.2 Aug 2011 114.2 138.4 131.3 122.0 128.5 130.0 142.7 Sep 2011 114.4 140.0 132.8 122.6 128.4 131.2 145.0 Oct 2011 114.2 139.9 132.8 123.5 128.5 131.4 145.2 Nov 2011 114.1 140.2 132.8 123.0 128.5 131.4 145.6 Dec 2011 113.8 140.2 132.8 123.1 128.7 131.4 145.3 Jan 2012 114.3 140.1 132.8 123.6 128.8 131.4 147.3 Feb 2012 114.8 139.9 132.9 123.7 129.7 131.6 147.6 Mar 2012 115.7 139.9 132.9 123.7 130.0 131.6 148.2 Apr 2012 116.0 139.9 132.9 123.9 130.1 131.6 148.6 May 2012 115.9 140.1 133.0 124.0 130.4 131.8 149.6 Jun 2012 115.7 140.1 133.4 124.0 130.9 131.9 149.7 Jul 2012 115.5 141.4 134.3 124.4 131.0 132.6 152.6 Aug 2012 116.2 144.2 136.1 124.8 131.7 135.2 154.7 Sep 2012 116.7 145.7 137.2 126.1 132.5 136.4 156.2 Oct 2012 116.7 146.0 137.4 126.2 132.6 136.8 156.5 Nov 2012 116.1 145.9 137.4 126.3 132.4 136.9 157.2 Dec 2012 115.8 145.8 137.4 126.4 132.4 136.9 156.8 Jan 2013 116.1 146.4 137.5 127.1 133.6 137.1 159.0 Feb 2013 117.1 146.3 137.5 127.1 133.7 137.1 159.1 Mar 2013 117.4 146.3 137.5 127.2 134.0 137.2 159.7 Apr 2013 117.3 146.3 137.5 127.3 134.1 137.2 159.8 May 2013 117.5 146.3 137.6 127.4 134.2 137.4 160.5 Jun 2013 117.8 146.4 138.1 127.2 134.2 137.5 160.7 Jul 2013 117.8 147.3 139.2 127.5 134.6 137.9 161.6 Aug 2013 117.9 150.2 141.4 127.8 135.4 139.8 161.0 Sep 2013 118.1 151.1 142.6 128.7 135.8 141.0 163.4 Oct 2013 117.8 151.3 142.7 128.8 136.1 141.4 165.0 Nov 2013 117.5 151.5 142.7 129.0 136.2 141.5 165.4 Dec 2013 117.5 151.5 142.7 129.1 136.4 141.5 165.7 Jan 2014 118.0 151.6 142.7 128.9 136.1 141.6 163.4 Feb 2014 118.4 152.0 142.7 129.0 136.0 141.7 164.6 Mar 2014 119.2 152.0 142.7 129.7 136.1 141.8 164.0 Apr 2014 119.6 152.1 142.7 129.7 136.3 141.8 165.4 May 2014 120.0 152.2 143.1 129.9 136.8 141.8 165.9 Jun 2014 120.2 152.5 143.7 130.0 137.0 141.9 165.5 Jul 2014 120.1 153.1 144.9 130.1 137.3 142.3 166.4 Aug 2014 119.9 155.2 146.7 130.9 138.1 143.8 170.0 Sep 2014 120.0 156.2 148.2 132.0 138.2 144.9 171.7 Oct 2014 119.7 156.6 148.2 132.1 138.7 145.3 172.9 Nov 2014 119.1 156.8 148.3 132.2 138.8 145.4 172.8 Dec 2014 118.4 156.7 148.3 132.0 138.8 145.4 174.1 Jan 2015 117.9 157.1 148.3 132.8 138.8 145.5 175.6 Feb 2015 118.4 157.0 148.3 132.9 138.8 145.8 175.0 Mar 2015 119.1 157.1 148.4 134.1 138.8 145.5 175.8 Apr 2015 119.3 157.3 148.4 135.1 138.4 145.5 176.0 May 2015 119.9 157.3 148.9 135.3 138.9 145.5 176.2 Jun 2015 120.3 157.7 149.5 135.6 139.1 145.7 174.7 Jul 2015 120.3 158.4 150.4 135.9 139.5 146.4 175.9 Aug 2015 120.2 160.3 152.0 136.5 139.8 147.6 179.2 Sep 2015 120.0 161.9 153.5 137.6 140.1 149.1 180.4 Oct 2015 119.9 162.2 153.7 137.7 140.2 149.6 181.8 Nov 2015 119.7 162.2 153.9 137.7 140.3 149.7 182.3 Dec 2015 119.3 162.2 153.9 137.3 140.4 149.7 183.4 Jan 2016 119.5 161.9 153.9 137.8 140.9 149.8 183.5 Feb 2016 119.6 162.0 154.0 138.1 140.9 149.9 182.1 Mar 2016 120.1 161.9 154.1 138.3 141.0 149.7 181.5 Apr 2016 120.7 162.1 154.2 138.5 141.1 149.7 184.4 May 2016 121.1 162.2 154.3 138.6 141.1 149.8 184.2 Jun 2016 121.6 162.4 154.5 138.8 141.3 150.2 186.8 Jul 2016 121.4 162.7 155.2 139.2 141.7 150.5 187.5 From January 2006 to July 2016, consumer prices for tuition and fees for private elementary and high schools increased 55 percent. Over that period, consumer prices for childcare and nursery schools increased 39 percent. These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program and are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see “Consumer Price Index — July 2016” (HTML) (PDF). RELATED SUBJECTS Industry Studies Prices SUGGESTED CITATION Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006 on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm (visited November 28, 2020). OF INTEREST Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics Occupational Employment and Wages in Metro and Nonmetro Areas Examines similarities and differences in employment and wages between metro and nonmetro areas. Gulf War Era Veterans in the Labor Force Examines the demographic, employment, and unemployment characteristics of civilians who served in the U.S. military during Gulf War era. Using BLS Data to Match People with Disabilities with Jobs Presents data that can help increase access and opportunity for people with disabilities in the nation’s labor market. How Women and Aging Affect Trends in Labor Force Growth Examines how women’s labor force participation and the aging of the U.S. population affect trends in labor force growth. Recommend this page using: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Home Subjects Data Tools Publications Economic Releases Students Beta U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Postal Square Building 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington, DC 20212-0001 Telephone: 1-202-691-5200 Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339 www.bls.gov Contact Us resources Inspector General (OIG) Budget and Performance No Fear Act USA.gov about this site Sitemap Freedom of Information Act Privacy & Security Statement Disclaimers Linking & Copyright Info Important Website Notices Help & Tutorials Connect With BLS Twitter Youtube Email 
www-bustle-com-8029	----	How To Beat Impostor Syndrome, Because You Deserve To Feel Unapologetic About Your Success MENU Life Beat Imposter Syndrome With These 5 Hacks, Because Success Looks Good On You Mauro Grigollo/Stocksy By Aimée Grant Cumberbatch July 15, 2018 Have you ever felt like a fraud? Unless you're making like Mike Ross in Suits and pretending to be a Harvard-educator lawyer at a fancy firm, chances are you're not. But many people still feel like one, in a phenomenon called imposter syndrome. So what is it and how do you beat imposter syndrome? If you feel like you haven't earned your achievements, that you don't belong in your work place, and that you're seconds away from being rumbled at all times, you're most likely experiencing this phenomenon. The term was coined by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978, to describe low expectations of success or a feeling of intellectual fraudulence and it's a real problem. Impostor syndrome is the little voice in your head that sounds strangely like the meanest mean girl at school, whispering that you're not capable enough, that they could have hired someone better, and that all your colleagues are complaining about you when you're making a cup of tea in the kitchen. It's that niggling sense of dread that has you reading and rereading emails "just in case," or staying up till silly o'clock preparing for a presentation that you're more than qualified to give. But impostor syndrome isn't just a uncomfortable, it can be paralysing. When you doubt your abilities, it's easy to imagine how that might put you off applying for a job or asking for a promotion. And it can stop you in your tracks in small ways too, it might deter you from speaking up in a meeting, because you're worried about sounding stupid, or pointing out an error to your manager because surely you're the one who's got it wrong? If this all sounds rather familiar, you're not alone. As reported by The Independent, a study by career agency Amazing If found that almost a third of millennials in the UK struggle with impostor syndrome. If you're one of that number, then don't fear and don't doubt, you're almost certainly more deserving of your successes than you think, and there a lots of small ways I've found useful to help boost my confidence. 1 Dwell On Praise Giphy If you're the kind of person who is regularly kept up at night remembering that time you said "you too" when the waitress asked said "enjoy your meal", then it might help to counter your inner critic by giving your successes as much airtime as you give your so-called failures. If you ever find yourself keeping your achievements to yourself out of fear of sounding boasty, then don't. If you would tell your friends, family or partner about you messing up at work, then tell them about the time you saved the day too. By giving too much attention to things that don't work out, you can fool yourself into thinking you're doing a much worse job than you really are. Making sure you shout your successes from the rooftops (or at least in the group chat) should help redress the balance. 2 Know You're In Good Company Giphy We already know that plenty of people experience from impostor syndrome, but what if I told you some seriously successful people have been plagued by self-doubt too? Meryl Streep, who has been nominated for more Oscars than any other actor, once said: “You think, 'Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie?' And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?” World famous poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou once wrote: “Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody.” Lawyer and former first lady Michelle Obama once admitted she used to worry: “Am I too loud? Too much? Dreaming too big?” The moral of the story is: don't let your doubts stand in the way of your dreams, unleash your inner Meryl, Maya, and Michelle, and take over the world. 3 Don't Think, Do Giphy When something goes wrong — you mess up at work, you don't get the result you were expecting, or you get an application rejected — it can kick off a spiral of self-doubt that's like quicksand. It can be stifling and near impossible to escape once you're up to your neck in it. So the next time you feel uncertainty start to swirl, take immediate action. It could be ticking off three small things on your to-do list, writing a few reminders of all the things you have achieved that day (could be as simple as washing your hair), or throwing yourself headfirst into the next application. Just don't follow the doubts down quicksand cul-de-sac. 4 Reread Your CV Giphy If impostor syndrome causes you to doubt your credentials then give yourself regular reminders of what they are. While reading your CV might sound a little cringe, it's most likely the best record of your achievements you have. Scanning over proof of your previous successes and professional competency, will remind you of what you're capable of - i.e. a lot. 5 Answer Back Giphy When that critical voice in your brain starts up again, don't let it go unchallenged. Notice when you're hardest on yourself, is there something in particular that triggers your self doubt? And importantly, argue back. If the voice is telling you you aren't good enough, hit it with a firm "Well actually I did [list of achievements] today, so take that". You'll soon find that not only does the voice get quieter and quieter, you'll feel more assured of your abilities, because you were reminding yourself of them the whole time. So now the next time you hear that little voice, get that niggly feeling or see that big wave of doubt coming towards you, remember you got yourself to where you are now. Luck didn't do that, help didn't do that. Your talent, your skills, your hard work, your dedication. And those same attributes will help you move even more mountains, all you've got to do is let them. SEARCHCLOSE Entertainment See AllTV & MoviesBooksCelebrityMusicStreaming Style See AllFashionBeautyCelebrity Style Wellness See AllHealthSex & RelationshipsSelf Life See AllAstrologyTechFoodTravel Rule Breakers Holiday Choose an edition: US/UK AboutArchiveDMCAAdvertiseTermsPrivacyMastheadEditorial Standards 2020 Bustle Digital Group. All rights reserved. 
www-cdc-gov-4432	----	Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach | CDC Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC twenty four seven. Saving Lives, Protecting People Search Submit For a full list of topics: A-Z Index Advanced Search Advanced Search Center for Preparedness and Response Section Navigation CDC Home Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach Related Pages Download Infographic PDF pdf icon[PDF – 600 KB] 6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach The CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), in collaboration with SAMHSA’s National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), developed and led a new training for OPHPR employees about the role of trauma-informed care during public health emergencies. The training aimed to increase responder awareness of the impact that trauma can have in the communities where they work. Participants learned SAMHSA’s six principles that guide a trauma-informed approach, including: Safety Trustworthiness & transparency Peer support Collaboration & mutuality Empowerment & choice Cultural, historical & gender issues Adopting a trauma-informed approach is not accomplished through any single particular technique or checklist. It requires constant attention, caring awareness, sensitivity, and possibly a cultural change at an organizational level. On-going internal organizational assessment and quality improvement, as well as engagement with community stakeholders, will help to imbed this approach which can be augmented with organizational development and practice improvement. The training provided by OPHPR and NCTIC was the first step for CDC to view emergency preparedness and response through a trauma-informed lens. Page last reviewed: September 17, 2020, 11:20 AM Content source: Center for Preparedness and Response homeCenter for Preparedness and Response plus icon What We Doplus icon Emergency Operations State and Local Readiness (PHEP) Safeguarding Research Why it Matters Who We Areplus icon Our Leadership Our Organization Our Divisions Our Funding Our Research Board of Scientific Counselors Emergency Preparedness Funding Prepare Your Health Emergency Operationsplus icon CDC’s EOC How It Works CDC Support Emergency Management Fellowship Stories and Blogs Situation Awareness State and Local Readiness U.S. National Authority for Containment of Poliovirus Select Agents and Toxinsplus icon About Us Federal Select Agent Programplus icon What is a Select Agent? Regulation of Select Agents and Toxins Enforcement of Regulations Import Permit Program Stories and Blogs Reports and Fact Sheets Program Reviews and Progress Updatesplus icon CDC 90-Day Internal Review Progress Towards Change Science and Public Health Practice plus icon Our Research Current Research Prior Research Research Funding Opportunity Board of Scientific Counselorsplus icon Member Roster Member Profiles Meeting Schedule Meeting Minutes Reports Policy & Partnershipsplus icon About Successful Partnerships Stay Connectedplus icon Become a Partner Partner Tools and Resources Communication Resourcesplus icon Blog Infographics Social Media Graphics Videos Campaignsplus icon Preparedness Month Ready Wrigley!plus icon Books Checklist Zombie Preparednessplus icon Zombie Graphic Novel Resources & Publications Trainingplus icon Whole Community Program Meta-Leadership Summit for Preparedness Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers Get Email Updates To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address What's this? Submit HAVE QUESTIONS? Visit CDC-INFO Call 800-232-4636 Email CDC-INFO Open 24/7 CDC INFORMATION About CDC Jobs Funding Policies File Viewers & Players Privacy FOIA No Fear Act OIG Nondiscrimination Accessibility CONNECT WITH CDC Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Snapchat Youtube Syndicate CDC TV RSS Email U.S. Department of Health & Human Services USA.gov CDC Website Exit Disclaimer external icon Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Exit Notification/Disclaimer Policy Close Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website. You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website. For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers. Cancel Continue 
www-cdc-gov-7648	----	Summary and Special Reports |Violence Prevention|Injury Center|CDC Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC twenty four seven. Saving Lives, Protecting People Search Submit For a full list of topics: A-Z Index Advanced Search Advanced Search Violence Prevention Section Navigation CDC Home Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate Summary and Special Reports Related Pages On This Page Summary Reports Special Reports Summary reports from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey present data on the national prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence (SV), and stalking among women and men in the United States. The ongoing NISVS survey provides data that will be used to track IPV, SV, and stalking trends over time. Summary Reports National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2015 Data Brief This brief report presents the highlights from the 2015 data year of NISVS. Data tables are presented at the end of the report. Full Report pdf icon[1 MB, 32 Pages, 508] | HTML National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey— State Report Published in 2017, this report uses the NISVS data from 2010-2012 to produce national and state victimization estimates for intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking. Infographic pdf icon[1.89 MB, 1 Page, 508] Full Report pdf icon[4.33 MB, 272 Pages, 508] Factsheet pdf icon[160 KB, 2 Pages, 508] Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization— National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011 Published in 2014, this report describes the most recent data on the public health burden of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization and the characteristics of victimization. Data in this report summarizes the second year of data collection from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Full Report pdf icon[710 KB, 24 Pages, 508] National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey—2010 Summary Report Published in 2011, the NISVS 2010 Summary Report presents data on the national prevalence of IPV, SV, and stalking among women and men in the United States. The 2010 survey is the first year of the survey and provides baseline data that will be used to track IPV, SV, and stalking trends. Executive Summary: English pdf icon[749 KB, 8 Pages, 508] Executive Summary: Spanish pdf icon[741 KB, 8 Pages, 508] Full Report pdf icon[4.2 MB, 124 Pages, 508] Order hard copies Special Reports Special reports provide additional methodological information or in-depth analyses on a specific topic set to help readers understand and interpret provisional NISVS data. The Impact of Intimate Partner Violence: A 2015 NISVS Research-in-Brief Full Report pdf icon[1.16 MB, 20 Pages, 508] The findings in this report offer information about specific intimate partner violence related impacts, describing the wide range of experiences associated with victimization. 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation Full Report pdf icon[1.72 MB, 48 Pages, 508] Fact Sheet on Victimization by Sexual Orientation pdf icon[968 KB, 2 Pages, 508] The Sexual Orientation Report highlights the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence (SV), and stalking by sexual orientation for women and men in the United States, using 2010 NISVS data. 2010 Report on Intimate Partner Violence Full Report pdf icon[1.78 MB, 96 pages, 508] Fact Sheet on Intimate Partner Violence pdf icon[344 KB, 2 Pages, 508] The Intimate Partner Violence in the United States–2010 report presents detailed information from the NISVS pertaining to the public health burden of IPV in the United States, including an in-depth look at the scope of IPV and its far-ranging consequences. National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) Data Access The 2010 NISVS data are available at no cost. This information is archived in the National Archive of Criminal Justice at ICPSRexternal icon. On that site, you will find the 2010 codebook, survey instrument, and documentation regarding the data. The raw data are in a restricted access database, which have specific requirements for obtaining them. Learn more about these data and obtain information about the application process on the Access Notes page.external icon Page last reviewed: June 1, 2020 Content source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention homeViolence Prevention A Public Health Issueplus icon Strategic Vision Connecting the dots Timeline Public Health Approach The Social-Ecological Model Funded Programs and Initiativesplus icon The Cardiff Violence Prevention Modelplus icon Toolkit What Is the Cardiff Model? 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www-cdc-gov-5699	----	Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014 Surveillance Summaries / Vol. 67 / No. 6 April 27, 2018 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014 hxv5 Sticky Note Unmarked set by hxv5 hxv5 Text Box Please note: Errata have been published for this issue. To view the errata, please click here and here. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6719a8.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w Surveillance Summaries The MMWR series of publications is published by the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA 30329-4027. Suggested citation: [Author names; first three, then et al., if more than six.] [Title]. MMWR Surveill Summ 2018;67(No. SS-#):[inclusive page numbers]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert R. Redfield, MD, Director Anne Schuchat, MD, Principal Deputy Director Leslie Dauphin, PhD, Acting Associate Director for Science Joanne Cono, MD, ScM, Director, Office of Science Quality Chesley L. Richards, MD, MPH, Deputy Director for Public Health Scientific Services Michael F. Iademarco, MD, MPH, Director, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services MMWR Editorial and Production Staff (Serials) Charlotte K. Kent, PhD, MPH, Acting Editor in Chief, Executive Editor Christine G. Casey, MD, Editor Mary Dott, MD, MPH, Online Editor Teresa F. Rutledge, Managing Editor David C. Johnson, Lead Technical Writer-Editor Jeffrey D. Sokolow, MA, Project Editor Martha F. Boyd, Lead Visual Information Specialist Maureen A. Leahy, Julia C. Martinroe, Stephen R. Spriggs, Tong Yang, Visual Information Specialists Quang M. Doan, MBA, Phyllis H. King, Paul D. Maitland, Terraye M. Starr, Moua Yang, Information Technology Specialists MMWR Editorial Board Timothy F. Jones, MD, Chairman Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH Virginia A. Caine, MD Katherine Lyon Daniel, PhD Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, MBA David W. Fleming, MD William E. Halperin, MD, DrPH, MPH King K. Holmes, MD, PhD Robin Ikeda, MD, MPH Rima F. Khabbaz, MD Phyllis Meadows, PhD, MSN, RN Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH, MPA Jeff Niederdeppe, PhD Patricia Quinlisk, MD, MPH Patrick L. Remington, MD, MPH Carlos Roig, MS, MA William L. Roper, MD, MPH William Schaffner, MD CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................2 Methods ....................................................................................................................4 Results .......................................................................................................................9 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 12 Limitations ............................................................................................................ 15 Future Surveillance Directions....................................................................... 15 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 15 References ............................................................................................................. 16 Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 1US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014 Corresponding author: Jon Baio, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC. Telephone: 404-498-3873; E-mail: jbaio@cdc.gov. Abstract Problem/Condition: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Period Covered: 2014. Description of System: The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is an active surveillance system that provides estimates of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children aged 8 years whose parents or guardians reside within 11 ADDM sites in the United States (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin). ADDM surveillance is conducted in two phases. The first phase involves review and abstraction of comprehensive evaluations that were completed by professional service providers in the community. Staff completing record review and abstraction receive extensive training and supervision and are evaluated according to strict reliability standards to certify effective initial training, identify ongoing training needs, and ensure adherence to the prescribed methodology. Record review and abstraction occurs in a variety of data sources ranging from general pediatric health clinics to specialized programs serving children with developmental disabilities. In addition, most of the ADDM sites also review records for children who have received special education services in public schools. In the second phase of the study, all abstracted information is reviewed systematically by experienced clinicians to determine ASD case status. A child is considered to meet the surveillance case definition for ASD if he or she displays behaviors, as described on one or more comprehensive evaluations completed by community-based professional providers, consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder; pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS, including atypical autism); or Asperger disorder. This report provides updated ASD prevalence estimates for children aged 8 years during the 2014 surveillance year, on the basis of DSM-IV-TR criteria, and describes characteristics of the population of children with ASD. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), which made considerable changes to ASD diagnostic criteria. The change in ASD diagnostic criteria might influence ADDM ASD prevalence estimates; therefore, most (85%) of the records used to determine prevalence estimates based on DSM-IV-TR criteria underwent additional review under a newly operationalized surveillance case definition for ASD consistent with the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. Children meeting this new surveillance case definition could qualify on the basis of one or both of the following criteria, as documented in abstracted comprehensive evaluations: 1) behaviors consistent with the DSM-5 diagnostic features; and/or 2) an ASD diagnosis, whether based on DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. Stratified comparisons of the number of children meeting either of these two case definitions also are reported. Jon Baio, EdS1; Lisa Wiggins, PhD1; Deborah L. Christensen, PhD1; Matthew J Maenner, PhD1, Julie Daniels, PhD2; Zachary Warren, PhD3; Margaret Kurzius-Spencer, PhD4; Walter Zahorodny, PhD5; Cordelia Robinson Rosenberg, PhD6; Tiffany White, PhD7; Maureen S. Durkin, PhD8; Pamela Imm, MS8; Loizos Nikolaou, MPH1,9; Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD1; Li-Ching Lee, PhD10; Rebecca Harrington, PhD10; Maya Lopez, MD11; Robert T. Fitzgerald, PhD12; Amy Hewitt, PhD13; Sydney Pettygrove, PhD4; John N. Constantino, MD12; Alison Vehorn, MS3; Josephine Shenouda, MS5; Jennifer Hall-Lande, PhD13; Kim Van Naarden Braun, PhD1; Nicole F. Dowling, PhD1 1National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC; 2University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; 3Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; 4University of Arizona, Tucson; 5Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; 6University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus; 7Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver; 8University of Wisconsin, Madison; 9Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; 10Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; 11University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock; 12Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; 13University of Minnesota, Minneapolis mailto:jbaio@cdc.gov Surveillance Summaries 2 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability defined by diagnostic criteria that include deficits in social communication and social interaction, and the presence of restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities that can persist throughout life (1). CDC began tracking the prevalence of ASD and characteristics of children with ASD in the United States in 1998 (2,3). The first CDC study, which was based on an investigation in Brick Township, New Jersey (2), identified similar characteristics but higher prevalence of ASD compared with other studies of that era. The second CDC study, which was conducted in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia (3), identified a lower prevalence of ASD compared with the Brick Township study but similar estimates compared with other prevalence studies of that era. In 2000, CDC established the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network to collect data that would provide estimates of the prevalence of ASD and other developmental disabilities in the United States (4,5). Tracking the prevalence of ASD poses unique challenges because of the heterogeneity in symptom presentation, lack of biologic diagnostic markers, and changing diagnostic criteria (5). Initial signs and symptoms typically are apparent in the early developmental period; however, social deficits and behavioral patterns might not be recognized as symptoms of ASD until a child is unable to meet social, educational, occupational, or other important life stage demands (1). Features of ASD might overlap with or be difficult to distinguish from those of other psychiatric disorders, as described extensively in DSM-5 Results: For 2014, the overall prevalence of ASD among the 11 ADDM sites was 16.8 per 1,000 (one in 59) children aged 8 years. Overall ASD prevalence estimates varied among sites, from 13.1–29.3 per 1,000 children aged 8 years. ASD prevalence estimates also varied by sex and race/ethnicity. Males were four times more likely than females to be identified with ASD. Prevalence estimates were higher for non-Hispanic white (henceforth, white) children compared with non-Hispanic black (henceforth, black) children, and both groups were more likely to be identified with ASD compared with Hispanic children. Among the nine sites with sufficient data on intellectual ability, 31% of children with ASD were classified in the range of intellectual disability (intelligence quotient [IQ] <70), 25% were in the borderline range (IQ 71–85), and 44% had IQ scores in the average to above average range (i.e., IQ >85). The distribution of intellectual ability varied by sex and race/ethnicity. Although mention of developmental concerns by age 36 months was documented for 85% of children with ASD, only 42% had a comprehensive evaluation on record by age 36 months. The median age of earliest known ASD diagnosis was 52 months and did not differ significantly by sex or race/ethnicity. For the targeted comparison of DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 results, the number and characteristics of children meeting the newly operationalized DSM-5 case definition for ASD were similar to those meeting the DSM-IV-TR case definition, with DSM-IV-TR case counts exceeding DSM-5 counts by less than 5% and approximately 86% overlap between the two case definitions (kappa = 0.85). Interpretation: Findings from the ADDM Network, on the basis of 2014 data reported from 11 sites, provide updated population- based estimates of the prevalence of ASD among children aged 8 years in multiple communities in the United States. The overall ASD prevalence estimate of 16.8 per 1,000 children aged 8 years in 2014 is higher than previously reported estimates from the ADDM Network. Because the ADDM sites do not provide a representative sample of the entire United States, the combined prevalence estimates presented in this report cannot be generalized to all children aged 8 years in the United States. Consistent with reports from previous ADDM surveillance years, findings from 2014 were marked by variation in ASD prevalence when stratified by geographic area, sex, and level of intellectual ability. Differences in prevalence estimates between black and white children have diminished in most sites, but remained notable for Hispanic children. For 2014, results from application of the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 case definitions were similar, overall and when stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, DSM-IV-TR diagnostic subtype, or level of intellectual ability. Public Health Action: Beginning with surveillance year 2016, the DSM-5 case definition will serve as the basis for ADDM estimates of ASD prevalence in future surveillance reports. Although the DSM-IV-TR case definition will eventually be phased out, it will be applied in a limited geographic area to offer additional data for comparison. Future analyses will examine trends in the continued use of DSM-IV-TR diagnoses, such as autistic disorder, PDD-NOS, and Asperger disorder in health and education records, documentation of symptoms consistent with DSM-5 terminology, and how these trends might influence estimates of ASD prevalence over time. The latest findings from the ADDM Network provide evidence that the prevalence of ASD is higher than previously reported estimates and continues to vary among certain racial/ethnic groups and communities. With prevalence of ASD ranging from 13.1 to 29.3 per 1,000 children aged 8 years in different communities throughout the United States, the need for behavioral, educational, residential, and occupational services remains high, as does the need for increased research on both genetic and nongenetic risk factors for ASD. Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 3US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1). Although standard diagnostic tools have been validated to inform clinicians’ impressions of ASD symptomology, inherent complexity of measurement approaches and variation in clinical impressions and decision-making, combined with policy changes that affect eligibility for health benefits and educational programs, complicates identification of ASD as a behavioral health diagnosis or educational exceptionality. To reduce the influence of these factors on prevalence estimates, the ADDM Network has consistently tracked ASD by applying a surveillance case definition of ASD and using the same record-review methodology and behaviorally defined case inclusion criteria since 2000 (5). ADDM estimates of ASD prevalence among children aged 8 years in multiple U.S. communities have increased from approximately one in 150 children during 2000–2002 to one in 68 during 2010–2012, more than doubling during this period (6–11). The observed increase in ASD prevalence underscores the need for continued surveillance using consistent methods to monitor the changing prevalence of ASD and characteristics of children with ASD in the population. In addition to serving as a basis for ASD prevalence estimates, ADDM data have been used to describe characteristics of children with ASD in the population, to study how these characteristics vary with ASD prevalence estimates over time and among communities, and to monitor progress toward Healthy People 2020 objectives (12). ADDM ASD prevalence estimates consistently estimated a ratio of approximately 4.5 male:1 female with ASD during 2006–2012 (9–11). Other characteristics that have remained relatively constant over time in the population of children identified with ASD by ADDM include the median age of earliest known ASD diagnosis, which remained close to 53 months during 2000–2012 (range: 50 months [2012] to 56 months [2002]), and the proportion of children receiving a comprehensive developmental evaluation by age 3 years, which remained close to 43% during 2006–2012 (range: 43% [2006 and 2012] to 46% [2008]). ASD prevalence by race/ethnicity has been more varied over time among ADDM Network communities (9–11). Although ASD prevalence estimates have historically been greater among white children compared with black or Hispanic children (13), ADDM-reported white:black and white:Hispanic prevalence ratios have declined over time because of larger increases in ASD prevalence among black children and, to an even greater extent, among Hispanic children, as compared with the magnitude of increase in ASD prevalence among white children (9). Previous reports from the ADDM Network estimated ASD prevalence among white children to exceed that among black children by approximately 30% in 2002, 2006, and 2010, and by approximately 20% in 2008 and 2012. Estimated prevalence among white children exceeded that among Hispanic children by nearly 70% in 2002 and 2006, and by approximately 50% in 2008, 2010, and 2012. ASD prevalence estimates from the ADDM Network also have varied by socioeconomic status (SES). A consistent pattern observed in ADDM data has been higher identified ASD prevalence among residents of neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic status (SES). Although ASD prevalence has increased over time at all levels of SES, the absolute difference in prevalence between high, middle, and lower SES did not change from 2002 to 2010 (14,15). In the context of declining white:black and white:Hispanic prevalence ratios amidst consistent SES patterns, a complex three-way interaction among time, SES, and race/ethnicity has been proposed (16). Finally, ADDM Network data have shown a shift toward children with ASD with higher intellectual ability (9–11), as the proportion of children with ASD whose intelligence quotient (IQ) scores fell within the range of intellectual disability (ID) (i.e., IQ <70) has decreased gradually over time. During 2000–2002, approximately half of children with ASD had IQ scores in the range of ID; during 2006–2008, this proportion was closer to 40%; and during 2010–2012, less than one third of children with ASD had IQ ≤70 (9–11). This trend was more pronounced for females as compared with males (9). The proportion of males with ASD and ID declined from approximately 40% during 2000–2008 (9) to 30% during 2010–2012 (10,11). The proportion of females with ASD and ID declined from approximately 60% during 2000–2002, to 45% during 2006–2008, and to 35% during 2010–2012 (9–11). All previously reported ASD prevalence estimates from the ADDM Network were based on a surveillance case definition aligned with DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder; pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS, including atypical autism); or Asperger disorder. In the American Psychiatric Association’s 2013 publication of DSM-5, substantial changes were made to the taxonomy and diagnostic criteria for autism (1,17). Taxonomy changed from Pervasive Developmental Disorders, which included multiple diagnostic subtypes, to autism spectrum disorder, which no longer comprises distinct subtypes but represents one singular diagnostic category defined by level of support needed by the individual. Diagnostic criteria were refined by collapsing the DSM-IV-TR social and communication domains into a single, combined domain for DSM-5. Persons diagnosed with ASD under DSM-5 must meet all three criteria under the social communication/ interaction domain (i.e., deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors; and deficits in developing, understanding, and maintaining relationships) and hxv5 Highlight hxv5 Text Box Please note: Errata have been published for this issue. To view the errata, please click here and here. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6719a8.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w Surveillance Summaries 4 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at least two of the four criteria under the restrictive/repetitive behavior domain (i.e., repetitive speech or motor movements, insistence on sameness, restricted interests, or unusual response to sensory input). Although the DSM-IV-TR criteria proved useful in identifying ASD in some children, clinical agreement and diagnostic specificity in some subtypes (e.g., PDD-NOS) was poor, offering empirical support to the notion of two, rather than three, diagnostic domains. The DSM-5 introduced a framework to address these concerns (18), while maintaining that any person with an established DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of autistic disorder, Asperger disorder, or PDD-NOS would automatically qualify for a DSM-5 diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Previous studies suggest that DSM-5 criteria for ASD might exclude certain children who would have qualified for a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis but had not yet received one, particularly those who are very young and those without ID (19–23). These findings suggest that ASD prevalence estimates will likely be lower under DSM-5 than they have been under DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria. This report provides the latest available ASD prevalence estimates from the ADDM Network based on both DSM- IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria and asserts the need for future monitoring of ASD prevalence trends and efforts to improve early identification of ASD. The intended audiences for these findings include pediatric health care providers, school psychologists, educators, researchers, policymakers, and program administrators working to understand and address the needs of persons with ASD and their families. These data can be used to help plan services, guide research into risk factors and effective interventions, and inform policies that promote improved outcomes in health and education settings. Methods Study Sites The Children’s Health Act (4) authorized CDC to monitor prevalence of ASD in multiple areas of the United States, a charge that led to the formation of the ADDM Network in 2000. Since that time, CDC has funded grantees in 16 states (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin). CDC tracks ASD in metropolitan Atlanta and represents the Georgia site collaborating with competitively funded sites to form the ADDM Network. The ADDM Network uses multisite, multisource, records- based surveillance based on a model originally implemented by CDC’s Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program (MADDSP) (24). As feasible, the surveillance methods have remained consistent over time. Certain minor changes have been introduced to improve efficiency and data quality. Although a different array of geographic areas was covered in each of the eight biennial ADDM Network surveillance years spanning 2000–2014, these changes have been documented to facilitate evaluation of their impact. The core surveillance activities in all ADDM Network sites focus on children aged 8 years because the baseline ASD prevalence study conducted by MADDSP suggested that this is the age of peak prevalence (3). ADDM has multiple goals: 1) to provide descriptive data on classification and functioning of the population of children with ASD, 2) to monitor the prevalence of ASD in different areas of the United States, and 3) to understand the impact of ASD in U.S. communities. Funding for ADDM Network sites participating in the 2014 surveillance year was awarded for a 4-year cycle covering 2015–2018, during which time data were collected for children aged 8 years during 2014 and 2016. Sites were selected through a competitive objective review process on the basis of their ability to conduct active, records-based surveillance of ASD; they were not selected to be a nationally representative sample. A total of 11 sites are included in the current report (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin). Each ADDM site participating in the 2014 surveillance year functioned as a public health authority under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy Rule and met applicable local Institutional Review Board and privacy and confidentiality requirements under 45 CFR 46 (25). Case Ascertainment ADDM is an active surveillance system that does not depend on family or practitioner reporting of an existing ASD diagnosis or classification to determine ASD case status. ADDM staff conduct surveillance to determine case status in a two-phase process. The first phase of ADDM involves review and abstraction of children’s evaluation records from data sources in the community. In the second phase, all abstracted evaluations for each child are compiled in chronological order into a comprehensive record that is reviewed by one or more experienced clinicians to determine the child’s ASD case status. Developmental assessments completed by a wide range of health and education providers are reviewed. Data sources are categorized as either 1) education source type, including evaluations to determine eligibility for special education services or 2) health source type, including diagnostic and developmental assessments from psychologists, neurologists, Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 5US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developmental pediatricians, child psychiatrists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech/language pathologists. Agreements to access records are made at the institutional level in the form of contracts, memoranda, or other formal agreements. All ADDM Network sites have agreements in place to access records at health sources; however, despite the otherwise standardized approach, not all sites have permission to access education records. One ADDM site (Missouri) has not been granted access to records at any education sources. Among the remaining sites, some receive permission from their statewide Department of Education to access children’s educational records, whereas other sites must negotiate permission from numerous individual school districts to access educational records. Six sites (Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and North Carolina) reviewed education records for all school districts in their covered surveillance areas. Three ADDM sites (Colorado, Tennessee, and Wisconsin) received permission to review education records in only certain school districts within the overall geographic area covered for 2014. In Tennessee, permission to access education records was granted from 13 of 14 school districts in the 11-county surveillance area, representing 88% of the total population of children aged 8 years. Conversely, access to education records was limited to a small proportion of the population in the overall geographic area covered by two sites (33% in Colorado and 26% in Wisconsin). In the Colorado school districts where access to education records is permitted for ADDM, parents are directly notified about the ADDM system and can request that their children’s education records be excluded. The Arkansas ADDM site received permission from their state Department of Education to access children’s educational records statewide; however, time and travel constraints prevented investigators from visiting all 250 school districts in the 75-county surveillance area, resulting in access to education records for 69% of the statewide population of children aged 8 years. The two sites with access to education records throughout most, but not all, of the surveillance area (Arkansas and Tennessee) received data from their state Department of Education to evaluate the potential impact on reported ASD prevalence estimates attributed to missing records. Within each education and health data source, ADDM sites identify records to review based on a child’s year of birth and one or more selected eligibility classifications for special education or International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) billing codes for select childhood disabilities or psychological conditions. Children’s records are first reviewed to confirm year of birth and residency in the surveillance area at some time during the surveillance year. For children meeting these requirements, the records are then reviewed for certain behavioral or diagnostic descriptions defined by ADDM as triggers for abstraction (e.g., child does not initiate interactions with others, prefers to play alone or engage in solitary activities, or has received a documented ASD diagnosis). If abstraction triggers are found, evaluation information from birth through the current surveillance year from all available sources is abstracted into a single composite record for each child. In the second phase of surveillance, the abstracted composite evaluation files are deidentified and reviewed systematically by experienced clinicians who have undergone standardized training to determine ASD case status using a coding scheme based on the DSM-IV-TR guidelines. A child meets the surveillance case definition for ASD if behaviors described in the composite record are consistent with the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for any of the following conditions: autistic disorder, PDD-NOS (including atypical autism), or Asperger disorder (Box 1). A child might be disqualified from meeting the surveillance case definition for ASD if, based on the clinical judgment of one or more reviewers, there is insufficient or conflicting information in support of ASD, sufficient information to rule out ASD, or if one or more other diagnosed conditions better account for the child’s symptoms. Although new diagnostic criteria became available in 2013, the children under surveillance in 2014 would have grown up primarily under the DSM-IV-TR definitions for ASD, which are prioritized in this report. The 2014 surveillance year is the first to operationalize an ASD case definition based on DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, in addition to that based on DSM-IV-TR. Because of delays in developing information technology systems to manage data collected under this new case definition, the surveillance area for DSM-5 was reduced by 19% in an effort to include complete estimates for both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 in this report. Phase 1 record review and abstraction was the same for DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5; however, a coding scheme based on the DSM-5 definition of ASD was developed for Phase 2 of the ADDM methodology (i.e., systematic review by experienced clinicians). The new coding scheme was developed through a collaborative process and includes reliability measures, although no validation metrics have been published for this new ADDM Network DSM-5 case definition. A child could meet the DSM-5 surveillance case definition for ASD under one or both of the following criteria, as documented in abstracted comprehensive evaluations: 1) behaviors consistent with the DSM-5 diagnostic features; and/or 2) an ASD diagnosis, whether based on DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 diagnostic criteria (Box 2). Children with a documented ASD diagnosis were included as meeting the DSM-5 surveillance case definition for two reasons. First, published DSM-5 diagnostic criteria include the presence of a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of autistic Surveillance Summaries 6 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disorder, PDD-NOS, or Asperger disorder, to ensure continuity of diagnoses and services. Second, sensitivity of the DSM-5 surveillance case definition might be increased when counting children diagnosed with ASD by a qualified professional, based on either DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 criteria, whether or not all DSM-5 social and behavioral criteria are documented in abstracted comprehensive evaluations. The ADDM Network methods allow differentiation of those meeting the surveillance case status based on one or both criteria. Consistent with the DSM-IV-TR case definition, a child might be disqualified from meeting the DSM-5 surveillance case definition for ASD if, based on the clinical judgment of one or more reviewers, there is insufficient or conflicting information in support of ASD, sufficient information to rule out ASD, or if one or BOX 1. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) case determination criteria under DSM-IV-TR DSM-IV-TR behavioral criteria Social 1a. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors, such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction 1b. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level 1c. A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest) 1d. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity Communication 2a. Delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication, such as gesture or mime) 2b. In individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others 2c. Stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language 2d. Lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level Restricted behavior/ Interest 3a. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus 3b. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines, or rituals 3c. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole body movements) 3d. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects Developmental history Child had identified delays or any concern with development in the following areas at or before the age of 3 years: Social, Communication, Behavior, Play, Motor, Attention, Adaptive, Cognitive Autism discriminators Oblivious to children Oblivious to adults or others Rarely responds to familiar social approach Language primarily echolalia or jargon Regression/loss of social, language, or play skills Previous ASD diagnosis, whether based on DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 diagnostic criteria Lack of showing, bringing, etc. Little or no interest in others Uses others as tools Repeats extensive dialog Absent or impaired imaginative play Markedly restricted interests Unusual preoccupation Insists on sameness Nonfunctional routines Excessive focus on parts Visual inspection Movement preoccupation Sensory preoccupation DSM-IV-TR case determination At least six behaviors coded with a minimum of two Social, one Communication, and one Restricted Behavior/Interest; AND evidence of developmental delay or concern at or before the age of 3 years OR At least two behaviors coded with a minimum of one Social and either one Communication and/or one Restricted Behavior/Interest; AND at least one autism discriminator coded Note: A child might be disqualified from meeting the DSM-IV-TR surveillance case definition for ASD if, based on the clinical judgment of one or more reviewers, there is insufficient or conflicting information in support of ASD, sufficient information to rule out ASD, or if one or more other diagnosed conditions better account for the child’s symptoms Abbreviation: DSM-IV-TR = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (Text Revision). Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 7US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more other diagnosed conditions better account for the child’s symptoms. In this report, prevalence estimates are based on the DSM-IV-TR case definition, whereas case counts are presented and compared for children meeting the DSM-IV-TR and/or DSM-5 case definitions. Quality Assurance All sites follow the quality assurance standards established by the ADDM Network. In the first phase, the accuracy of record review and abstraction is checked periodically. In the second phase, interrater reliability is monitored on an ongoing basis using a blinded, random 10% sample of abstracted records that are scored independently by two reviewers (5). For 2014, interrater agreement on DSM-IV-TR case status (confirmed ASD versus not ASD) was 89.1% when comparison samples from all sites were combined (k = 0.77), which was slightly below quality assurance standards established for the ADDM Network (90% agreement, 0.80 kappa). On DSM-5 reviews, interrater agreement on case status (confirmed ASD versus not ASD) was 92.3% when comparison samples from all sites were combined (k = 0.84). Thus, for the DSM-5 surveillance definition, reliability exceeded quality assurance standards established for the ADDM Network. Descriptive Characteristics and Data Sources Each ADDM site attempted to obtain birth certificate data for all children abstracted during Phase 1 through linkages conducted using state vital records. These data were only available for children born in the state where the ADDM site is located. The race/ethnicity of each child was determined from information contained in source records or, if not found in the source file, from birth certificate data on one or both parents. Children with race coded as “other” or “multiracial” were considered to be missing race information for all analyses that were stratified by race/ethnicity. For this report, data on timing of the first comprehensive evaluation on record were restricted to children with ASD who were born in the state where the ADDM site is located, as confirmed by linkage to birth certificate records. Data were restricted in this manner to reduce errors in the estimate that were introduced by children for whom evaluation records were incomplete because they were born out of state and migrated into the surveillance area between the time of birth and the year when they reached age 8 years. Information on children’s functional skills is abstracted from source records when available, including scores on tests of adaptive behavior and intellectual ability. Because no standardized, validated measures of functioning specific to ASD have been widely adopted in clinical practice and because adaptive behavior rating scales are not sufficiently available in health and education records of children with ASD, scores of intellectual ability have remained the primary source of information on children’s functional skills. Children are classified as having ID if they have an IQ score of ≤70 on their most recent test available in the record. Borderline intellectual ability is defined as having an IQ score of 71–85, and average or above-average intellectual BOX 2. Autism spectrum disorder case determination criteria under DSM-5 DSM-5 behavioral criteria A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction A1: Deficits in social emotional reciprocity A2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors A3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, currently or by history B1: Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects or speech B2. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior B3. Highly restricted interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus B4. Hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment Historical PDD diagnosis Any ASD diagnosis documented in a comprehensive evaluation, including a DSM-IV diagnosis of autistic disorder, Asperger disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) DSM-5 case determination All three behavioral criteria coded under part A, and at least two behavioral criteria coded under part B OR Any ASD diagnosis documented in a comprehensive evaluation, whether based on DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 diagnostic criteria Note: A child might be disqualified from meeting the DSM-5 surveillance case definition for ASD if, based on the clinical judgment of one or more reviewers, there is insufficient or conflicting information in support of ASD, sufficient information to rule out ASD, or if one or more other diagnosed conditions better account for the child’s symptoms Abbreviation: DSM-5 = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Surveillance Summaries 8 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ability is defined as having an IQ score of >85. In the absence of a specific IQ score, an examiner’s statement based on a formal assessment of the child’s intellectual ability, if available, is used to classify the child in one of these three levels. Diagnostic conclusions from each evaluation record are summarized for each child, including notation of any ASD diagnosis by subtype, when available. Children are considered to have a previously documented ASD classification if they received a diagnosis of autistic disorder, PDD-NOS, Asperger disorder, or ASD that was documented in an abstracted evaluation or by an ICD-9 billing code at any time from birth through the year when they reached age 8 years, or if they were noted as meeting eligibility criteria for special education services under the classification of autism or ASD. Analytic Methods Population denominators for calculating ASD prevalence estimates were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics Vintage 2016 Bridged-Race Postcensal Population Estimates (26). CDC’s National Vital Statistics System provides estimated population counts by state, county, single year of age, race, ethnic origin, and sex. Population denominators for the 2014 surveillance year were compiled from postcensal estimates of the number of children aged 8 years living in the counties under surveillance by each ADDM site (Table 1). In two sites (Arizona and Minnesota), geographic boundaries were defined by constituent school districts included in the surveillance area. The number of children living in outlying school districts was subtracted from the county-level census denominators using school enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (27). Enrollment counts of students in third grade during the 2014–15 school year differed from the CDC bridged-race population estimates, attributable primarily to children being enrolled out of the customary grade for their age or in charter schools, home schools, or private schools. Because these differences varied by race and sex within the applicable counties, race- and sex-specific adjustments based on enrollment counts were applied to the CDC population estimates to derive school district-specific denominators for Arizona and Minnesota. Race- or ethnicity-specific prevalence estimates were calculated for four groups: white, black, Hispanic (regardless of race), and Asian/Pacific Islander. Prevalence results are reported as the total number of children meeting the ASD case definition per 1,000 children aged 8 years in the population in each race/ ethnicity group. ASD prevalence also was estimated separately for boys and girls and within each level of intellectual ability. Overall prevalence estimates include all children identified with ASD regardless of sex, race/ethnicity, or level of intellectual ability and thus are not affected by the availability of data on these characteristics. Statistical tests were selected and confidence intervals (CIs) for prevalence estimates were calculated under the assumption that the observed counts of children identified with ASD were obtained from an underlying Poisson distribution with an asymptotic approximation to the normal. Pearson chi-square tests were performed, and prevalence ratios and percentage differences were calculated to compare prevalence estimates from different strata. Kappa statistics were computed to describe concordance between the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 case definitions, as well as to describe interrater agreement on either case definition for quality assurance. Pearson chi- square tests also were performed for testing significance in comparisons of proportions, and unadjusted odds ratio (OR) estimates were calculated to further describe these comparisons. In an effort to reduce the effect of outliers, distribution medians were typically presented, although one-way ANOVA was used to test significance when comparing arithmetic means of these distributions. Significance was set at p<0.05. Results for all sites combined were based on pooled numerator and denominator data from all sites, in total and stratified by race/ethnicity, sex, and level of intellectual ability. Sensitivity Analysis Methods Certain education and health records were missing for certain children, including records that could not be located for review, those affected by the passive consent process unique to the Colorado site, and those archived and deemed too costly to retrieve. A sensitivity analysis of the effect of these missing records on case ascertainment was conducted. All children initially identified for record review were first stratified by two factors closely associated with final case status: information source (health source type only, education source type only, or both source types) and the presence or absence of either an autism special education eligibility or an ICD-9-CM code for ASD, collectively forming six strata. The potential number of cases not identified because of missing records was estimated under the assumption that within each of the six strata, the proportion of children confirmed as ASD surveillance cases among those with missing records would be similar to the proportion of cases among children with no missing records. Within each stratum, the proportion of children with no missing records who were confirmed as having ASD was applied to the number of children with missing records to estimate the number of missed cases, and the estimates from all six strata were added to calculate the total for each site. This sensitivity analysis was conducted solely to investigate the potential impact of missing records on the presented estimates. The estimates presented in this report do not reflect Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 9US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this adjustment or any of the other assessments of the potential effects of assumptions underlying the approach. All ADDM sites identified records for review from health sources by conducting record searches that were based on a common list of ICD-9 billing codes. Because several sites were conducting surveillance for other developmental disabilities in addition to ASD (i.e., one or more of the following: cerebral palsy, ID, hearing loss, and vision impairment), they reviewed records based on an expanded list of ICD-9 codes. The Colorado site also requested code 781.3 (lack of coordination), which was identified in that community as a commonly used billing code for children with ASD. The proportion of children meeting the ASD surveillance case definition whose records were obtained solely on the basis of those additional codes was calculated to evaluate the potential impact on ASD prevalence. Results A total population of 325,483 children aged 8 years was covered by the 11 ADDM sites that provided data for the 2014 surveillance year (Table 1). This number represented 8% of the total U.S. population of children aged 8 years in 2014 (4,119,668) (19). A total of 53,120 records for 42,644 children were reviewed from health and education sources. Of these, the source records of 10,886 children met the criteria for abstraction, which was 25.5% of the total number of children whose source records were reviewed and 3.3% of the population under surveillance. Of the records reviewed by clinicians, 5,473 children met the ASD surveillance case definition. The number of evaluations abstracted for each child who was ultimately identified with ASD varied by site (median: five; range: three [Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri, and Tennessee] to 10 [Maryland]). Overall ASD Prevalence Estimates Overall ASD prevalence for the ADDM 2014 surveillance year varied widely among sites (range: 13.1 [Arkansas] to 29.3 [New Jersey]) (Table 2). On the basis of combined data from all 11 sites, ASD prevalence was 16.8 per 1,000 (one in 59) children aged 8 years. Overall estimated prevalence of ASD was highest in New Jersey (29.3) compared to each of the other ten sites (p<0.01). Prevalence by Sex and Race/Ethnicity When data from all 11 ADDM sites were combined, ASD prevalence was 26.6 per 1,000 boys and 6.6 per 1,000 girls (prevalence ratio: 4.0). ASD prevalence was significantly (p<0.01) higher among boys than among girls in all 11 ADDM sites (Table 2), with male-to-female prevalence ratios ranging from 3.2 (Arizona) to 4.9 (Georgia). Estimated ASD prevalence also varied by race and ethnicity (Table 3). When data from all sites were combined, the estimated prevalence among white children (17.2 per 1,000) was 7% greater than that among black children (16.0 per 1,000) and 22% greater than that among Hispanic children (14.0 per 1,000). In nine sites, the estimated prevalence of ASD was higher among white children than black children. The white-to-black ASD prevalence ratios were statistically significant in three sites (Arkansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin), and the white-to-Hispanic prevalence ratios were significant in seven sites (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee). In nine sites (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee), the estimated prevalence of ASD was higher among black children than that among Hispanic children. The black-to-Hispanic prevalence ratio was significant in three of these nine sites (Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina). In New Jersey, there was almost no difference in ASD prevalence estimates among white, black, and Hispanic children. Estimates for Asian/Pacific Islander children ranged from 7.9 per 1,000 (Colorado) to 19.2 per 1,000 (New Jersey) with notably wide CIs. Intellectual Ability Data on intellectual ability were reported for nine sites (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Tennessee) having information available for at least 70% of children who met the ASD case definition (range: 70.8% [Tennessee] to 89.2% [North Carolina]). The median age of children’s most recent IQ tests, on which the following results are based, was 73 months (6 years, 1 month). Data from these nine sites yielded accompanying data on intellectual ability for 3,714 (80.3%) of 4,623 children with ASD. This proportion did not differ by sex or race/ethnicity in any of the nine sites or when combining data from all nine sites. Among these 3,714 children, 31% were classified in the range of ID (IQ ≤70), 25% were in the borderline range (IQ 71–85), and 44% had IQ >85. The proportion of children classified in the range of ID ranged from 26.7% in Arizona to 39.4% in Tennessee. Among children identified with ASD, the distribution by intellectual ability varied by sex, with girls more likely than boys to have IQ ≤70, and boys more likely than girls to have IQ >85 (Figure 1). In these nine sites combined, 251 (36.3%) of 691 girls with ASD had IQ scores or examiners’ statements indicating ID compared with 891 (29.5%) of 3,023 males (odds ratio [OR] = 1.4; p<0.01), though among individual sites this proportion differed significantly in only Surveillance Summaries 10 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention one (Georgia, OR = 1.6; p<0.05). The proportion of children with ASD with borderline intellectual ability (IQ 71–85) did not differ by sex, whereas a significantly higher proportion of males (45%) compared with females (40%) had IQ >85 (i.e., average or above average intellectual ability) (OR = 1.2; p<0.05). The distribution of intellectual ability also varied by race/ ethnicity. Approximately 44% of black children with ASD were classified in the range of ID compared with 35% of Hispanic children and 22% of white children (Figure 2). The proportion of blacks and whites with ID differed significantly in all sites except Colorado, and when combining their data (OR = 2.9; p<0.01). The proportion of Hispanics and whites with ID differed significantly when combining data from all nine sites (OR = 1.9; p<0.01), and among individual sites it reached significance (p<0.05) in six of the nine sites, with the three exceptions being Arkansas (OR = 1.8; p = 0.10), North Carolina (OR = 1.8; p = 0.07), and Tennessee (OR = 2.1; p = 0.09). The proportion of children with borderline intellectual ability (IQ = 71–85) did not differ between black and Hispanic children, although a lower proportion of white children (22%) were classified in the range of borderline intellectual ability compared to black (28.4%; OR = 0.7; p<0.01) or Hispanic (28.7%; OR = 0.7; p<0.01) children. When combining data from these nine sites, the proportion of white children (56%) with IQ >85 was significantly higher than the proportion of black (27%, OR = 3.4; p<0.01) or Hispanic (36%, OR = 2.2; p<0.01) children with IQ>85. First Comprehensive Evaluation Among children with ASD who were born in the same state as the ADDM site (n = 4,147 of 5,473 confirmed cases), 42% had a comprehensive evaluation on record by age 36 months (range: 30% [Arkansas] to 66% [North Carolina]) (Table 4). Approximately 39% of these 4,147 children did not have a comprehensive evaluation on record until after age 48 months; however, mention of developmental concerns by age 36 months was documented for 85% (range: 61% [Tennessee] to 94% [Arizona]). Previously Documented ASD Classification Of the 5,473 children meeting the ADDM ASD surveillance case definition, 4,379 (80%) had either eligibility for autism special education services or a DSM-IV-TR, DSM-5, or ICD-9 autism diagnosis documented in their records (range among 11 sites: 58% [Colorado] to 92% [Missouri]). Combining data from all 11 sites, 81% of boys had a previous ASD classification on record, compared with 75% of girls (OR = 1.4; p<0.01). FIGURE 1. Most recent intelligence quotient score as of age 8 years among children with autism spectrum disorder for whom test data were available, by sex and site — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, nine sites,* United States, 2014 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M Pe rc en ta g e ADDM site Arizona Arkansas Colorado Georgia Maryland Minnesota New Jersey North Carolina Tennessee Total Above intellectually disabled range (IQ >70) Within intellectually disabled range (IQ ≤70) Abbreviations: ADDM = Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network; ASD = autism spectrum disorder; F = female; IQ = intelligence quotient; M = male. * Includes nine sites (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Tennessee) that had intellectual ability data available for ≥70% of children who met the ASD case definition (n = 3,714). Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 11US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention When stratified by race/ethnicity, 80% of white children had a previously documented ASD classification, compared with nearly 83% of black children (OR = 0.9; p = 0.09) and 76% of Hispanic children (OR = 1.3; p<0.01); a significant difference was also found when comparing the proportion of black children with a previous ASD classification to that among Hispanic children (OR = 1.5; p<0.01). The median age of earliest known ASD diagnosis documented in children’s records (Table 5) varied by diagnostic subtype (autistic disorder: 46 months; ASD/PDD: 56 months; Asperger disorder: 67 months). Within these subtypes, the median age of earliest known diagnosis did not differ by sex, nor did any difference exist in the proportion of boys and girls who initially received a diagnosis of autistic disorder (48%), ASD/PDD (46%), or Asperger disorder (6%). The median age of earliest known diagnosis and distribution of subtypes did vary by site. The median age of earliest known ASD diagnosis for all subtypes combined was 52 months, ranging from 40 months in North Carolina to 59 months in Arkansas. Special Education Eligibility Sites with access to education records collected information on the most recent eligibility categories under which children received special education services (Table 6). Among children with ASD who were receiving special education services in public schools during 2014, the proportion of children with a primary eligibility category of autism ranged from approximately 37% in Wisconsin to 80% in Tennessee. Most other sites noted approximately 60% to 75% of children with ASD having autism listed as their most recent primary special education eligibility category, the exceptions being Colorado (44%) and New Jersey (48%). Other common special education eligibilities included health or physical disability, speech and language impairment, specific learning disability, and a general developmental delay category that is used until age 9 years in many U.S. states. All ADDM sites reported <10% of children with ASD receiving special education services under a primary eligibility category of ID. Sensitivity Analyses of Missing Records and Expanded ICD-9 Codes A stratified analysis of records that could not be located for review was completed to assess the degree to which missing data might have potentially reduced prevalence estimates as reported by individual ADDM sites. Had all children’s records identified in Phase 1 been located and reviewed, prevalence estimates would potentially have been <1% higher in four sites (Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), between 1% to 5% higher in four sites (Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, and North Carolina), approximately 8% higher in Maryland, and nearly 20% higher in Arkansas and Tennessee, where investigators were able to access education records throughout most, but not all, of the surveillance area and received data from their state Department of Education to evaluate the potential impact on reported ASD prevalence estimates attributed to missing records. The impact on prevalence estimates of reviewing records based on an expanded list of ICD-9 codes varied from site to site. Colorado, Georgia, and Missouri were the only three sites that identified more than 1% of ASD surveillance cases partially or solely on the basis of the expanded code list. In Missouri, less than 2% of children identified with ASD had some of their records located on the basis of the expanded code list, and none were identified exclusively from these codes. In Colorado, approximately 2% of ASD surveillance cases had some abstracted records identified on the basis of the expanded code list, and 4% had records found exclusively from the expanded codes. In Georgia, where ICD-9 codes were FIGURE 2. Most recent intelligence quotient score as of age 8 years among children with autism spectrum disorder for whom test data were available, by sex and race/ethnicity — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, nine sites,* United States, 2014 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Pe rc en ta g e F M F M F M F M HispanicWhite, non-Hispanic Asian or Paci�c Islander Black, non-Hispanic Race/Ethnicity Average or above average (IQ >85) Borderline range (IQ 71–85) Intellectually disabled range (IQ ≤70) Abbreviations: ASD = autism spectrum disorder; F = female; IQ = intelligence quotient; M = male. * Includes nine sites (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Tennessee) that had intellectual ability data available for ≥70 of children who met the ASD case definition (n = 3,714). Surveillance Summaries 12 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requested for surveillance of five distinct conditions (autism, cerebral palsy, ID, hearing loss, and vision impairment), approximately 10% of children identified with ASD had some of their records located on the basis of the expanded code list, and less than 1% were identified exclusively from these codes. Comparison of Case Counts from DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 Case Definitions The DSM-5 analysis was completed for part of the overall ADDM 2014 surveillance area (Table 7), representing a total population of 263,775 children aged 8 years. This was 81% of the population on which DSM-IV-TR prevalence estimates were reported. Within this population, 4,920 children were confirmed to meet the ADDM Network ASD case definition for either DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5. Of these children, 4,236 (86%) met both case definitions, 422 (9%) met only the DSM-IV-TR criteria, and 262 (5%) met only the DSM-5 criteria (Table 8). This yielded a DSM-IV-TR:DSM-5 prevalence ratio of 1.04 in this population, indicating that ASD prevalence was approximately 4% higher based on the historical DSM-IV-TR case definition compared with the new DSM-5 case definition. Among 4,498 children who met DSM-5 case criteria, 3,817 (85%) met the DSM-5 behavioral criteria (Box 2), whereas 681 (15%) qualified on the basis of an established ASD diagnosis but did not have sufficient DSM-5 behavioral criteria documented in comprehensive evaluations. In six of the 11 ADDM sites, DSM-5 case counts were within approximately 5% of DSM-IV-TR counts (range: 5% lower [Tennessee] to 5% higher [Arkansas]), whereas DSM-5 case counts were more than 5% lower than DSM-IV-TR counts in Minnesota and North Carolina (6%), New Jersey (10%), and Colorado (14%). Kappa statistics indicated strong agreement between DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 case status among children abstracted in Phase 1 of the study who were reviewed in Phase 2 for both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 (kappa for all sites combined: 0.85, range: 0.72 [Tennessee] to 0.93 [North Carolina]). Stratified analysis of DSM-IV-TR:DSM-5 ratios were very similar compared with the overall sample (Table 9). DSM-5 estimates were approximately 3% lower than DSM-IV-TR counts for males, and approximately 6% lower for females (kappa = 0.85 for both). Case counts were approximately 3% lower among white and black children on DSM-5 compared with DSM-IV-TR, 5% lower among Asian children, and 8% lower among Hispanic children. Children who received a comprehensive evaluation by age 36 months were 7% less likely to meet DSM-5 than DSM-IV-TR, whereas those evaluated by age 4 years were 6% less likely to meet DSM-5, and those initially evaluated after age 4 years were just as likely to meet DSM-5 as DSM-IV-TR. Children with documentation of eligibility for autism special education services, and those with a documented diagnosis of ASD by age 3 years, were 2% more likely to meet DSM-5 than DSM-IV-TR. Slightly over 3% of children whose earliest ASD diagnosis was autistic disorder met DSM-5 criteria but not DSM-IV-TR, compared with slightly under 3% of those whose earliest diagnosis was PDD-NOS/ASD-NOS and 5% of those whose earliest diagnosis was Asperger disorder. Children with no previous ASD classification (diagnosis or eligibility) were 47% less likely to meet DSM-5 than DSM-IV-TR. Combining data from all 11 sites, children with IQ scores in the range of ID were 3% less likely to meet DSM-5 criteria compared with DSM-IV-TR (kappa = 0.89), those with IQ scores in the borderline range were 6% less likely to meet DSM-5 than DSM-IV-TR (kappa = 0.88), and children with average or above average intellectual ability were 4% less likely to meet DSM-5 criteria compared with DSM-IV-TR (kappa = 0.86). Discussion Changes in Estimated Prevalence The overall ASD prevalence estimate of 16.8 per 1,000 children aged 8 years in 2014 is higher than previously reported estimates from the ADDM Network. An ASD case definition based on DSM-IV-TR criteria was used during the entire period of ADDM surveillance during 2000–2014, as were comparable study operations and procedures, although the geographic areas under surveillance have varied over time. During this period, ADDM ASD prevalence estimates increased from 6.7 to 16.8 per 1,000 children aged 8 years, an increase of approximately 150%. Among the six ADDM sites completing both the 2012 and 2014 studies for the same geographic area, all six showed higher ASD prevalence estimates for 2012 compared to 2014, with a nearly 10% higher prevalence in Georgia (p = 0.06) and Maryland (p = 0.35), 19% in New Jersey (p<0.01), 22% in Missouri (p = 0.01), 29% in Colorado (p<0.01), and 31% in Wisconsin (p<0.01). When combining data from these six sites, ASD prevalence estimates for 2014 were 20% higher for 2014 compared to 2012 (p<0.01). The ASD prevalence estimate from New Jersey continues to be one of the highest reported by a population-based surveillance system. The two sites with the greatest relative difference in prevalence are noteworthy in that both gained access to children’s education records in additional geographic areas for 2014. Colorado was granted access to review children’s education records in one additional county for the 2014 surveillance year (representing nearly 20% of the population aged 8 years within the overall ktu0 Highlight https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/pdfs/mm6719a8-H.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/pdfs/mm6719a8-H.pdf ktu0 Text Box Please note: Errata have been published for this issue. To view the errata, please click here and here. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6719a8.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 13US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Colorado surveillance area), and Wisconsin was granted access to review education records for more than a quarter of its surveillance population, and 2014 marked the first time Wisconsin has included education data sources. Comparisons with earlier ADDM Network surveillance results should be interpreted cautiously because of changing composition of sites and geographic coverage over time. For example, three ADDM Network sites completing both the 2012 and 2014 surveillance years (Arizona, Arkansas, and North Carolina) covered a different geographic area each year, and two new sites (Minnesota and Tennessee) were awarded funding to monitor ASD in collaboration with the ADDM Network. Certain characteristics of children with ASD were similar in 2014 compared with earlier surveillance years. The median age of earliest known ASD diagnosis remained close to 53 months in previous surveillance years and was 52 months in 2014. The proportion of children who received a comprehensive developmental evaluation by age 3 years was unchanged: 42% in 2014 and 43% during 2006–2012. There were a number of differences in the characteristics of the population of children with ASD in 2014. The male:female prevalence ratio decreased from 4.5:1 during 2002–2012 to 4:1 in 2014, driven by a greater relative increase in ASD prevalence among girls than among boys since 2012. Also, the decrease in the ratios of white:black and white:Hispanic children with ASD continued a trend observed since 2002. Among sites covering a population of at least 20,000 children aged 8 years, New Jersey reported no significant race- or ethnicity-based difference in ASD prevalence, suggesting more complete ascertainment among all children regardless of race/ethnicity. Historically, ASD prevalence estimates from combined ADDM sites have been approximately 20%–30% higher among white children as compared with black children. For surveillance year 2014, the difference was only 7%, the lowest difference ever observed for the ADDM Network. Likewise, prevalence among white children was almost 70% higher than that among Hispanic children in 2002 and 2006, and approximately 50% higher in 2008, 2010, and 2012, whereas for 2014 the difference was only 22%. Data from a previously reported comparison of ADDM Network ASD prevalence estimates from 2002, 2006, and 2008 (9) suggested greater increases in ASD prevalence among black and Hispanic children compared with those among white children. Reductions in disparities in ASD prevalence for black and Hispanic children might be attributable, in part, to more effective outreach directed to minority communities. Finally, the proportion of children with ASD and lower intellectual ability was similar in 2012 and 2014 at approximately 30% of males and 35% of females. These proportions were markedly lower than those reported in previous surveillance years. Variation in Prevalence Among ADDM Sites Findings from the 2014 surveillance year indicate that prevalence estimates still vary widely among ADDM Network sites, with the highest prevalence observed in New Jersey. Although five of the 11 ADDM sites conducting the 2014 surveillance year reported prevalence estimates within a very close range (from 13.1 to 14.1 per 1,000 children), New Jersey’s prevalence estimate of 29.4 per 1,000 children was significantly greater than that from any other site, and four sites (Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, and North Carolina) reported prevalence estimates that were significantly greater than those from any of the five sites in the 13.1–14.1 per 1,000 range. Two of the sites with prevalence estimates of 20.0 per 1,000 or higher (Maryland and Minnesota) conducted surveillance among a total population of <10,000 children aged 8 years. Concentrating surveillance efforts in smaller geographic areas, especially those in close proximity to diagnostic centers and those covering school districts with advanced staff training and programs to support children with ASD, might yield higher prevalence estimates compared with those from sites covering populations of more than 20,000 children aged 8 years. Of the six sites with prevalence estimates below the 16.8 per 1,000 estimate for all sites combined, five did not have full access to education data sources (Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin), whereas only one of the six sites will full access to education data sources had a prevalence estimate below 16.8 per 1,000 (Arizona). Such differences cannot be attributed solely to source access, as other factors (e.g., demographic differences and service availability) also might have influenced these findings. In addition to variation among sites in reported ASD prevalence, wide variation among sites is noted in the characteristics of children identified with ASD, including the proportion of children who received a comprehensive developmental evaluation by age 3 years, the median age of earliest known ASD diagnosis, and the distribution by intellectual ability. Some of this variation might be attributable to regional differences in diagnostic practices and other documentation of autism symptoms, although previous reports based on ADDM data have linked much of the variation to other extrinsic factors, such as regional and socioeconomic disparities in access to services (13,14). Case Definitions Results from application of the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 case definitions were similar, overall and when stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, DSM-IV-TR diagnostic subtype, or level of intellectual ability. Overall, ASD prevalence estimates ktu0 Highlight https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/pdfs/mm6719a8-H.pdf ktu0 Text Box Please note: Errata have been published for this issue. To view the errata, please click here and here. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6719a8.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a8.htm?s_cid=mm6745a8_w Surveillance Summaries 14 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on the new DSM-5 case definition were very similar in magnitude but slightly lower than those based on the historical DSM-IV-TR case definition. Three of the 11 ADDM sites had slightly higher case counts using the DSM-5 framework compared with the DSM-IV-TR. Colorado, where the DSM- IV-TR:DSM-5 ratio was highest compared with all other sites, was also the site with the lowest proportion of DSM-IV-TR cases having a previous ASD classification. This suggests that the diagnostic component of the DSM-5 case definition, whereby children with a documented diagnosis of ASD might qualify as DSM-5 cases regardless of social interaction/ communication and restricted/repetitive behavioral criteria, might have influenced DSM-5 results to a lesser degree in that site, as a smaller proportion of DSM-IV-TR cases would meet DSM-5 case criteria based solely on the presence of a documented ASD diagnosis. This element of the DSM-5 case definition might carry less weight moving forward, as fewer children aged 8 years in health and education settings will have had ASD diagnosed under the DSM-IV-TR criteria. It is also possible that persons who conduct developmental evaluations of children in health and education settings will increasingly describe behavioral characteristics using language more consistent with DSM-5 terminology, yielding more ASD cases based on the behavioral component of ADDM’s DSM-5 case definition. Prevalence estimates based on the DSM-5 case definition that incorporates an existing ASD diagnosis reflect the actual patterns of diagnosis and services for children in 2014, because children diagnosed under DSM-IV-TR did not lose their diagnosis when the updated DSM-5 criteria were published and because professionals might diagnose children with ASD without necessarily recording every behavior supporting that diagnosis. In the future, prevalence estimates will align more closely with the specific DSM-5 behavioral criteria, and might exclude some persons who would have met DSM-IV-TR criteria for autistic disorder, PDD-NOS, or Asperger disorder, while at the same time including persons who do not meet those criteria but who do meet the specific DSM-5 behavioral criteria. Comparison of Autism Prevalence Estimates The ADDM Network is the only ASD surveillance system in the United States providing robust prevalence estimates for specific areas of the country, including those for subgroups defined by sex and race/ethnicity, providing information about geographical variation that can be used to evaluate policies and diagnostic practices that might affect ASD prevalence. It is also the only comprehensive surveillance system to incorporate ASD diagnostic criteria into the case definition rather than relying entirely on parent or caregiver report of a previous ASD diagnosis, providing a unique contribution to the knowledge of ASD epidemiology and the impact of changes in diagnostic criteria. Two surveys of children’s health, The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), report estimates of ASD prevalence based on caregiver report of being told by a doctor or other health care provider that their child has ASD, and, for the NSCH, if their child was also reported to currently have ASD. The most recent publication from NHIS indicated that 27.6 per 1,000 children aged 3–17 years had ASD in 2016, which did not differ significantly from estimates for 2015 or 2014 (24.1 and 22.4, respectively) (28). An estimate of 20.0 per 1,000 children aged 6–17 years was reported from the 2011–2012 NSCH (29). The study samples for both surveys are substantially smaller than the ADDM Network; however, they were intended to be nationally representative, whereas the ADDM Network surveillance areas were selected through a competitive process and, although large and diverse, were not intended to be nationally representative. Geographic differences in ASD prevalence have been observed in both the ADDM Network and national surveys, as have differences in ASD prevalence by age (6–11,28,29). All three prevalence estimation systems (NHIS, NSCH, and ADDM) are subject to regional and policy-driven differences in the availability and utilization of evaluation and diagnostic services for children with developmental concerns. Phone surveys are likely more sensitive in identifying children who received a preliminary or confirmed diagnosis of ASD but are not receiving services (i.e., special education services). The ADDM Network method based on analysis of information contained in existing health and education records enables the collection of detailed, case-specific information reflecting children’s behavioral, developmental and functional characteristics, which are not available from the national phone surveys. This detailed case level information might provide insight into temporal changes in the expression of ASD phenotypes, and offers the ability to account for differences based on changing diagnostic criteria. Limitations The findings in this report are subject to at least three limitations. First, ADDM Network sites were not selected to represent the United States as a whole, nor were the geographic areas within each ADDM site selected to represent that state as a whole (with the exception of Arkansas, where ASD is monitored statewide). Although a combined estimate is reported for the Network as a whole to inform stakeholders Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 15US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and interpret the findings from individual surveillance years in a more general context, data reported by the ADDM Network should not be interpreted to represent a national estimate of the number and characteristics of children with ASD. Rather, it is more prudent to examine the wide variation among sites, between specific groups within sites, and across time in the number and characteristics of children identified with ASD, and to use these findings to inform public health strategies aimed at removing barriers to identification and treatment, and eliminating disparities among socioeconomic and racial/ ethnic groups. Data from individual sites provide even greater utility for developing local policies in those states. Second, it is important to acknowledge limitations of information available in children’s health and education records when considering data on the characteristics of children with ASD. Age of earliest known ASD diagnosis was obtained from descriptions in children’s developmental evaluations that were available in the health and education facilities where ADDM staff had access to review records. Some children might have had earlier diagnoses that were not recorded in these records. Likewise, some descriptions of historical diagnoses (i.e., those not made by the evaluating examiner) could be subject to recall error by a parent or provider who described the historical diagnosis to that examiner. Another characteristic featured prominently in this report, intellectual ability, is subject to measurement limitations. IQ test results should be interpreted cautiously because of myriad factors that impact performance on these tests, particularly language and attention deficits that are common among children with ASD, especially when testing was conducted before age 6 years. Because children were not examined directly nor systematically by ADDM staff as part of this study, descriptions of their characteristics should not be interpreted to serve as the basis for policy changes, individual treatments, or interventions. Third, because comparisons with the results from earlier ADDM surveillance years were not restricted to a common geographic area, inferences about the changing number and characteristics of children with ASD over time should be made with caution. Findings for each unique ADDM birth cohort are very informative, and although study methods and geographic areas of coverage have remained generally consistent over time, temporal comparisons are subject to multiple sources of bias and should not be misinterpreted as representing precise measures that control for all sources of bias. Additional limitations to the records-based surveillance methodology have been described extensively in previous ADDM and MADDSP reports (3,6–11). Future Surveillance Directions Data collection for the 2016 surveillance year began in early 2017 and will continue through mid-2019. Beginning with surveillance year 2016, the DSM-5 case definition for ASD will serve as the basis for prevalence estimates. The DSM-IV-TR case definition will be applied in a limited geographic area to offer additional data for comparison, although the DSM- IV-TR case definition will eventually be phased out. CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early” (LTSAE) campaign, launched in October 2004, aims to change perceptions among parents, health care professionals, and early educators regarding the importance of early identification and treatment of autism and other developmental disorders (30). In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended developmental screening specifically focused on social development and ASD at age 18 and 24 months (31). Both efforts are in accordance with the Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) goal that children with ASD be evaluated by age 36 months and begin receiving community-based support and services by age 48 months (12). It is concerning that progress has not been made toward the HP2020 goal of increasing the percentage of children with ASD who receive a first evaluation by age 36 months to 47%; however, the cohort of children monitored under the ADDM 2014 surveillance year (i.e., children born in 2006) represents the first ADDM 8-year-old cohort impacted by the LTSAE campaign and the 2007 AAP recommendations. The effect of these programs in lowering age at evaluation might become more apparent when subsequent birth cohorts are monitored. Further exploration of ADDM data, including those collected on cohorts of children aged 4 years (32), might inform how policy initiatives, such as screening recommendations and other social determinants of health, impact the prevalence of ASD and characteristics of children with ASD, including the age at which most children receive an ASD diagnosis. Conclusion The latest findings from the ADDM Network provide evidence that the prevalence of ASD is higher than previously reported ADDM estimates and continues to vary among certain racial/ethnic groups and communities. The overall ASD prevalence estimate of 16.8 per 1,000 children aged 8 years in 2014 is higher than previous estimates from the ADDM Network. With prevalence of ASD reaching nearly 3% in some communities and representing an increase of 150% since 2000, ASD is an urgent public health concern that could benefit from enhanced strategies to help identify ASD earlier; to determine possible risk factors; and to address the growing Surveillance Summaries 16 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention behavioral, educational, residential and occupational needs of this population. Implementation of the new DSM-5 case definition had little effect on the overall number of children identified with ASD for the ADDM 2014 surveillance year. This might be a result of including documented ASD diagnoses in the DSM-5 surveillance case definition. Over time, the estimate might be influenced (downward) by a diminishing number of persons who meet the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for ASD based solely on a previous DSM-IV-TR diagnosis, such as autistic disorder, PDD-NOS or Asperger disorder, and influenced (upward) by professionals aligning their clinical descriptions with the DSM-5 criteria. Although the prevalence of ASD and characteristics of children identified by each case definition were similar in 2014, the diagnostic features defined under DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 appear to be quite different. The ADDM Network will continue to evaluate these similarities and differences in much greater depth, and will examine at least one more cohort of children aged 8 years to expand this comparison. Over time, the ADDM Network will be well positioned to evaluate the effects of changing ASD diagnostic parameters on prevalence. Acknowledgments Data collection was guided by Lisa Martin, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC, and coordinated at each site by Kristen Clancy Mancilla, University of Arizona, Tucson; Allison Hudson, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock; Kelly Kast, MSPH, Leovi Madera, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver; Margaret Huston, Ann Chang, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; Libby Hallas-Muchow, MS, Kristin Hamre, MS, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Rob Fitzgerald, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; Josephine Shenouda, MS, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; Julie Rusyniak and Paula Bell, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Alison Vehorn, MS, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; Pamela Imm, MS, University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Lisa Martin and Monica Dirienzo, MS, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC. Data management/programming support was guided by Susan Williams, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC; with additional oversight by Marion Jeffries, Eric Augustus, Maximus/Acentia, Atlanta, Georgia, and was coordinated at each site by Scott Magee, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock; Marnee Dearman, University of Arizona, Tucson; Bill Vertrees, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver; Michael Sellers, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; John Westerman, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Rob Fitzgerald, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; Paul Zumoff, PhD, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; Deanna Caruso, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; John Tapp, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; Nina Boss, Chuck Goehler, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 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Number* and percentage of children aged 8 years, by race/ethnicity and site — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Site institution Surveillance area Total White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic No. No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) Arizona University of Arizona Part of 1 county in metropolitan Phoenix† 24,952 12,308 (49.3) 1,336 (5.4) 9,792 (39.2) 975 (3.9) 541 (2.2) Arkansas University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences All 75 counties in Arkansas 39,992 26,103 (65.3) 7,705 (19.3) 5,012 (12.5) 843 (2.1) 329 (0.8) Colorado Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 7 counties in metropolitan Denver 41,128 22,410 (54.5) 2,724 (6.6) 13,735 (33.4) 2,031 (4.9) 228 (0.6) Georgia CDC 5 counties including metropolitan Atlanta 51,161 15,495 (30.3) 22,042 (43.1) 9,913 (19.4) 3,599 (7.0) 112 (0.2) Maryland Johns Hopkins University 1 county in metropolitan Baltimore 9,955 4,977 (50.0) 3,399 (34.1) 829 (8.3) 719 (7.2) 31 (0.3) Minnesota University of Minnesota Parts of 2 counties including Minneapolis– St. Paul† 9,767 3,793 (38.8) 2,719 (27.8) 1,486 (15.2) 1,576 (16.1) 193 (2.0) Missouri Washington University 5 counties including metropolitan St. Louis 25,333 16,529 (65.2) 6,577 (26.0) 1,220 (4.8) 931 (3.7) 76 (0.3) New Jersey Rutgers University 4 counties including metropolitan Newark 32,935 13,593 (41.3) 7,166 (21.8) 10,226 (31.0) 1,874 (5.7) 76 (0.2) North Carolina University of North Carolina– Chapel Hill 6 counties in central North Carolina 30,283 15,241 (50.3) 7,701 (25.4) 5,463 (18.0) 1,778 (5.9) 100 (0.3) Tennessee Vanderbilt University Medical Center 11 counties in middle Tennessee 24,940 15,867 (63.6) 4,896 (19.6) 3,324 (13.3) 799 (3.2) 54 (0.2) Wisconsin University of Wisconsin– Madison 10 counties in southeastern Wisconsin 35,037 20,732 (59.2) 6,486 (18.5) 6,181 (17.6) 1,471 (4.2) 167 (0.5) All sites combined 325,483 167,048 (51.3) 72,751 (22.4) 67,181 (20.6) 16,596 (5.1) 1,907 (0.6) * Total numbers of children aged 8 years in each surveillance area were obtained from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Vintage 2016 Bridged-Race Population Estimates for July 1, 2014. † Denominator excludes school districts that were not included in the surveillance area, calculated from National Center for Education Statistics enrollment counts of third graders during the 2014–2015 school year. Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 19US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TABLE 2. Estimated prevalence* of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years, by sex — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Total population Total no. with ASD Sex Male-to-female prevalence ratio§ Overall† Males Females Prevalence 95% CI Prevalence 95% CI Prevalence 95% CI Arizona 24,952 349 14.0 (12.6–15.5) 21.1 (18.7–23.8) 6.6 (5.3–8.2) 3.2 Arkansas 39,992 522 13.1 (12.0–14.2) 20.5 (18.6–22.5) 5.4 (4.5–6.5) 3.8 Colorado 41,128 572 13.9 (12.8–15.1) 21.8 (19.9–23.9) 5.5 (4.6–6.7) 3.9 Georgia 51,161 869 17.0 (15.9–18.2) 27.9 (25.9–30.0) 5.7 (4.8–6.7) 4.9 Maryland 9,955 199 20.0 (17.4–23.0) 32.7 (28.1–38.2) 7.2 (5.2–10.0) 4.5 Minnesota 9,767 234 24.0 (21.1–27.2) 39.0 (33.8–44.9) 8.5 (6.3–11.6) 4.6 Missouri 25,333 356 14.1 (12.7–15.6) 22.2 (19.8–25.0) 5.6 (4.4–7.0) 4.0 New Jersey 32,935 964 29.3 (27.5–31.2) 45.5 (42.4–48.9) 12.3 (10.7–14.1) 3.7 North Carolina 30,283 527 17.4 (16.0–19.0) 28.0 (25.5–30.8) 6.5 (5.3–7.9) 4.3 Tennessee 24,940 387 15.5 (14.0–17.1) 25.3 (22.6–28.2) 5.4 (4.2–6.9) 4.7 Wisconsin 35,037 494 14.1 (12.9–15.4) 21.4 (19.4–23.7) 6.4 (5.3–7.7) 3.4 All sites combined 325,483 5,473 16.8 (16.4–17.3) 26.6 (25.8–27.4) 6.6 (6.2–7.0) 4.0 Abbreviations: ASD = autism spectrum disorder; CI = confidence interval. * Per 1,000 children aged 8 years. † All children are included in the total regardless of race or ethnicity. § All sites identified significantly higher prevalence among males compared with females (p<0.01). TABLE 3. Estimated prevalence* of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years, by race/ethnicity — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Race/Ethnicity Prevalence ratio White Black Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander White-to- Black White-to- Hispanic Black-to- HispanicPrevalence 95% CI Prevalence 95% CI Prevalence 95% CI Prevalence 95% CI Arizona 16.2 (14.1–18.6) 19.5 (13.3–28.6) 10.3 (8.5–12.5) 10.3 (5.5–19.1) 0.8 1.6§ 1.9§ Arkansas 13.9 (12.6–15.5) 10.4 (8.3–12.9) 8.4 (6.2–11.3) 14.2 (8.1–25.1) 1.3† 1.7§ 1.2 Colorado 15.0 (13.5–16.7) 11.4 (8.0–16.2) 10.6 (9.0–12.5) 7.9 (4.8–12.9) 1.3 1.4§ 1.1 Georgia 17.9 (16.0–20.2) 17.1 (15.4–18.9) 12.6 (10.6–15.0) 11.9 (8.9–16.1) 1.1 1.4§ 1.4§ Maryland 19.5 (16.0–23.8) 16.5 (12.7–21.4) 15.7 (9.1–27.0) 13.9 (7.5–25.8) 1.2 1.2 1.1 Minnesota 24.3 (19.8–29.8) 27.2 (21.7–34.2) 20.9 (14.7–29.7) 17.8 (12.3–25.7) 0.9 1.2 1.3 Missouri 14.1 (12.4–16.0) 10.8 (8.6–13.6) 4.9 (2.2–10.9) 10.7 (5.8–20.0) 1.3† 2.9† 2.2 New Jersey 30.2 (27.4–33.3) 26.8 (23.3–30.9) 29.3 (26.2–32.9) 19.2 (13.9–26.6) 1.1 1.0 0.9 North Carolina 18.6 (16.5–20.9) 16.1 (13.5–19.2) 11.9 (9.3–15.2) 19.1 (13.7–26.8) (6.7–23.3) 1.2 1.6§ 1.4† Tennessee 16.1 (14.3–18.2) 12.5 (9.7–16.0) 10.5 (7.6–14.7) 12.5 1.3 1.5† 1.2 Wisconsin 15.2 (13.6–17.0) 11.3 (8.9–14.2) 12.5 (10.0–15.6) 10.2 (6.1–16.9) 1.3† 1.2 0.9 All sites combined 17.2 (16.5–17.8) 16.0 (15.1–16.9) 14.0 (13.1–14.9) 13.5 (11.8–15.4) 1.1† 1.2§ 1.1§ Abbreviation: CI = confidence interval. * Per 1,000 children aged 8 years. † Pearson chi-square test of prevalence ratio significant at p<0.05. § Pearson chi-square test of prevalence ratio significant at p<0.01. Surveillance Summaries 20 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TABLE 4. Number and percentage of children aged 8 years* identified with autism spectrum disorder who received a comprehensive evaluation by a qualified professional at age ≤36 months, 37–48 months, or >48 months, and those with a mention of general delay concern by age 36 months — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Earliest age when child received a comprehensive evaluation Mention of general developmental delay ≤36 mos 37–48 mos >48 mos ≤36 mos No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) Arizona 87 (34.1) 56 (22.0) 112 (43.9) 240 (94.1) Arkansas 117 (30.5) 98 (25.6) 168 (43.9) 354 (92.4) Colorado 200 (46.4) 66 (15.3) 165 (38.3) 383 (88.9) Georgia 240 (37.6) 126 (19.7) 273 (42.7) 549 (85.9) Maryland 96 (56.1) 19 (11.1) 56 (32.7) 158 (92.4) Minnesota 57 (33.5) 36 (21.2) 77 (45.3) 124 (72.9) Missouri 88 (32.1) 39 (14.2) 147 (53.6) 196 (71.5) New Jersey 318 (40.5) 174 (22.2) 293 (37.3) 645 (82.2) North Carolina 260 (66.2) 42 (10.7) 91 (23.2) 364 (92.6) Tennessee 80 (34.0) 47 (20.0) 108 (46.0) 144 (61.3) Wisconsin 194 (47.2) 87 (21.2) 130 (31.6) 368 (89.5) All sites combined 1,737 (41.9) 790 (19.0) 1,620 (39.1) 3,525 (85.0) * Includes children identified with autism spectrum disorder who were linked to an in-state birth certificate. TABLE 5. Median age (in months) of earliest known autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and number and proportion within each diagnostic subtype — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Autistic disorder ASD/PDD Asperger disorder Any specified ASD diagnosis Median age No. (%) Median age No. (%) Median age No. (%) Median age No. (%) Arizona 55 186 (76.2) 61 50 (20.5) 74 8 (3.3) 56 244 (69.9) Arkansas 55 269 (63.0) 63 129 (30.2) 75 29 (6.8) 59 427 (81.8) Colorado 40 192 (61.7) 65 104 (33.4) 61 15 (4.8) 51 311 (54.4) Georgia 46 288 (48.1) 56 261 (43.6) 65 50 (8.3) 53 599 (68.9) Maryland 43 52 (32.3) 61 104 (64.6) 65 5 (3.1) 52 161 (80.9) Minnesota 51 50 (45.9) 65 54 (49.5) 62 5 (4.6) 56 109 (46.6) Missouri 54 81 (26.7) 55 197 (65.0) 65 25 (8.3) 56 303 (85.1) New Jersey 42 227 (32.7) 51 428 (61.6) 66 40 (5.8) 48 695 (72.1) North Carolina 32 165 (52.5) 49 130 (41.4) 67 19 (6.1) 40 314 (59.6) Tennessee 51 157 (57.1) 63 100 (36.4) 60 18 (6.5) 56 275 (71.1) Wisconsin 46 143 (40.2) 55 189 (53.1) 67 24 (6.7) 51 356 (72.1) All sites combined 46 1,810 (47.7) 56 1,746 (46.0) 67 238 (6.3) 52 3,794 (69.3) Abbreviations: ASD = autism spectrum disorder; PDD = pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified. Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 21US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TABLE 6. Number and percentage of children aged 8 years identified with autism spectrum disorder with available special education records, by primary special education eligibility category* — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 10 sites, United States, 2014 Characteristic Arizona Arkansas Colorado Georgia Maryland Minnesota New Jersey North Carolina Tennessee Wisconsin Total no. of ASD cases 349 522 572 869 199 234 964 527 387 494 Total no. (%) of ASD cases with special education records 308 (88.3) 327† (—§) 139† (—§) 708 (81.5) 149 (74.9) 188 (80.3) 822 (85.3) 420 (79.7) 218† (—§) 156† (—§) Primary exceptionality (%) Autism 64.9 65.4 43.9 58.9 67.1 67.0 48.4 75.0 79.8 36.5 Emotional disturbance 2.9 0.9 7.2 2.0 2.7 3.7 1.6 2.6 0.5 5.8 Specific learning disability 6.8 3.7 13.7 4.0 12.8 1.1 8.2 2.9 0.9 2.6 Speech or language impairment 5.5 8.9 10.8 1.0 3.4 2.7 13.7 2.4 3.2 20.5 Hearing or visual impairment 0 0.3 0 0.1 0 1.1 0.6 0.5 0 0.6 Health, physical or other disability 6.8 13.5 14.4 3.5 8.1 15.4 18.5 11.2 3.2 14.7 Multiple disabilities 0.3 3.4 5.0 0 4.0 1.6 6.7 1.7 0 0 Intellectual disability 3.2 4.0 4.3 2.0 2.0 6.9 1.7 2.4 2.8 0.6 Developmental delay/Preschool 9.4 0 0.7 28.5 0 0.5 0.6 1.4 9.6 18.6 Abbreviation: ASD = autism spectrum disorder. * Some state-specific categories were recoded or combined to match current U.S. Department of Education categories. † Excludes children residing in school districts where educational records were not reviewed (proportion of surveillance population: 31% Arkansas, 67% Colorado, 12% Tennessee, 74% Wisconsin). § Proportion not reported because numerator is not comparable to other sites (excludes children residing in school districts where educational records were not reviewed). Surveillance Summaries 22 MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TABLE 7. Number* and percentage of children aged 8 years, by race/ethnicity and site in the DSM-5 Surveillance Area — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Site institution Surveillance area Total White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic No. No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) Arizona University of Arizona Part of 1 county in metropolitan Phoenix† 9,478 5,340 (56.3) 321 (3.4) 3,244 (34.2) 296 (3.1) 277 (2.9) Arkansas University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences All 75 counties in Arkansas 39,992 26,103 (65.3) 7,705 (19.3) 5,012 (12.5) 843 (2.1) 329 (0.8) Colorado Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 1 county in metropolitan Denver 8,022 2,603 (32.4) 1,018 (12.7) 4,019 (50.1) 322 (4.0) 60 (0.7) Georgia CDC 5 counties including metropolitan Atlanta 51,161 15,495 (30.3) 22,042 (43.1) 9,913 (19.4) 3,599 (7.0) 112 (0.2) Maryland Johns Hopkins University 1 county in metropolitan Baltimore 9,955 4,977 (50.0) 3,399 (34.1) 829 (8.3) 719 (7.2) 31 (0.3) Minnesota University of Minnesota Parts of 2 counties including Minneapolis–St. Paul† 9,767 3,793 (38.8) 2,719 (27.8) 1,486 (15.2) 1,576 (16.1) 193 (2.0) Missouri Washington University 1 county in metropolitan St. Louis 12,205 7,186 (58.9) 3,793 (31.1) 561 (4.6) 626 (5.1) 39 (0.3) New Jersey Rutgers University 4 counties including metropolitan Newark 32,935 13,593 (41.3) 7,166 (21.8) 10,226 (31.0) 1,874 (5.7) 76 (0.2) North Carolina University of North Carolina– Chapel Hill 6 counties in central North Carolina 30,283 15,241 (50.3) 7,701 (25.4) 5,463 (18.0) 1,778 (5.9) 100 (0.3) Tennessee Vanderbilt University Medical Center 11 counties in middle Tennessee 24,940 15,867 (63.6) 4,896 (19.6) 3,324 (13.3) 799 (3.2) 54 (0.2) Wisconsin University of Wisconsin– Madison 10 counties in southeastern Wisconsin 35,037 20,732 (59.2) 6,486 (18.5) 6,181 (17.6) 1,471 (4.2) 167 (0.5) All sites combined 263,775 130,930 (49.6) 67,246 (25.5) 50,258 (19.1) 13,903 (5.3) 1,438 (0.5) Abbreviation: DSM-5 = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. * Total numbers of children aged 8 years in each surveillance area were obtained from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Vintage 2016 Bridged-Race Population Estimates for July 1, 2014. † Denominator excludes school districts that were not included in the surveillance area, calculated from National Center for Education Statistics enrollment counts of third graders during the 2014–2015 school year. Surveillance Summaries MMWR / April 27, 2018 / Vol. 67 / No. 6 23US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TABLE 9. Characteristics of children meeting DSM-IV-TR and/or DSM-5 surveillance case definition — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Characteristic Met DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 Met both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 Met DSM-IV-TR only Met DSM-5 only DSM-IV-TR vs. DSM-5 No. No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) Ratio Kappa Met ASD case definition under DSM-IV-TR and/or DSM-5 4,920 4,236 (86.1) 422 (8.6) 262 (5.3) 1.04 0.85 Male 3,978 3,452 (86.8) 316 (7.9) 210 (5.3) 1.03 0.85 Female 942 784 (83.2) 106 (11.3) 52 (5.5) 1.06 0.85 White, non-Hispanic 2,486 2,159 (86.8) 193 (7.8) 134 (5.4) 1.03 0.85 Black, non-Hispanic 1,184 994 (84.0) 109 (9.2) 81 (6.8) 1.03 0.84 Hispanic, regardless of race 817 695 (85.1) 91 (11.1) 31 (3.8) 1.08 0.86 Asian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic 207 188 (90.8) 14 (6.8) 5 (2.4) 1.05 0.88 ≤36 months 1,509 1,372 (90.9) 115 (7.6) 22 (1.5) 1.07 0.89 37–48 months 723 640 (88.5) 61 (8.4) 22 (3.0) 1.06 0.86 >48 months 1,503 1,195 (79.5) 154 (10.2) 154 (10.2) 1.00 0.81 Autism special education eligibility† 2,270 2,156 (95.0) 35 (1.5) 79 (3.5) 0.98 0.57 ASD diagnostic statement§ Earliest ASD diagnosis ≤36 months 951 936 (98.4) 0 (0) 15 (1.6) 0.98 0.71 Earliest ASD diagnosis autistic disorder 1,577 1,526 (96.8) 0 (0) 51 (3.2) 0.97 0.50 Earliest ASD diagnosis PDD-NOS/ ASD-NOS 1,564 1,525 (97.5) 0 (0) 39 (2.5) 0.98 0.72 Earliest ASD diagnosis Asperger disorder 221 210 (95.0) 0 (0) 11 (5.0) 0.95 0.72 No previous ASD diagnosis or eligibility on record 950 484 (50.9) 369 (38.8) 97 (10.2) 1.47 0.62 Intellectual disability (IQ ≤70) 1,191 1,089 (91.4) 67 (5.6) 35 (2.9) 1.03 0.89 Borderline range (IQ 71–85) 881 778 (88.3) 74 (8.4) 29 (3.3) 1.06 0.88 Average or above average (IQ >85) 1,620 1,391 (85.9) 143 (8.8) 86 (5.3) 1.04 0.86 Abbreviations: ASD = autism spectrum disorder; DSM-5 = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; DSM-IV-TR = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision; PDD-NOS = pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified. * Includes children identified with ASD who were linked to an in-state birth certificate. † Includes children with autism as the Primary Exceptionality (Table 6) as well as children documented to meet eligibility criteria for autism special education services. § An ASD diagnosis documented in abstracted comprehensive evaluations, including DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of autistic disorder, PDD-NOS or Asperger disorder qualifies a child as meeting the DSM-5 surveillance case definition for ASD. ¶ Includes data from all 11 sites, including those with IQ data available for <70% of confirmed cases. TABLE 8. Number and percentage of children meeting DSM-IV-TR and/or DSM-5 surveillance case definition — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2014 Site Met DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 Met both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 Met DSM-IV-TR only Met DSM-5 only DSM-IV-TR vs. DSM-5 No. No. (%) No. (%) No. (%) Ratio Kappa Arizona 179 143 (79.9) 17 (9.5) 19 (10.6) 0.99 0.83 Arkansas 560 514 (91.8) 8 (1.4) 38 (6.8) 0.95 0.92 Colorado 116 92 (79.3) 19 (16.4) 5 (4.3) 1.14 0.79 Georgia 937 790 (84.3) 79 (8.4) 68 (7.3) 1.01 0.83 Maryland 207 187 (90.3) 12 (5.8) 8 (3.9) 1.02 0.89 Minnesota 254 200 (78.7) 34 (13.4) 20 (7.9) 1.06 0.79 Missouri 209 179 (85.6) 12 (5.7) 18 (8.6) 0.97 0.74 New Jersey 995 842 (84.6) 122 (12.3) 31 (3.1) 1.10 0.85 North Carolina 532 493 (92.7) 34 (6.4) 5 (0.9) 1.06 0.93 Tennessee 408 348 (85.3) 39 (9.6) 21 (5.1) 1.05 0.72 Wisconsin 523 448 (85.7) 46 (8.8) 29 (5.5) 1.04 0.83 All sites combined 4,920 4,236 (86.1) 422 (8.6) 262 (5.3) 1.04 0.85 Abbreviations: DSM-5 = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; DSM-IV-TR = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. ISSN: 1546-0738 (Print) The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is available free of charge in electronic format. To receive an electronic copy each week, visit MMWR’s free subscription page at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwrsubscribe.html. Paper copy subscriptions are available through the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402; telephone 202-512-1800. Readers who have difficulty accessing this PDF file may access the HTML file at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/ss6706a1.htm?s_ cid=ss6706a1_w. Address all inquiries about the MMWR Series, including material to be considered for publication, to Executive Editor, MMWR Series, Mailstop E-90, CDC, 1600 Clifton Rd., N.E., Atlanta, GA 30329-4027 or to mmwrq@cdc.gov. All material in the MMWR Series is in the public domain and may be used and reprinted without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated. Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of the date of publication. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwrsubscribe.html mailto:mmwrq@cdc.gov Introduction Methods Results Discussion Limitations Future Surveillance Directions Conclusion References 
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www-eventscribe-com-1089	----	2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting Skip to main content Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Login Toggle navigation Home Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Icon Legend This session is not in your schedule. This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it. 392 Views ViewAttendees 21 Back Favorite 1 Liked Facebook Tweet Print ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center Mentoring-on-the-fly I Saturday, January 26 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Location: Washington State Convention Center, TCC-Tahoma 3 & 4 (Placement Center) Looking for some professional guidance and advice? If so, you should stop by the JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center for the ACRL-University Libraries Section's "On-the-Fly" Mentoring to talk with an experienced librarian about all aspects of your career. Mentoring sessions are available on a first-come drop-in basis. ALA Unit/Subunit: ALA, ACRL_ULS Meeting Type: Other Cost: The ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center is open to the public. Open/Closed: Open Designed by CadmiumCD |Technical Support |Give Feedback © Copyright 2020 CadmiumCD. All Rights Reserved. 
www-eventscribe-com-156	----	2019 ALA Annual Conference Skip to main content Conference Website Conference App Full Schedule Keyword Search Sessions All Featured Speakers Chair's and President's Programs News You Can Use Now Showing Programs Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Book Buzz Theater Chapter One Stage Graphic Novel/Gaming Stage Live from the 25 Podcast Booth Meet the Authors Mobile App Pavilion PopTop Stage What's Cooking Stage Posters Sessions Posters Titles Posters Sessions ePoster Gallery Speakers Exhibitors Exhibitors List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan About ALA My Schedule Login required My Profile Login required Login Toggle navigation Home Conference Website Conference App Full Schedule Keyword Search Sessions All Featured Speakers Chair's and President's Programs News You Can Use Now Showing Programs Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Book Buzz Theater Chapter One Stage Graphic Novel/Gaming Stage Live from the 25 Podcast Booth Meet the Authors Mobile App Pavilion PopTop Stage What's Cooking Stage Posters Sessions Posters Titles Posters Sessions ePoster Gallery Speakers Exhibitors Exhibitors List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan About ALA My Schedule Login required My Profile Login required Icon Legend Add a session to your schedule. Remove a session from your schedule. 762 Views ViewAttendees 36 Audio mp3 Back Favorite 2 Liked Facebook Tweet Print Chairs Program Spectrum Chair's Program: Imposter Syndrome Sunday, June 23 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Location: Washington Convention Center, 154A-B Characterized by feelings of uneasiness, anxiety, and fear of being found out a "fraud," imposter syndrome refers to a relatively common psychological phenomenon experienced by folks in the workplace. For LIS folks of color, the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and other identities interplay with imposter syndrome in unique ways. Coordinated by the Spectrum Advisory Committee, this panel will feature library folks of color from a variety of library types and career points on their experiences with imposter syndrome and tips for overcoming it in the workplace. ALA Unit/Subunit: ALA, ODLOS Meeting Type: Chair's Program Cost: Included with full conference registration. Open/Closed: Open Moderator(s) Carla Davis-Castro Research Librarian Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress Speaker(s) Shaundra Walker Interim Library Director Georgia College Heather Hummons Head of Access Services DePaul University College of Law Rinn Law Library Seungyeon Yang-Peace Youth Services Librarian Las Vegas Clark County Library District Babak Zarin Librarian Catholic University of America Designed by CadmiumCD |Technical Support |Give Feedback © Copyright 2020 CadmiumCD. All Rights Reserved. 
www-eventscribe-com-2586	----	2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting Skip to main content Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Login Toggle navigation Home Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Icon Legend This session is not in your schedule. This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it. 320 Views ViewAttendees 18 Back Favorite 5 Liked Facebook Tweet Print ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center Career Counseling I Saturday, January 26 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Location: Washington State Convention Center, TCC-Tahoma 3 & 4 (Placement Center) Recharge your career by meeting with a professional career coach. She can guide you in strategizing for the next phase of your career, solving a problem in your current job situation, defining goals, and/or rejuvenating your career. Each one-on-one session is 20 minutes, and is completing confidential. Saturday and Sunday. Free. ALA Unit/Subunit: ALA Meeting Type: Other Cost: The ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center is open to the public. Open/Closed: Open Designed by CadmiumCD |Technical Support |Give Feedback © Copyright 2020 CadmiumCD. All Rights Reserved. 
www-eventscribe-com-3957	----	2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting Skip to main content Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Login Toggle navigation Home Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Icon Legend This session is not in your schedule. This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it. 505 Views ViewAttendees 53 Back Favorite 3 Liked Facebook Tweet Print ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center Manage Your Stress and Start Living a Healthier Life Today Saturday, January 26 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Location: Washington State Convention Center, TCC-Tahoma 3 & 4 (Placement Center) Join us for this interactive session where we will discuss signs of stress and how it impacts your body and mental health. You will walk away with stress reduction techniques that you will be able to use immediately. Leave feeling refreshed and prepared to meet challenges in healthier, more productive ways. ALA Unit/Subunit: ALA Meeting Type: Other Cost: The ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Center is open to the public. Open/Closed: Open Speaker(s) Caitlin Williams Career & Professional Development Consultant Designed by CadmiumCD |Technical Support |Give Feedback © Copyright 2020 CadmiumCD. All Rights Reserved. 
www-eventscribe-com-800	----	2019 ALA Annual Conference Skip to main content Conference Website Conference App Full Schedule Keyword Search Sessions All Featured Speakers Chair's and President's Programs News You Can Use Now Showing Programs Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Book Buzz Theater Chapter One Stage Graphic Novel/Gaming Stage Live from the 25 Podcast Booth Meet the Authors Mobile App Pavilion PopTop Stage What's Cooking Stage Posters Sessions Posters Titles Posters Sessions ePoster Gallery Speakers Exhibitors Exhibitors List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan About ALA My Schedule Login required My Profile Login required Login Toggle navigation Home Conference Website Conference App Full Schedule Keyword Search Sessions All Featured Speakers Chair's and President's Programs News You Can Use Now Showing Programs Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Book Buzz Theater Chapter One Stage Graphic Novel/Gaming Stage Live from the 25 Podcast Booth Meet the Authors Mobile App Pavilion PopTop Stage What's Cooking Stage Posters Sessions Posters Titles Posters Sessions ePoster Gallery Speakers Exhibitors Exhibitors List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan About ALA My Schedule Login required My Profile Login required Icon Legend Add a session to your schedule. Remove a session from your schedule. 1,949 Views ViewAttendees 8 Back Favorite 0 Like Facebook Tweet Print Ticketed Event AvramCamp Friday, June 21 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM Location: Washington Convention Center, 150A Women in technology face numerous challenges in their daily work. If you would like to join others in the field to discuss those challenges, AvramCamp is for you. This one-day LITA preconference will allow women and non-binary individuals employed in various technological industries an opportunity to network with others in the field and to collectively examine common barriers faced. This day will follow the unconference model allowing attendees the power to choose topics most relevant to them. The day will start with Sara Margaret Rizzo and Aisha Conner-Gaten helping attendees combat imposter syndrome, the feeling that you aren’t actually qualified for the work you are doing and will be discovered as a fraud. Attendees will then have the opportunity to propose and attend breakout sessions on a variety of topics such as salary negotiation, creating inclusive job postings, and becoming leaders in the technology field. Still undecided? Read ALA Emerging Leader Aisha Conner-Gaten’s report on her experiences at AvramCamp 2017. We thank our sponsor, OCLC, for supporting travel scholarships to help build connections for participants who would not otherwise have access to these opportunities. ALA Unit/Subunit: LITA Meeting Type: Preconference/Institute, Ticketed Event Cost: Ticketed Event. Not included with registration. Visit the Ticketed Events Information Page for further details. Open/Closed: Closed Speaker(s) SR Sara Margaret Rizzo Systems Librarian Monmouth University Library AC Aisha Conner-Gaten Instructional Design Librarian Loyola Marymount University Anne Slaughter Director of Technology Services RAILS, Reaching Across Illinois Library System Designed by CadmiumCD |Technical Support |Give Feedback © Copyright 2020 CadmiumCD. All Rights Reserved. 
www-eventscribe-com-9199	----	2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting Skip to main content Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Login Toggle navigation Home Meeting App Conference Website Full Schedule Sessions All Sessions Featured Speakers Symposium on the Future of Libraries News You Can Use Ticketed Events Exhibit Hall All Exhibit Hall Book Buzz Theater PopTop Stage Meet the Authors Exhibitors Exhibitor List Browse by Booth Interactive Floor Plan Speakers Keyword Search About ALA My Schedule Login required My Conference Profile Login required Icon Legend This session is not in your schedule. This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it. 555 Views ViewAttendees 22 Back Favorite 1 Liked Facebook Tweet Print Midwinter Session ALCTS New Members Interest Group Saturday, January 26 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Location: Washington State Convention Center, TCC-Tahoma 1 Join the ALCTS New Members Interest Group (ANMIG) during ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle for the following presentations: - Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: The Perspectives of Two New Academic Librarians Jessica Martinez, Science Librarian, University of Idaho Library; Meredith Forrey, MLIS As two recent graduates, Jessica and Meredith had experience working in academic libraries but, never as capital “L” Librarians. In our presentation, we will chronicle the first year out of graduate school as academic librarians, highlighting the struggles of shifting from student to teacher, the excitement of discovering our style of librarianship, and overcoming imposter syndrome. We will specifically touch on issues faced by new academic librarians, discussing the challenges and successes of our first year of professional librarianship. We will examine learning from our failures and not getting bogged down when things turn out differently than we planned. Our presentation will tell the story of our careers, comparing and contrasting our experiences at two different institutions. - From Library Assistant to Assistant Librarian: leveraging a staff position into a librarian appointment in an academic library Elizabeth Miraglia, Assistant Program Director, Metadata Services, Head, Books & Serials Metadata, UC San Diego Library Library school students and early-career librarians are often discouraged from taking non-librarian positions after completing their degrees. They are told that it makes applying for and transitioning into professional positions difficult and that contributes to the “de-professionalization” of our field. However, the reality is that bills need to be paid and graduates are often faced with a choice between assistant-level work in their field or doing something unrelated while applying and waiting for professional work. This presentation outlines the personal experiences of one early-career librarian who took advantage of the opportunities that library assistant work presented and successfully recruited into a managing-librarian position. It also provides practical advice on how to make the most of non-librarian positions and how to stay engaged with librarianship along the way. - From Boss Baby to Seasoned Supervisor-- Lessons Learned the Easy Way and the Hard Way Mary S. Konkel, Head of Technical Services, OCLC Global Council Delegate for the Americas Regional Council (ARC), College of DuPage Library This presentation will cover the road to supervision and management from the perspective of a technical services librarian, who has worked in large and medium research libraries and in a community college. From co-worker to coordinator, from being the boss of myself to being the boss of others, supervision has been challenging but rewarding. I’ll share the excitement of getting things done with others, the joys of mentoring, and how to graciously recover and move on when ah-oh moments happen—and they will! - Jump Starting Your Career: How NACO Funnels Can Provide Training and Support for New Librarians Roman S. Panchyshyn, Kent State University Libraries, Associate Professor, Coordinator Ohio NACO Project Entry-level positions in cataloging and metadata management require library professionals to gain expertise with various standards, technologies and products. An excellent way for new professionals to jump-start their careers is by acquiring knowledge about the identity management process. This involves learning about the Library of Congress Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), specifically its Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO). If your library is not an active NACO participant, the easiest way to begin participation is by joining a NACO funnel project. With institutional support, a NACO funnel will train you to contribute authority records for agents, places, works, and expressions to the LC/NACO Authority File. Funnel coordinators will provide you with the direct training and review that you will need to acquire this expertise. This presentation will cover how NACO funnels work, how you can participate, and review the benefits that funnel membership provides for your institution and your career. ALA Unit/Subunit: ALCTS Meeting Type: Committee Meeting Cost: Included with full conference registration. Open/Closed: Open Designed by CadmiumCD |Technical Support |Give Feedback © Copyright 2020 CadmiumCD. All Rights Reserved. 
www-gao-gov-1055	----	U.S. GAO - College Textbooks: Students Have Greater Access to Textbook Information Skip Navigation Advanced Search Reports & Testimonies Bid Protests & Appropriations Law Key Issues About GAO Multimedia College Textbooks: Students Have Greater Access to Textbook Information GAO-13-368: Published: Jun 6, 2013. Publicly Released: Jun 6, 2013. Highlights View Report (PDF, 33 pages) Share This:         Multimedia: PODCAST: College Textbook Information Click here to play podcast Download | Subscribe 4:39 Audio interview by GAO staff with Melissa Emrey-Arras, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security View the transcript Additional Materials: Highlights Page:  (PDF, 1 page) Full Report: View Report (PDF, 33 pages) Accessible Text: (HTML text file) Contact: Melissa H. Emrey Arras (617) 788-0534 emreyarrasm@gao.gov   Office of Public Affairs (202) 512-4800 youngc1@gao.gov What GAO Found Publishers included in GAO's study have disclosed textbook information required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), such as pricing and format options, and made components of bundled materials available individually, but stakeholders GAO interviewed said these practices have had little effect on faculty decisions. While most publishers in GAO's study provided all relevant textbook information, two smaller publishers did not provide copyright dates of prior editions, and one did not provide certain pricing information. Publishers communicated information to faculty online and in other marketing materials, and in most cases the information was available to students and the public. In addition, publishers said they began making bundled materials available for sale individually before HEOA was passed. Faculty GAO interviewed said they typically prioritize selecting the most appropriate materials for their courses over pricing and format considerations, although they said they are more aware of affordability issues than they used to be. Changes in the availability of options in the college textbook market that are not related to HEOA, such as the increase in digital products, have also shaped faculty decisions about course materials. Based on GAO's review of a nationally representative sample of schools, an estimated 81 percent provided fall 2012 textbook information online, and stakeholders GAO interviewed said implementation costs were manageable and students have benefited from increased transparency. HEOA allows schools some flexibility in whether and how they disclose information and an estimated 19 percent of schools did not provide textbook information online for various reasons, such as including textbook costs in tuition and fees or not posting a course schedule online. Representatives of most schools and bookstores, as well as others GAO interviewed, said implementation costs were not substantial. In addition, there was general consensus among students and others GAO interviewed that students have benefited from timely and dependable textbook information. Specifically, representatives of student organizations said they had sufficient information and time to comparison shop for their course materials before each academic term. Why GAO Did This Study The rising costs of postsecondary education present challenges to maintaining college affordability. Textbooks are an important factor students need to consider when calculating the overall cost of attending college. In an effort to ensure that faculty and students have sufficient information about textbooks, Congress included requirements in HEOA concerning publisher and school disclosures, as well as publisher provision of individual course materials. HEOA directed GAO to examine the implementation of the new textbook provisions. This report addresses (1) the efforts publishers have made to provide textbook information to faculty and make bundled materials available for sale individually, and how these practices have informed faculty selection of course materials; and (2) the extent to which postsecondary schools have provided students and college bookstores access to textbook information, and what the resulting costs and benefits have been. To conduct this study, GAO interviewed eight publishers representing over 85 percent of new U.S. higher education textbook sales, administrators at seven schools, four campus bookstores, two national campus retailers, faculty and student groups at three schools, and others with relevant expertise. GAO also reviewed websites of a nationally representative sample of schools, complaint data from Education, and relevant federal laws. GAO makes no recommendations in this report. The Department of Education provided technical comments, which were incorporated as appropriate. For more information, contact Melissa Emrey-Arras at (617) 788-0534 or emreyarrasm@gao.gov. View Report (PDF) Press Center Copyright & Terms of Use FOIA Requests Contact Us Privacy Policy Scam Alerts Inspector General Accessibility No FEAR Act Data Restricted Reports Sitemap 
www-glaad-org-1571	----	GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Transgender | GLAAD Skip to main content Search form About About GLAAD Our History Contact Us Our Team Staff Board of Directors Join our Team For Press Press Releases Meet Sarah Kate Media Reference Guide Our Work Accelerating Acceptance GLAAD Media Institute Youth Engagement Entertainment Media Black Queer Voices Transgender Spanish / Latinx Southern Stories HIV & AIDS #BiWeek #SpiritDay Global Bisexual News & Rapid Response Videos Resources Media Reference Guide Publications Together Campaign Trump Accountability Project Share Your Story Events Blog VOTE donate donate   X Search form Recent search terms transgender zeke survivor glaad awards trump accountability project spirit day GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Transgender For additional resources on how to fairly and accurately report on transgender people, please see "In Focus: Covering the Transgender Community" and visit glaad.org/transgender. Glossary of Terms - Transgender Sex The classification of a person as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex, usually based on the appearance of their external anatomy. (This is what is written on the birth certificate.) A person's sex, however, is actually a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal and external reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics. Gender Identity A person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices (see non-binary and/or genderqueer below.) Unlike gender expression (see below) gender identity is not visible to others. Gender Expression External manifestations of gender, expressed through a person's name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, and/or body characteristics. Society identifies these cues as masculine and feminine, although what is considered masculine or feminine changes over time and varies by culture. Typically, transgender people seek to align their gender expression with their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. Sexual Orientation Describes a person's enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. Transgender people may be straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer. For example, a person who transitions from male to female and is attracted solely to men would typically identify as a straight woman.  Transgender (adj.) An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms - including transgender. Some of those terms are defined below. Use the descriptive term preferred by the person. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures. Transsexual (adj.) An older term that originated in the medical and psychological communities. Still preferred by some people who have permanently changed - or seek to change - their bodies through medical interventions, including but not limited to hormones and/or surgeries. Unlike transgender, transsexual is not an umbrella term. Many transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word transgender. It is best to ask which term a person prefers. If preferred, use as an adjective: transsexual woman or transsexual man. Trans Used as shorthand to mean transgender or transsexual - or sometimes to be inclusive of a wide variety of identities under the transgender umbrella. Because its meaning is not precise or widely understood, be careful when using it with audiences who may not understand what it means. Avoid unless used in a direct quote or in cases where you can clearly explain the term's meaning in the context of your story. Cross-dresser While anyone may wear clothes associated with a different sex, the term cross-dresser is typically used to refer to men who occasionally wear clothes, makeup, and accessories culturally associated with women. Those men typically identify as heterosexual. This activity is a form of gender expression and not done for entertainment purposes. Cross-dressers do not wish to permanently change their sex or live full-time as women. Replaces the term "transvestite". Transition Altering one's birth sex is not a one-step procedure; it is a complex process that occurs over a long period of time. Transition can include some or all of the following personal, medical, and legal steps: telling one's family, friends, and co-workers; using a different name and new pronouns; dressing differently; changing one's name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) one or more types of surgery. The exact steps involved in transition vary from person to person. Avoid the phrase "sex change". Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) Also called Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS). Refers to doctor-supervised surgical interventions, and is only one small part of transition (see transition above). Avoid the phrase "sex change operation." Do not refer to someone as being "pre-op" or "post-op." Not all transgender people choose to, or can afford to, undergo medical surgeries. Journalists should avoid overemphasizing the role of surgeries in the transition process. Gender Identity Disorder (GID) outdated, see Gender Dysphoria Gender Dysphoria In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association released the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) which replaced the outdated entry "Gender Identity Disorder" with Gender Dysphoria, and changed the criteria for diagnosis. The necessity of a psychiatric diagnosis remains controversial, as both psychiatric and medical authorities recommend individualized medical treatment through hormones and/or surgeries to treat gender dysphoria. Some transgender advocates believe the inclusion of Gender Dysphoria in the DSM is necessary in order to advocate for health insurance that covers the medically necessary treatment recommended for transgender people.    Transgender women are not cross-dressers or drag queens. Drag queens are men, typically gay men, who dress like women for the purpose of entertainment. Be aware of the differences between transgender women, cross-dressers, and drag queens. Use the term preferred by the person. Do not use the word "transvestite" at all, unless someone specifically self-identifies that way. OTHER TERMS YOU MAY HEAR You may hear the following terms when doing research on transgender issues or speaking to an interview subject. As they are not commonly known outside the LGBTQ community, they will require context and definition if used in mainstream media. Cisgender A term used by some to describe people who are not transgender. "Cis-" is a Latin prefix meaning "on the same side as," and is therefore an antonym of "trans-." A more widely understood way to describe people who are not transgender is simply to say non-transgender people. Gender Non-Conforming A term used to describe some people whose gender expression is different from conventional expectations of masculinity and femininity. Please note that not all gender non-conforming people identify as transgender; nor are all transgender people gender non-conforming. Many people have gender expressions that are not entirely conventional – that fact alone does not make them transgender. Many transgender men and women have gender expressions that are conventionally masculine or feminine. Simply being transgender does not make someone gender non-conforming. The term is not a synonym for transgender or transsexual and should only be used if someone self-identifies as gender non-conforming. Non-binary and/or genderqueer Terms used by some people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman. They may define their gender as falling somewhere in between man and woman, or they may define it as wholly different from these terms. The term is not a synonym for transgender or transsexual and should only be used if someone self-identifies as non-binary and/or genderqueer.  TRANSGENDER NAMES, PRONOUN USAGE & DESCRIPTIONS Always use a transgender person's chosen name. Many transgender people are able to obtain a legal name change from a court. However, some transgender people cannot afford a legal name change or are not yet old enough to legally change their name. They should be afforded the same respect for their chosen name as anyone else who uses a name other than their birth name (e.g., celebrities). Use the pronoun that matches the person's authentic gender. A person who identifies as a certain gender, whether or not that person has taken hormones or undergone surgery, should be referred to using the pronouns appropriate for that gender. If you are not certain which pronoun to use, ask the person, "What pronouns do you use?" If it is not possible to ask a transgender person which pronoun they use, use the pronoun that is consistent with the person's appearance and gender expression or use the singular they. For example, if a person wears a dress and uses the name Susan, feminine pronouns are usually appropriate. Or it is also acceptable to use the singular they to describe someone when you don't wish to assign a gender. For example: "Every individual should be able to express their gender in a way that is comfortable for them." Some people use the singular they to reflect their non-binary gender identity and/or gender expression. In 2015, The Washington Post updated its style guide to include the singular they to describe people who "identify as neither male nor female." It is increasingly common for people who have a non-binary gender identity and/or gender expression to use they/them as their pronoun. For example: "Jacob writes eloquently about their non-binary identity. They have also appeared frequently in the media to talk about their family's reaction to their gender expression."    It is never appropriate to put quotation marks around either a transgender person's chosen name or the pronoun that reflects that person's gender identity." Terms to Avoid PROBLEMATIC PREFERRED "transgenders," "a transgender" Transgender should be used as an adjective, not as a noun. Do not say, "Tony is a transgender," or "The parade included many transgenders."   "transgender people","a transgender person" For example, "Tony is a transgender man," or "The parade included many transgender people."   "transgendered" The adjective transgender should never have an extraneous "-ed" tacked onto the end. An "-ed" suffix adds unnecessary length to the word and can cause tense confusion and grammatical errors. It also brings transgender into alignment with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer. You would not say that Elton John is "gayed" or Ellen DeGeneres is "lesbianed," therefore you would not say Chaz Bono is "transgendered."   "transgender"     "transgenderism" This is not a term commonly used by transgender people. This is a term used by anti-transgender activists to dehumanize transgender people and reduce who they are to "a condition." "being transgender" Refer to being transgender instead, or refer to the transgender community. You can also refer to the movement for transgender equality and acceptance. "sex change," "pre-operative," "post-operative Referring to a "sex-change operation," or using terms such as "pre-operative" or "post-operative," inaccurately suggests that a person must have surgery in order to transition. Avoid overemphasizing surgery when discussing transgender people or the process of transition. "transition" "biologically male," "biologically female," "genetically male," "genetically female," "born a man," "born a woman" Problematic phrases like those above are reductive and overly-simplify a very complex subject. As mentioned above, a person's sex is determined by a number of factors - not simply genetics - and a person's biology does not "trump" a person's gender identity. Finally, people are born babies: they are not "born a man" or "born a woman." "assigned male at birth," "assigned female at birth" or "designated male at birth," "designated female at birth" "passing" and "stealth" While some transgender people may use these terms among themselves, it is not appropriate to repeat them in mainstream media unless it's in a direct quote. The terms refer to a transgender person's ability to go through daily life without others making an assumption that they are transgender. However, the terms themselves are problematic because "passing" implies "passing as something you're not," while "stealth" connotes deceit. When transgender people are living as their authentic selves, and are not perceived as transgender by others, that does not make them deceptive or misleading. "visibly transgender," "not visibly transgender"      Defamatory Language Defamatory: "deceptive," "fooling," "pretending," "posing," "trap," or "masquerading" Gender identity is an integral part of a person's identity. Do not characterize transgender people as "deceptive," as "fooling" or "trapping" others, or as "pretending" to be, "posing" or "masquerading" as a man or a woman. Such descriptions are inaccurate, defamatory and insulting. (See "passing" and "stealth" as problematic terms above.) Defamatory: "tranny," "she-male," "he/she," "it," "shim" These words dehumanize transgender people and should not be used in mainstream media. The criteria for using these derogatory terms should be the same as those applied to vulgar epithets used to target other groups: they should not be used except in a direct quote that reveals the bias of the person quoted. So that such words are not given credibility in the media, it is preferred that reporters say, "The person used a derogatory word for a transgender person." Please note that while some transgender people may use "tranny" to describe themselves, others find it extremely offensive. Defamatory: "bathroom bill" A term created and used by far-right extremists to oppose nondiscrimination laws that protect transgender people. The term is geared to incite fear and panic at the thought of encountering transgender people in public restrooms. Simply refer to the nondiscrimination law/ ordinance instead. For additional resources on how to fairly and accurately report on nondiscrimination laws and bathrooms, please see "Debunking the 'Bathroom Bill' Myth – Accurate reporting on LGBT nondiscrimination: A guide for journalists."     Return to GLAAD Media Reference Guide Home Share this Page Trending GLAAD 7 young people discuss their ace identities and what people get wrong about asexuality Photo Credit: Vertical Entertainment "The True Adventures of Wolfboy" is a new film written by a trans woman you won't want to miss Blumhouse / Sony The magic of "The Craft: Legacy" goes well beyond the screen Show Me More ▾ Close ▼ Take a stand against discrimination and hate and become a GLAAD sustaining member. DONATE NOW DONATE NOW GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change.     Shop Shop Connect with GLAAD Facebook Tumblr Twitter Instagram Quick Links for press about glaad media awards report an incident donate privacy policy donate 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-4425	----	Librarianship at the Crossroads of ICE Surveillance – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2019 Nov 13 Sarah Lamdan /5 Comments Librarianship at the Crossroads of ICE Surveillance In Brief Information capitalism, the system where information, a historically, largely free and ubiquitous product of basic communication, is commodified by private owners for profit, is entrenched in our society. Information brokers have consolidated and swallowed up huge amounts of data, in a system that leaves data purchase, consumption, and use largely unregulated and unchecked. This article focuses on librarian ethics in the era of information capitalism, focusing specifically on an especially insidious arena of data ownership: surveillance capitalism and big data policing. While librarians value privacy and intellectual freedom, librarians increasingly rely on products that sell personal data to law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Librarians should consider how buying and using these products in their libraries comports with our privacy practices and ethical standards. By Sarah Lamdan Introduction As a fellow librarian, I’m here to warn you: ICE is in your library stacks. Whether directly or indirectly, some of the companies that sell your library research services also sell surveillance data to law enforcement, including ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Companies like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group (formerly Reed Elsevier), are supplying billions of data points, bits of our personal information, updated in real time, to ICE’s surveillance program.1 Our data is being collected by library vendors and sold to the police, including immigration enforcement officers, for millions of dollars. This article examines the privacy ethics conundrum raised by contemporary publishing models, where the very services libraries depend upon to fill their collections endanger patron privacy. In the offline world of paper collections and library stacks, librarians adhere to privacy ethics and practices to ensure intellectual freedom and prevent censorship. But librarians are unprepared to apply those same ethical requirements to digital libraries. As our libraries transition to largely digital collections2, we must critically assess our privacy ethics for the digital era.3 Where are the boundaries of privacy in libraries when several “data services”4 corporations that also broker personal data own the lion’s share of libraries’ holdings? After describing library vendors’ data selling practices and examining how those practices affect privacy in libraries, this article concludes by suggesting that library professionals organize beyond professional organizations. Librarians can demand vendor accountability and insist that vendors be transparent about how they use, repackage, and profit from personal data. An Overview of Vendors’ Data Brokering Work The consolidation of library vendors in the digital age has created a library services ecosystem where several vendors own the majority of databases and services upon which libraries rely.5 This puts libraries at the whim of publishing giants like Elsevier, Springer, and Taylor and Francis. This article uses Thomson Reuters and RELX Group, major publishing corporations that own Westlaw and Lexis6 , as case studies to demonstrate how information consolidation and the rise of big data impact library privacy. Thomson Reuters and RELX Group do not just duopolize the legal research market, they are powerful players in many library collections. They own a bevy of news sources and archives, academic collections including ScienceDirect, Scopus, and ClinicalKey, and all of the Reed Elsevier journals.7 Companies like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group are gradually buying up information collections that libraries and their patrons depend upon. In addition to selling research products, both Thomson Reuters and RELX are data brokers, companies that sell personal data to marketing entities and law enforcement including ICE.8 Data brokering is fast becoming a billion dollar industry. Personal information fuels the “Big Data economy,” a system that monetizes our data by running it through algorithm-based analyses to predict, measure, and govern peoples’ behavior.9 While data brokering for commercial gain (to predict peoples’ shopping habits and needs) is insidious, the sale of peoples’ data to law enforcement is even more dangerous. Brokering data to law enforcement fuels a policing regime that tracks and detains people based not on human investigation, but on often erroneous pools of data traded between private corporations and sorted by discriminatory algorithms.10 Big data policing disparately impacts minorities, creating surveillance dragnets in Muslim communities, overpolicing in black communities, and sustaining biases inherent in the U.S. law enforcement system.11 In the immigration context, big data policing perpetuates problematic biases with little oversight12 , resulting in mass surveillance, detention, and deportation.13 ICE pays RELX Group and Thomson Reuters millions of dollars for the personal data it needs to fuel its big data policing program.14 Thomson Reuters supplies the data used in Palantir’s controversial FALCON program, which fuses together a multitude of databases full of personal data to help ICE officers track immigrant targets and locate them during raids.15 LexisNexis provides ICE data that is “mission critical”16 to the agency’s program tracking immigrants and conducting raids at peoples’ homes and workplaces.17 Information Capitalism Drives Data Brokering The new information economy is drastically changing vendors’ and libraries’ information acquisition, sales, and purchasing norms. For Thomson Reuters and RELX Group, data brokering diversifies profit sources as the companies transition their services from traditional publishing to become “information analytics” companies.18 These corporations are no longer the publishers that librarians are used to dealing with, the kind that focus on particular data types (academic journals, scientific data, government records, and other staples of academic, public, and specialized libraries). Instead, the companies are data barons, sweeping up broad swaths of data to repackage and sell. Libraries have observed drastic changes in vendor services over the last decade. New business models are imperative for publishing companies that must maintain profits in a changing information marketplace. They are competing to remain profitable enterprises in an era where their traditional print publishing methods are less lucrative. To stay afloat financially, publishers are becoming predictive data analytics corporations.19 Publishers realize that the traditional publishing revenue streams from books and journals are unsustainable as those items become digital and open access.20 Reed Elsevier, one of the top five largest academic publishers has been “managing down” its print publishing services to focus on more lucrative online data analytics products.21 Reed Elsevier’s corporation rebranded itself RELX Group and Morgan Stanley recategorized RELX Group as a “business company” instead of a “media group.”22 For publishers, changing their business models is imperative to survive in a world where information access is changing dramatically and publishers are learning to maintain their market share in the new digital information regime.23 While print materials are less lucrative, publishers build technology labs, developing tools that stream and manipulate digital materials. Publishers like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group are finding new opportunities to consolidate and sell digital materials.24 Where information used to come in different shapes and sizes (papers, books, cassette tapes, photographs, paintings, newspapers, blueprints, and other disparate, irregular formats) it now flows in a single form, transmitted through fiber optic cables. Thomson Reuters and RELX Group are capitalizing on this new information form, buying up millions of published materials and storing them electronically to create digital data warehouses25 stored in servers. These new publishing enterprises are data hungry and do not discriminate between different types of data, be it academic, government, or personal. They want every data type, to compile as bundles of content to sell. Today’s library vendors are less like local bookstores and more like Costcos stocked with giant buckets of information.26 The new publishing company structure is a “big box” data store of library resources. Libraries buy bundles of journals, databases, and ebooks, and other mass-packaged materials in “big deals.”27 The Costco-ization of publishing drives publishers to collect tons of data, and to make systems that will slice and dice the data into new types of saleable bundles. Thus, publishers morph into data analytics corporations, developing AI systems to parse through huge datasets to gather statistics (“How many times does Ruth Bader Ginsburg say “social justice” in her Supreme Court opinions?”) and predict trends (“How many three pointers will Stephen Curry throw in 2019?”).28 As their vendors’ service models shift, librarians have also shifted from being information owners whose collection development focuses on purchasing materials to information borrowers that rent pre-curated data bundles shared through subscription databases. In 2019, Roxanne Shirazi, a librarian at CUNY’s Grad Center, described the phenomenon of “borrowing” information from gigantic data corporations in a blog post titled The Streaming Library.29 Shirazi compares the modern library to a collection of video subscription streaming services (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon). Libraries subscribe to online collections, “streaming” resources that live within various corporate data collections without owning them. “…Libraries used to purchase materials for shared use […] those materials used to live on our shelves.” But libraries no longer own all of their research materials, they temporarily borrow subscribe to them. Vendors can provide library resources, and make them disappear, at their whim.30 As lenders, library vendors do not end their relationships with libraries when they complete a sale. Instead, as streaming content providers, vendors become embedded in libraries. They are able to follow library patrons’ research activities, storing data about how people are using their services. When companies like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group are simultaneously library service providers and data brokers they can access library patron data and repackage that data for profit.31 Library vendors collect more and more patron data as they develop services to track patron preferences and make collection development decisions.32 Librarians have long been concerned with the privacy implications of digital authentication features vendors put in products to help verify patron identities and track their use of online databases.33 When vendors that track library patrons also participate in data brokering, it is entirely possible that patron data is in the mix of personal data the companies sell as data brokers.34 Neither Thomson Reuters or RELX Group has denied doing so.35 Furthermore, in 2018, both Thomson Reuters and RELX Group modified their privacy statements to clarify that they use personal data across their platforms, with business partners, and with third party service providers.36 In the current information economy, librarians increasingly lack leverage to confront powerful corporate vendors like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group.37 Information capitalism, the transition of industrialist capitalism to an economic system that assigns commercial value to knowledge, information, and data38, simultaneously intensifies privacy concerns in our libraries and empowers data corporations. As publishing conglomerates buy more and more data, libraries have little choice but to purchase their research products from these information monopolies. Data brokering is an especially threatening form of information capitalism, but other manifestations of information capitalism have also seeped into librarianship. When information sellers limit access to online content, put up paywalls, and charge exorbitant article processing charges (APCs), they profit from our patrons’ information needs and our roles as information providers. We are beholden to information capitalism39, and our profession is captured by this new brand of digital warehouse-style publishing. If we want information, we must pay a premium to wealthy data barons. The power wielded by huge publishing companies makes it hard for librarians that negotiate contracts with the companies to demand accountability. Librarians are in the awkward role of being, simultaneously, both “the biggest consumer of the materials [the corporations] sell as well as their biggest critics.”40 When librarians and their patrons try to bypass library vendors and provide open access to information, vendors have the power to stifle those demands. For instance, vendors sued the computer programmer who developed Sci-Hub, a website providing free access to scientific research and texts, forcing the website offline.41 Librarians envision a world where information is free, but live in a reality where they are largely captive to giant publishing companies. Because personal data is the “big data” empire’s most valuable currency, sought by companies like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group, librarians should be especially concerned about vendors’ gathering personal data in libraries. Data brokering is a multi-billion dollar industry.42 Data brokering capitalizes on lax software and online platform privacy policies43 , scraping and saving troves of personal data to analyze or repackage it for sale. Thus, as publishers become data analytics firms, it is useful for libraries to consider whether they unwittingly fuel the data brokering industry. Librarians’ Roles in Data Brokering It is important to begin the discussion about librarians’ roles in patron privacy by drawing a line between privacy ethics and the “vocational awe” that pervades our profession.44 The idea that certain parts of librarians’ work and values are sacred and beyond critique45 is harmful to our profession. We are certainly not obligated to consider ourselves the lone fighters at the front lines of academic freedom or bold crusaders for a larger cause. Much of what librarians have written about protecting patrons’ digital privacy focuses on librarians’ responsibilities, saddling the burden of privacy requirements and responsibilities on libraries and their staffs.46 Library professional education programs teach librarians that they must protect their patrons from online research platforms (clearing caches, erasing patron profiles, logging out of online systems, and other custodial tasks) rather than demanding that corporations stop tracking and collecting data from library patrons. It is not a librarian’s responsibility to save patrons from digital surveillance, rather, it is incumbent upon software developers to protect user privacy in the research tools they create. Rather than considering libraries the ultimate digital privacy saviors and library ethics as some glowing bastion that librarians are burdened with protecting, we can think of intellectual freedom and privacy ethics as one of many factors to consider when we choose which resources and tools to implement in our libraries. Library ethics are points upon which we should hold our vendors accountable, not obligations to internalize and carry on our backs. While there may be no absolute, ideal privacy solution for our libraries, privacy is something to keep in mind and add to the list of concerns we have about the form and function of modern publishing and research. Indeed, it is not the job of libraries, but the obligation of library vendors, to ensure that patrons are not surveilled by library products. Beyond unfairly burdening librarians, post hoc efforts to contain invasive digital research tools in libraries are not as effective as preemptively incorporating privacy into library products. Library’s digital hygiene activities are mere attempts to clean up after library vendors that breach patron privacy. When patrons use library vendors’ products, librarians follow behind, erasing profiles, clearing personal data from vendor systems, and trying to erase patrons’ digital footprints. We take on the work of cleaning up after our vendors. Instead, our vendors should be proactively protecting our patrons’ privacy. Privacy expert Ann Cavoukian coined the concept “privacy by design” for the knowledge economy, believing that in the age of information capitalism, information capitalists should build privacy measures into their products by default. Cavoukian set out seven principles that have been adopted by law in other nations, including the European Union (EU) in its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).47 The principles require that online services, including research tools and resources, be designed to proactively protect privacy. According to the principles, research products should default to privacy. Privacy should be embedded into research products’ design, with “end to end” privacy throughout the entire data lifecycle, from the moment data is created to its eventual disposal.48 These privacy measures should be transparent and clear to the end user. For instance, users should know where their data will end up, especially if their data may be packaged and resold in a data brokering scheme.49 While the EU has embraced privacy by design and required the companies doing business in its member nations to adhere to the seven principles, there is no privacy by design requirement for research services in the U.S. This leaves U.S. librarians in an ethically complicated role as major information technology users who adhere to patron privacy standards. Librarians’ information access roles keep us at the forefront of technological advancement, as most information access occurs online.50 We are information technology’s early adopters51 , and we serve as gatekeepers to troves of online data collections. Oftentimes our role makes us information technology’s first critics, sounding warnings about products and practices that are oppressive to our patrons and that violate our ethical duties to protect patron privacy and intellectual freedom.52 As technology critics, we tend to focus on technologies a la carte, on a product-by-product basis.53 By honing in on specific products, companies, and practices, we’ve been able to condemn specific problems. We speak out against subscription fees and paywalls54 and e-book publishers’ give and take of online book collections.55 But scrutinizing specific products ignores a holistic critique of library vendors. When we step back and view our vendors as a class, we can see a large-scale issue that foreshadows our profession: all of the world’s information is being consolidated by several gigantic data corporations. We must consider how vendors becoming “technology, content, and analytics” businesses56 threatens the daily work of libraries and the privacy of those we serve. Even as library privacy is threatened by vendors, librarians’ abilities to influence vendors’ privacy practices are decreasing as publishing companies change their business models. Publishing and data companies’ new data products and new, non-library-based data access points (including websites and apps) have created scores of new, non-library customers. Our vendors depend less on library customers as they diversify their customer base and recognize that they can sell directly to researchers without relying on library gatekeepers. In the last decade, Thomson Reuters has been criticized for trying to work around law librarians. The company even issued a controversial ad saying that patrons on a first name basis with their librarians are “spending too much time at the library” when they should use Westlaw from their offices instead.57 Through anti-competitive pricing schemes and sales practices, Lexis has similarly demonstrated its decreasing consideration of librarians in its marketing and sales plans.58 Librarians and their needs are getting pushed towards the back of the customer service queue. Declining library-vendor relations59 decrease librarians’ access to participate in vendor decision making. Librarians cannot count on government intervention to protect library privacy in the digital age. While most states officially recognize and regulate library privacy60 , the information capitalism that incentivizes data brokering has gone largely unchecked. Federal and state governments do little to regulate information capitalism. The Federal Trade Commission has tried to break RELX Group’s monopoly on data brokering61 , but there is no comprehensive regulatory scheme in place to prevent the consolidation of information by several private entities or the unauthorized sale of personal data to law enforcement. Without regulation, library professionals are left to deal with vendors who flout privacy best practices and threaten patron privacy. Librarians should not be responsible for fixing vendor privacy practices. Instead, they should condemn them. Solutions: Organizing Against Library Surveillance While librarians’ relationships with their vendors may be changing, librarians still wield power as information consumers. Librarians can organize to 1) demand accountability from our vendors, and 2) insist on transparency to ensure that vendors comply with our ethics. There are two major privacy issues raised by data brokers working as library vendors, and librarians can organize around both. The first issue is that the money libraries pay for products helps vendors develop surveillance products. The second issue is that the data that patrons provide vendors while using their products in libraries could be sold to law enforcement. These are two discrete problems that impact patron privacy, and vendors should be prepared to address both issues with librarians. The issues of libraries funding surveillance with subscription fees and library vendors including library patron data in their surveillance products are both major issues that could be the difference between library privacy and libraries as surveillance hubs. If library products sell our patron data to the government, we are essentially inviting surveillance in our libraries. When libraries pay data brokering publishing giants to enter their libraries and serve their patrons without ensuring that their patron data will not be included in data brokering products, the government does not even have to ask librarians to track researchers. Government agencies can enter libraries electronically, inserting government surveillance in the Trojan horse of online research tools. Or they can buy the data collected by the information companies, like ICE does with Thomson Reuters and RELX Group. If libraries are funding the research and development on surveillance products with our product subscription fees, libraries are spending money, often provided by patrons membership fees or taxes, on companies that use the income to build surveillance infrastructure that surveills various people and communities that may include library patrons. For instance, in law librarianship, law libraries collectively pay millions of dollars for Lexis and Westlaw each year. According to Thomson Reuters and RELX Group’s annual reports, that money is not kept in a separate pool of profits. It ostensibly funds their growing technology labs that create data analytics products and helps the companies afford scores of private data caches sold by smaller data brokering services. Especially in the post-9/11 surveillance regime, information vendors have been fighting for spots in the booming surveillance data markets62 Publishers like RELX Group are experts at cornering information markets. They’ve already bought the lion’s share of our academic publishing resources63 , from products where scholars incubate their research to the journals that publish the research after peer review, and even the post-publication “research evaluation” products and archives. The companies cash in at every step of academic research, profiting off of academics’ free labor.64 Thomson Reuters and Reed Elsevier are similarly cornering the legal information market. Beyond owning legal research products, they’re selling the surveillance products that help law enforcement track, detain, and charge people with crimes. When those swept up in law enforcement surveillance inevitably need lawyers, the lawyers use Westlaw and Lexis to represent them. The publishing companies transform legal research profits into products that help law enforcement create more criminal and immigration law clients.65 Librarians have the right to demand accountability from vendors about where patron data and subscription fees are being used. As major products customers, libraries can demand that the products they purchase maintain their ethical standards. Libraries do not have to sacrifice ethics and privacy norms for corporations like RELX Group and other information capitalists. We can research and learn about our products and their corporate purveyors and consider our privacy and intellectual freedom principles in relation to the things we buy. We should be able to discover what information our products are collecting about out patrons and who, if anyone, is using that personal data. We should also be able to find out what types of products our subscription fees support. Is the money we pay for library services supporting the research and development of police surveillance products? If it is, we should be able to make purchasing decisions with that surveillance relationship in mind. To facilitate informed purchasing decisions, libraries can demand information about vendors’ practices. Requiring disclosures about our vendors’ research and product infrastructure should be part of doing business with data companies. With more transparency, librarians can assess which products are better at ensuring patron privacy and supporting intellectual freedom. The ethical conundrums raised by these products are multifaceted: Are we risking privacy and breaking our own ethical code? Are we funding unethical supply chains that harm people and violate ethics in the production of their products? If we are betraying the tenets of intellectual freedom, we must divest. Some library patrons, including University of California San Francisco faculty66 and thousands of mathematicians have already advocated for boycotting and divesting from companies like RELX Group over pricing practices.67 Universities are beginning to drop their Elevier contracts and thousands of scholars are protesting Elsevier over the company’s “exorbitantly high prices.”68 Activism around pricing suggests that, rather than relying on corporations with sketchy practices, librarians can support and talk more about alternate companies and startups or create our own resources, open access consortia, and search options as alternatives to companies involved in ICE surveillance. When powerful academic institutions like the University of California divest from RELX Group’s Elsevier products, it shows that large libraries can lead the way in pushing back against problematic vendor practices. Importantly, holding vendors accountable should happen beyond the confines of library professional organizations, which are largely funded by the very vendors we need to hold accountable. Organizations that usually serve as librarians’ organizing hubs depend so thoroughly on funding from corporate vendors that they are not the best venues for criticizing library products and the corporations that sell them. Although the connections between research products and law enforcement surveillance unearth huge privacy concerns for libraries, professional library organizations are loath to discuss those concerns. Fighting corporate privacy issues may look the same as fighting FBI or other government surveillance to library professionals in their daily work (surveillance is surveillance whether it’s being conducted by the FBI or through RELX Group), but our professional organizations treat corporate and government practices very differently. Historically, library organizations have fought alongside librarians against government surveillance in libraries. The American Library Association (ALA) has protested government surveillance in libraries, decrying the PATRIOT Act’s Sections 215 and 505, provisions that give the federal government sweeping authority to surveil people and obtain peoples’ library records.69 In fact, ALA and its members’ protests were so persistent that FBI agents called librarians “radical” and “militant,” and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft decried librarians as “hysterical.”70 ALA pushed back, partnering with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to deploy anonymous browsing tools and other resources to protect library patrons’ privacy.71 Library organizations’ reactions to corporate surveillance, so far, have been much different. A blog post about library privacy and research vendors’ participation in ICE surveillance titled “LexisNexis’s Role in ICE Surveillance and Librarian Ethics” was taken down from the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) website within minutes of being posted, replaced by a message stating: “This post has been removed on the advice of AALL General Counsel.”72 While professional library organizations are comfortable standing up to the government when it threatens library patron privacy, the same organizations are not prepared to stand up to library vendors for the same privacy invasions. There are several reasons for the disparate ways library organizations react to government surveillance versus vendor surveillance. The main rationale offered by AALL when it removed the blog post critiquing legal research vendors was that vendors are equal members in the organization and that the critique of their relationships with ICE amounted to “collective member actions” that raise antitrust issues. This rationale is nonsensical, implying that librarians voicing concerns about Thomson Reuters and RELX Group ICE contracts is akin to a group boycott designed to stifle competition among legal research vendors.73 This improbable excuse was likely a smokescreen designed to stop AALL members from potentially upsetting the organizations’ key donors. AALL relies on Thomson Reuters and RELX Group to sponsor their activities and scholarship programs. When library vendors are middlemen between library patrons and government surveillance, librarians may be prohibited from critiquing vendor practices in professional organizations’ forums. The next wave of privacy concerns will come from our vendors and information sources, and they will require librarians organizing resistance outside of their professional organizations. As we begin to do this organizing work, we should keep track of the ways our vendors are changing and what that means for our ethical standards. This article focuses on surveillance, but it’s not the only issue that arises when publishers become data corporations. Librarians must either drop our privacy pretenses or create privacy policies that push back against information capitalism and data barons. Privacy is a new supply chain ethics problem, and librarians are stuck in its wake as major information technology purchasers and providers, promoters and gatekeepers. Privacy settings in digital products should be the default.74 Unfortunately, privacy defaults are aspirational, and largely unimplemented. When dealing with information corporations hungry for data to put on its warehouse shelves, for bundling and selling to new customers, librarians can make it clear that the surveillance work these companies do is forbidden in our stacks. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Kellee Warren, Scott Young, and Ian Beilin for their thoughtful edits and for sagely shepherding this article through the peer review process. She would also like to thank Yasmin Sokkar Harker, Nicole Dyszlewski, Julie Krishnaswami, Rebecca Fordon, and the many other law librarians who have offered feedback, advice, and support throughout this research process. The author also recognizes and applauds the critical work and purpose of In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Its role as an open access, peer reviewed library journal that supports creative solutions for major library issues makes the publication a vital part of our profession. 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(2013) “ICE Will Utilize LexisNexis Databases to Track Down Fugitive […]” (September 11, 2013), https://www.gsnmagazine.com/article/33053/ice_will_utilize_lexisnexis_databases_track_down_f. Gressel, Michael. (2014) “Are Libraries Doing Enough to Safeguard Their Patrons’ Digital Privacy?” The Serials Librarian 67:2, 137-42. Guthrie Ferguson, Andrew. (2017) The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement. NYU Press. Hines, Shawnda. (2019) “ALA Launches National Campaign Against Ebook Embargo.” (Sept, 11, 2019) http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2019/09/ala-launches-national-campaign-against-e-book-embargo. Hodnicki, Joe. (2018) “Does WEXIS Use Legal Research User Data in Their Surveillance Search Platforms?” Law Librarian Blog (July 16, 2018), https://llb2.com/2018/07/16/does-wexis-use-legal-search-user-data-in-their-surveillance-search-platforms Hodnicki, Joe. (2018) “Early Coverage of AALL-LexisNexis Anticompetitive Tying Controversy.” Law Librarian Blog (June 15, 2018), https://llb2.com/2018/06/15/early-coverage-of-aall-lexisnexis-anticompetitive-tying-controversy/. Hodnicki, Joe. (2017) “LexisNexis’s Role in ICE Surveillance and Librarian Ethics.” Law Librarian Blog (December 11, 2017), https://llb2.com/2017/12/11/ice/. Ignatow, Gabe. (2017) Information Capitalism, The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, G. Ritzer, Ed. Inmon, Bill. (2005) Building the Data Warehouse. 4th Ed. Wiley. Johnson, Peggy. (2018) Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management 4th ed. ALA Editions. Joseph, George. (2019) “Data Company Directly Powers Immigration Raids in Workplace.” WNYC (July 16, 2019). https://www.wnyc.org/story/palantir-directly-powers-ice-workplace-raids-emails-show/ Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition, Solicitation No. HSCECR-13-F-00032, https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=4e90a456155db39df108857eb970148d&tab=core&_cview=0. Kalhan, Anil. (2014) “Immigration Surveillance.” Maryland Law Review 74:1, Article 2, https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3646&context=mlr. Kennedy, Bruce M. (1989) “Confidentiality of Library Records: A Survey of Problems, Policies, and Laws.” Law Library Journal 81:4, 733-767. https://works.bepress.com/aallcallforpapers/51/download/ Kulp, Patrick. (2018) “Here’s How Publishers Are Opening Their Data Toolkits to Advertisers.” AdWeek (May 29, 2018), https://www.adweek.com/digital/heres-how-publishers-are-opening-their-data-science-toolkits-to-advertisers/. Lambert, April et al. (2016) “Library patron privacy in jeopardy an analysis of the privacy policies of digital content vendors.” Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology (February 24, 2016), https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pra2.2015.145052010044 Lamdan, Sarah. (2015) “Social Media Privacy: A Rallying Cry to Librarians.” The Library Quarterly 85:3, 261-277 (July 2015). https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cl_pubs/52/ Lamdan, Sarah. (2019) “When Westlaw Fuels ICE Surveillance: Legal Ethics in the Era of Big Data Policing.” 43 N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change 43: 2, 255-293 (2019), https://socialchangenyu.com/review/when-westlaw-fuels-ice-surveillance-legal-ethics-in-the-era-of-big-data-policing/. LexisNexis Privacy Statement. https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/terms/privacy-policy.page. Lipscomb, Carolyn E. (2001) “Mergers in the Publishing Industry.” Bulletin of the Medial Library Association 89:3, 307-308, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34566/. Michael, Mike and Deborah Lupton. (2015) “Toward a Manifesto for the ‘Public Understanding of Big Data.’” Public Understanding of Science 25(1), 104–116. Mijente. (2018) “Who’s Behind ICE: The Tech and Data Companies Fueling Deportations.” https://mijente.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WHO%E2%80%99S-BEHIND-ICE_-The-Tech-and-Data-Companies-Fueling-Deportations-_v1.pdf Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. (1986) “Capitalism in the Computer Age.” New Left Review 1:160, 81-91. https://newleftreview.org/issues/I160/articles/tessa-morris-suzuki-capitalism-in-the-computer-age NARA Records Management Key Terms and Acronyms. https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/rm-glossary-of-terms.pdf. Noble, Safiya Umoja. (2018) Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press. Opher, Albert et al. (2014) The Rise of the Data Economy: Driving Value Through Internet of Things Data Monetization. https://hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/rise_data_econ.pdf. Palfrey, John and Urs Gasser. (2010) Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Basic Books. Peterson, Andrea. (2014) “Librarians won’t stay quiet about government surveillance.” Washington Post (October 3, 2014). Pollock, Dan and Ann Michael. (2019) “Open Access Mythbusting: Testing Two Prevailing Assumptions About the Effects of Open Access Adoption.” Learned Publishing, 32: 7-12. Posada, Alejandro and George Chen. (2017) “Publishers are increasingly in control of scholarly infrastructure and why we should care: A Case Study of Elsevier.” The Knowledge G.A.P. http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/preliminary-findings/ Resnick, Brian and Julia Belluz. (2019) “The War To Free Science: How Librarians, Pirates, and Funders Are Liberating the World’s Academic Research from Paywalls.” Vox (July 10, 2019), https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/3/18271538/open-access-elsevier-california-sci-hub-academic-paywalls. RIPS Law Librarian Blog. (2017) “Post Removed.” (December 5, 2017) https://ripslawlibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/lexisnexiss-role-in-ice-surveillance-librarian-ethics/ Roberts, Sarah T. (2019) Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. Yale University Press. Routley, Nick. (2018) “The Multi-Billion Dollar Industry That Makes Its Living From Your Data.” Visual Capitalist (April 4, 2018), https://www.visualcapitalist.com/personal-data-ecosystem/ Selbst, Andrew D. (2017) “Disparate Impact in Big Data Policing.” Georgia Law Review 52:109, 109-195. https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10074337 Shirazi, Roxanne. (2019) “The Streaming Library.” (August 27, 2019) https://roxanneshirazi.com/2019/08/27/the-streaming-library/ Shirazi, Roxanne (@RoxanneShirazi). (2019) Twitter (August 26, 2019, 7:08 PM), https://twitter.com/roxanneshirazi/status/1166125407961276418?s=21 SPARC*. (n.d) “Big Deal Cancellation Tracking.” https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-cancellation-tracking/ Thomson Reuters. (2015) “Thomson Reuters to Launch Data and Innovation Lab in Waterloo Ontario.” (September 16, 2015) https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2015/september/launch-data-and-innovation-lab-in-waterloo-canada.html Thomson Reuters. (2018) “Privacy Statement.” https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/privacy-statement.html#legitimate-interests van Loon, Ronald. “RELX Group: A Transformation Story, Our Stories.” RELX.com https://www.relx.com/our-business/our-stories/transformation-to-analytics van Loon, Ronald. “The Data Driven Lawyer: How RELX is Using AI to Help Transform the Legal Sector.” https://www.relx.com/our-business/our-stories/data-driven-lawyer Yeh, Chih-Liang. (2018) “Pursuing Consumer Empowerment in the Age of Big Data: A Comprehensive Regulatory Framework for Data Brokers.” Telecommunications Policy 42, 282–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2017.12.001 Zhang, Sarah. (2019)”The Real Cost of Knowledge.” The Atlantic (March 4, 2019), https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/uc-elsevier-publisher/583909/ Sarah Lamdan, When Westlaw Fuels ICE Surveillance: Legal Ethics in the Era of Big Data Policing, 43 NYU Review of Law & Social Change 255, 277 (2019), https://socialchangenyu.com/review/when-westlaw-fuels-ice-surveillance-legal-ethics-in-the-era-of-big-data-policing/. [↩] Libraries are trending towards digitized collections. For instance, University of California’s Merced campus transitioned to a 90% digital library according to its 2003 development plans. Jim Dooley, “University of California, Merced: Primarily an Electronic Library,” in Academic E-Books: Publisher, Librarians, and Users 93-106 (Suzanne M. Ward, et al. eds. 2016). [↩] April Lambert, et al., “Library patron privacy in jeopardy an analysis of the privacy policies of digital content vendors,” Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology (February 24, 2016). [↩] Alejandro Posada & George Chen, “Publishers are increasingly in control of scholarly infrastructure and why we should care: A Case Study of Elsevier,” The Knowledge G.A.P. (September 20, 2017), http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/preliminary-findings/. [↩] The phenomenon of library services consolidation is not new, but it has increased as library services move to online platforms. See Carolyn E. Lipscomb, “Mergers in the Publishing Industry,” Bulletin of the Medial Library Association (2001), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34566/. Consolidation among vendors has changed the way libraries approach collection development and acquisition, pushing librarians from an a la carte model, where librarians pick their collection based on specific needs and titles, to a “big deal” model, where librarians buy huge bundles of information from only several publishers that own the lions’ share of library materials and user platforms. See Peggy Johnson, Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management 10-11 (4th ed. 2018). [↩] Westlaw and Lexis are the go-to digital collections and research tools of law librarianship, Barbara Bintliff, et al., Fundamentals of Legal Research, Tenth Edition (April 7, 2015). [↩] All Elsevier Digital Solutions, https://www.elsevier.com/solutions [↩] Federal Trade Commission, Data Brokers: A Call For Transparency and Accountability (2014), https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/data-brokers-call-transparency-accountability-report-federal-trade-commission-may-2014/140527databrokerreport.pdf [↩] Albert Opher, et al,, The Rise of the Data Economy: Driving Value Through Internet of Things Data Monetization (2014), https://hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/rise_data_econ.pdf; Mike Michael & Deborah Lupton, Toward a Manifesto for the ‘Public Understanding of Big Data’, Public Understanding of Science (2015). [↩] Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement (2018). [↩] Andrew D. Selbst, Disparate Impact in Big Data Policing, 52 Georgia Law Review 109 (2017), https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10074337 [↩] Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression (2018). [↩] Anil Kalhan, Immigration Surveillance, 74 Maryland Law Review 1, 6 (2014), https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3646&context=mlr [↩] McKenzie Funk, How ICE Picks Its Targets in the Surveillance Age, NY Times (October 2, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/magazine/ice-surveillance-deportation.html [↩] George Joseph, Data Company Directly Powers Immigration Raids in Workplace, WNYC (July 16, 2019), https://www.wnyc.org/story/palantir-directly-powers-ice-workplace-raids-emails-show/ [↩] Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition, Solicitation No. HSCECR-13-F-00032, https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=4e90a456155db39df108857eb970148d&tab=core&_cview=0 [↩] ICE’s Fugitive Operations Support Center has contracted with LexisNexis for its Accurint databases since 2013. Government Security News, ICE Will Utilize LexisNexis Databases to Track Down Fugitive […] (September 11, 2013), https://www.gsnmagazine.com/article/33053/ice_will_utilize_lexisnexis_databases_track_down_f ICE’s Fugitive Operations target and surveil immigrants, apprehending people in large sweeps. See Cindy Carcamo, For ICE, Business as Usual is Never Business as Usual in an Era of Trump, Los Angeles Times (November 4, 2019), https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-04/on-a-ride-along-with-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-agents [↩] Sarah Lamdan, When Westlaw Fuels ICE Surveillance: Legal Ethics in the Era of Big Data Policing, 43 N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change 255, 275 (2019). [↩] Donald A. Barclay, “Academic print books are dying. What’s the future?,” The Conversation (November 10, 2015), https://theconversation.com/academic-print-books-are-dying-whats-the-future-46248; Dan Cohen, “The Books of College Libraries Are Turning Into Wallpaper,” The Atlantic (May 26, 2019), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/college-students-arent-checking-out-books/590305/ [↩] In 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on the bleak employment outlook in the traditional publishing industry, which showed that employment in the book, traditional news, and periodical industry declined since 1990, as employment in online and movie industries soared. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Trends in Newspaper Publishing and Other Media (2016), https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/employment-trends-in-newspaper-publishing-and-other-media-1990-2016.htm Meanwhile, open access becomes increasingly normalized part of our information ecosystem. See Dan Pollock & Ann Michael, “Open Access Mythbusting: Testing Two Prevailing Assumptions About the Effects of Open Access Adoption,” The Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (January 2019). [↩] Ronald Van Loon, RELX Group: A Transformation Story, Our Stories, RELX.com, https://www.relx.com/our-business/our-stories/transformation-to-analytics [↩] Ibid. [↩] Caroline Davis, Print Cultures: A Reader in Theory and Practice 267 (2019). [↩] In 2015, Thomson Reuters opened its data and innovation lab in Ontario, Canada to develop machine learning and AI products. See Thomson Reuters, Thomson Reuters to Launch Data and Innovation Lab in Waterloo, Ontario (September 16, 2015), https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2015/september/launch-data-and-innovation-lab-in-waterloo-canada.html Similarly, RELX Group is developing laboratories to study and develop data analytics technologies. See, Elsevier Labs, https://labs.elsevier.com/. [↩] The concept of the “data warehouse” was originally conceived by computer scientist Bill Inmon, He envisioned data warehouses as centralized storage for large collections data integrated from various sources. Bill Inmon, Building the Data Warehouse (4th ed. 2005). [↩] The National Archives call large, aggregated datasets “big buckets.” NARA Records Management Key Terms and Acronyms, https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/rm-glossary-of-terms.pdf [↩] Big deal purchasing began in the late 1990’s when large publishers began offering libraries deals on aggregated bundles of content that provided discounts compared to purchasing titles individuals. SPARC*, Big Deal Cancellation Tracking, https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-cancellation-tracking/ [↩] One example of the ways publishers are monetizing their collections via data analytics is news media’s use of data analytics to gauge and analyze readers’ emotional reactions to news articles and monitor which topics resonate most with readers to better target marketing campaigns. See Patrick Kulp, “Here’s How Publishers Are Opening Their Data Toolkits to Advertisers,” AdWeek (May 29, 2018), https://www.adweek.com/digital/heres-how-publishers-are-opening-their-data-science-toolkits-to-advertisers/ RELX Group describes its big data technology as leveraging user data to analyze its digital collections, creating commercially viable analyses for profit. See Ronald van Loon, The Data Driven Lawyer: How RELX is Using AI to Help Transform the Legal Sector, https://www.relx.com/our-business/our-stories/data-driven-lawyer [↩] Roxanne Shirazi, “The Streaming Library” (August 27, 2019), https://roxanneshirazi.com/2019/08/27/the-streaming-library/ [↩] As libraries transition from paper collections to electronic collections, eBook vendors control collection access through pricing, limited time contracts, and other tactics made possible in a system where libraries do not own their materials but purchase licenses to stream materials from vendor databases. Matt Enis, Publishers Change Ebook and Audiobook Models; Libraries Look for Answers, Library Journal (July 17, 2019), https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=publishers-change-ebook-and-audiobook-models-libraries-look-for-answers [↩] Roxanne Shirazi (@RoxanneShirazi), Twitter (August 26, 2019, 7:08 PM), https://twitter.com/roxanneshirazi/status/1166125407961276418?s=21 See also Sarah Lamdan, “When Westlaw Fuels ICE Surveillance: Legal Ethics in the Era of Big Data Policing,” 43 N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change, Volume 43, pp. 255, 290 (2019). [↩] Lori Bowen Ayre, “Protecting Patron Privacy: Vendors, Libraries, and Patrons Each Have a Role to Play,” 9 Collaborative Librarianship 1 (March, 2017), https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1330&context=collaborativelibrarianship [↩] Pam Dixon, “Ethical Issues Implicit in Library Authentication and Access Management: Risks and Best Practices,” 47 Journal of Library Administration 141 (2008). [↩] Chih-Liang Yeh, “Pursuing Consumer Empowerment in the Age of Big Data: A Comprehensive Regulatory Framework for Data Brokers,” 42 Telecommunications Policy 282–92 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2017.12.001 [↩] Joe Hodnicki, Does WEXIS Use Legal Research User Data in Their Surveillance Search Platforms?, Law Librarian Blog (July 16, 2018), https://llb2.com/2018/07/16/does-wexis-use-legal-search-user-data-in-their-surveillance-search-platforms [↩] Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement, https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/privacy-statement.html#legitimate-interests; LexisNexis Privacy Statement, https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/terms/privacy-policy.page [↩] Matt Dunie, “Negotiating With Content Vendors: An Art or A Science?,” E-content in Libraries, A Marketplace Perspective (Sue Polanka, ed.), Library Technology Reports, ALA. This writing describes how libraries struggle to cover rising cost of data bundles with decreasing budgets. Libraries must pay for the collections that patrons require by decreasing spending in other categories, like personnel and even numbers of library branches. Yet, the vendors have discovered that their content is so critical that, despite raising prices, libraries continue to acquire content at the same rate. The reliance of libraries on vendor content gives vendors the leverage to set prices ever higher. [↩] Gabe Ignatow, “Information Capitalism” (2017) [↩] Tessa Morris-Suzuki describes the ways the growth of the “information economy” limits access to freely available information, placing once-accessible research and reporting behind paywalls and monetizing information that used to be considered a public good. Morris-Suzuki identifies libraries as the former hub for free information “paid for by society as a whole”, and describes how the commodification of information alters both the concept of librarians as spaces where information is not commodified, and also libraries’ access to information collections. Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Capitalism in the Computer Age,” The New Left Review (1986), https://newleftreview.org/issues/I160/articles/tessa-morris-suzuki-capitalism-in-the-computer-age [↩] Carolyn C. Gardiner, “Librarians Find Themselves Caught Between Journal Pirates and Publishers,” Chronicle of Higher Education (February 18, 2016), https://www.chronicle.com/article/Librarians-Find-Themselves/235353 [↩] Elsevier Inc. et al v. Sci-Hub et al, No. 1:2015 cv 04282 (S.D.N.Y. 2015). [↩] Nick Routley, “The Multi-Billion Dollar Industry That Makes Its Living From Your Data,” Visual Capitalist (April 4, 2018), https://www.visualcapitalist.com/personal-data-ecosystem/ [↩] Ann Cavoukian, Privacy by Design: The 7 Foundational Principles, https://www.iab.org/wp-content/IAB-uploads/2011/03/fred_carter.pdf [↩] Fobazi Ettarh, “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves,” In the Library With a Lead Pipe (January10, 2018), http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/ [↩] Ibid. [↩] See Michael Gressel, “Are Libraries Doing Enough to Safeguard Their Patrons’ Digital Privacy?,” 67 The Serials Librarian 137 (2014). Librarians are tasked with educating patrons about digital privacy hygeine and ensuring that every public access computer in their libraries be properly set up to protect patrons against software practices that violate privacy. However, it is not the responsibility of librarians to be masters of digital privacy, rather, corporations should be held accountable and made to design their products in a way that protects everyone, including library patrons. See Sarah Lamdan, “Social Media Privacy: A Rallying Cry to Librarians,” 85 The Library Quarterly (July 2015). [↩] EU General Data Protection Regulation, https://eugdpr.org/. See also, Ann Cavoukian, Privacy by Design: The 7 Foundational Principles, https://iab.org/wp-content/IAB-uploads/2011/03/fred_carter.pdf [↩] Ibid. [↩] Ibid. [↩] Most modern information is born-digital, and librarians are pivoting from paper collections to online collection curation/building/digitization, John Palfrey & Urs Gasser, Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (2010). [↩] Joan C. Durrance, Competition or Convergence? Library and Information Science Education at a Critical Crossroad, 28 Advances in Librarianship 171 (December 29, 2004), https://durrance.people.si.umich.edu/img/research/90/Durrance_Competition_Advances_2004.pdf [↩] For instance, Sofiya Umoja Noble warns about bias in search algorithms in her book, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, and Sarah T. Roberts writes about how social media moderation, behind the scenes, takes an emotional toll on its workers in Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. [↩] We protest individual contracting schemes by various vendors but we do not examine information capitalism as its own structure. [↩] Brian Resnick & Julia Belluz, “The War To Free Science: How Librarians, Pirates, and Funders Are Liberating the World’s Academic Research from Paywalls”, Vox (July 10, 2019), https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/3/18271538/open-access-elsevier-california-sci-hub-academic-paywalls [↩] For example librarians organized against MacMillan’s e-book embargo in 2019. See Shawnda Hines, “ALA Launches National Campaign Against Ebook Embargo,” (September 11, 2019) http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2019/09/ala-launches-national-campaign-against-e-book-embargo [↩] Robert Cookson, “Reed Elsevier to Rename Itself RELX Group,” Financial Times (Februrary 26, 2015), https://www.ft.com/content/4be90dbe-bd97-11e4-9d09-00144feab7de [↩] Brian P. Craig, “Law Firm Reference Librarian, a Dying Breed?,” LLAGNY Law Lines (Summer 2009), https://www.llagny.org/assets/docs/Law_Lines/Summer/ll_summer2009.pdf [↩] Joe Hodnicki, Early Coverage of AALL-LexisNexis Anticompetitive Tying Controversy, Law Librarian Blog (June 15, 2018), https://llb2.com/2018/06/15/early-coverage-of-aall-lexisnexis-anticompetitive-tying-controversy/ [↩] In 2011, investment analyst Claudio Aspesi asked an Elsevier CEO about “the deteriorating relationship with the libraries” and the CEO declined to respond about the relationship between the major publisher and its library customers. Stephen Buranyi, “Is the Staggeringly Profitable Business of Scientific Publishing Bad for Science?,” The Guardian (June 27, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science [↩] Bruce M. Kennedy, “Confidentiality of Library Records: A Survey of Problems, Policies, and Laws,” 81 Law Library Journal 733 (1989), https://works.bepress.com/aallcallforpapers/51/download/ [↩] In 2008, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Reed Elsevier to divest part of its ChoicePoint aquisition to Thomson Reuters to ensure competition between the two data brokers, but no overarching law or particular action has broken up the data companies’ duopoly or significantly regulated privacy in the data broker industry. See Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Challenges Reed Elsevier’s Proposed $4.1 Billion Acquisition of ChoicePoint, Inc.” (September 16, 2008), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2008/09/ftc-challenges-reed-elseviers-proposed-41-billion-acquisition [↩] Mijente, “Who’s Behind ICE: The Tech and Data Companies Fueling Deportations” (2018), https://mijente.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WHO%E2%80%99S-BEHIND-ICE_-The-Tech-and-Data-Companies-Fueling-Deportations-_v1.pdf [↩] David Crotty, “Welcome to The Great Acceleration,” The Scholarly Kitchen (January 2, 2019), https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2019/01/02/welcome-to-the-great-acceleration/ [↩] Armin Beverungin, et al., “The Poverty of Journal Publishing,” 19 Organization 929 (2012). [↩] This cycle of publishing and surveillance is described in Sarah Lamdan, “When Westlaw Fuels ICE Surveillance: Legal Ethics in the Era of Big Data Policing,” 43 N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change 255 (2019), https://socialchangenyu.com/review/when-westlaw-fuels-ice-surveillance-legal-ethics-in-the-era-of-big-data-policing/ [↩] Kemi Amin, “UCSF Faculty Launch Petition to Boycott Elsevier in Support of Open Access,” UCSF Library Blog (March 11, 2019), https://www.library.ucsf.edu/news/ucsf-faculty-launch-petition-to-boycott-elsevier-in-support-of-open-access/ [↩] Sarah Zhang, “The Real Cost of Knowledge,” The Atlantic (March 4, 2019), https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/uc-elsevier-publisher/583909/ [↩] Ibid. [↩] Sarah Lamdan, “Social Media Privacy: A Rallying Cry to Librarians,” 85 The Library Quarterly 5-6 (July 2015). [↩] Ibid. [↩] Andrea Peterson, “Librarians won’t stay quiet about government surveillance,” Washington Post (October 3, 2014), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/10/03/librarians-wont-stay-quiet-about-government-surveillance/ [↩] RIPS Law Librarian Blog, “Post Removed” (December 5, 2017), https://ripslawlibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/lexisnexiss-role-in-ice-surveillance-librarian-ethics/. The post was shared by a law librarian on his personal blog. See Joe Hodnicki, “LexisNexis’s Role in ICE Surveillance and Librarian Ethics,” Law Librarian Blog (December 11, 2017), https://llb2.com/2017/12/11/ice/ [↩] Federal Trade Commission, Group Boycotts, https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/group-boycotts [↩] Ann Cavoukian, Privacy by DesignFoundational Principles, https://www.iab.org/wp-content/IAB-uploads/2011/03/fred_carter.pdf [↩] data privacy, law, library data, privacy, surveillance, vendor relationships, vendors Consultants in Canadian Academic Libraries: Adding New Voices to the Story No Holds Barred: Policing and Security in the Public Library 5 Responses Kathleen McCook 2019–11–16 at 8:30 am Thank you for this article. I am sharing with my public librarianship class. Also posting at Progressive Librarian Guild FB page., –Kathleen de la Peña McCook Ulrich Herb 2020–01–04 at 7:13 pm Great content, perhaps this paper is of interest for you: Steering science through Output Indicators & Data Capitalism, https://zenodo.org/record/3333395 If your intereted in doing some research abou it please catch up! Pingback : Uncoven Issue #32 – Hex Rated Pingback : “Information Has Value”: The Political Economy of Information Capitalism | Todays News and Updates Pingback : ASpB Workshop am 09. Oktober 2020, 10 – 14 Uhr: „Wenn Ihr Buch Sie liest: Bibliotheksethische Fragen zum Data Analytics Business in der Wissenschaftskommunikation“ mit Dr. Renke Siems (Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen) – Arbeitsge This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-4895	----	In the Library with the Lead Pipe – An open access, peer reviewed journal Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2020 Oct 21 Jeremiah Paschke-Wood, Ellen Dubinsky and Leslie Sult /2 Comments Creating a Student-Centered Alternative to Research Guides: Developing the Infrastructure to Support Novice Learners In Brief: Research and course guides typically feature long lists of resources without the contextual or instructional framework to direct novice researchers through the research process. An investigation of guide usage and user interactions at a large university in the southwestern U.S. revealed a need to reexamine the way research guides can be developed and... Read More 2020 Sep 16 Danya Leebaw and Alexis Logsdon /1 Comment Power and Status (and Lack Thereof) in Academe: Academic Freedom and Academic Librarians In Brief Academic librarians do not experience full academic freedom protections, despite the fact that they are expected to exercise independent judgment, be civically engaged, and practice applied scholarship. Academic freedom for academic librarians is not widely studied or well understood. To learn more, we conducted a survey which received over 600 responses from academic... Read More 2020 Sep 02 Jennie Rose Halperin /1 Comment The Library Commons: An Imagination and an Invocation By Jennie Rose Halperin In Brief Commons theory can provide important interventions within neoliberal managerial information capitalism when applied to the library as an institution. The commons and its associated practices provide a model of abundance, sharing, and cooperation. Libraries can and should participate in alternative economic and management models to create an inclusive vision... Read More 2020 Aug 19 Dave Ellenwood /1 Comment “Information Has Value”: The Political Economy of Information Capitalism In Brief Information capitalism dominates the production and flow of information across the globe. It produces massive information institutions that are as harmful to everyday people as they are powerful. To this point, Information Literacy (IL) educators do not have a theory and pedagogy of information capitalism. This article appraises the current state of political... Read More 2020 Jul 22 Liz Vine /2 Comments Training Matters: Student Employment and Learning in Academic Libraries In Brief Conceiving of student employment in academic libraries as an educationally purposeful experience requires adopting a learner-centered pedagogical approach to student employee job training. Adopting such an approach is triply beneficial: it makes that job training more effective; it identifies training as an opportunity to pursue learning goals that support the growth of students... Read More 2020 Jun 24 Natalia Fernández and Beth Filar Williams /1 Comment Creating a Library Wide Culture and Environment to Support MLIS Students of Color: The Diversity Scholars Program at Oregon State University Libraries In Brief The work of social justice, equity, and inclusion is not a short-term investment by a limited number of people; instead, it should be a part of every library’s and librarian’s work. At the Oregon State University Libraries (OSUL), we felt that in order to create a program dedicated to employing MLIS students of... Read More 2020 Jun 10 Nicola Andrews /10 Comments It’s Not Imposter Syndrome: Resisting Self-Doubt as Normal For Library Workers In Brief Library workers, as with other professions, are quick to diagnose ourselves and others with imposter syndrome when we doubt or devalue our everyday work.  However, methods of coping with imposter syndrome have changed little in the forty years since the term was first theorized, and often centre on feel-good fixes which do not... Read More 2020 Apr 29 Ean Henninger /7 Comments Multilingualism, Neoliberalism, and Language Ideologies in Libraries In BriefThis article calls for a more holistic and inclusive approach to the under-examined issue of language in libraries. It begins by foregrounding language as a category of difference and arguing for its consideration in discussions of access, equity, diversity, and inclusion. By drawing on literature from applied linguistics and library and information studies, it... Read More 2020 Apr 01 Frederick Carey /0 Comments Communicating with Information: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Students with ASD In Brief The focus of this article is twofold: it 1) considers how digital humanities techniques and methodologies increase accessibility and scholarship opportunities for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder; and 2) outlines how libraries can collaborate with existing services to provide subsequently appropriate supports for students. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), one of the increasingly prevalent... Read More 2020 Feb 19 Ian McDermott /0 Comments Open to What? A Critical Evaluation of OER Efficacy Studies In Brief This selective literature review evaluates open educational resources (OER) efficacy studies through the lens of critical pedagogy. OER have radical potential as transformative tools for critical pedagogy or they can serve as a cost-free version of the status quo, inclined toward propagating austerity. This review analyzes studies published since 2008 with regard to... Read More 1 2 3 … 28 Next › This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-5256	----	In the Library with the Lead Pipe – An open access, peer reviewed journal Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2020 Oct 21 Jeremiah Paschke-Wood, Ellen Dubinsky and Leslie Sult /2 Comments Creating a Student-Centered Alternative to Research Guides: Developing the Infrastructure to Support Novice Learners In Brief: Research and course guides typically feature long lists of resources without the contextual or instructional framework to direct novice researchers through the research process. An investigation of guide usage and user interactions at a large university in the southwestern U.S. revealed a need to reexamine the way research guides can be developed and... Read More 2020 Sep 16 Danya Leebaw and Alexis Logsdon /1 Comment Power and Status (and Lack Thereof) in Academe: Academic Freedom and Academic Librarians In Brief Academic librarians do not experience full academic freedom protections, despite the fact that they are expected to exercise independent judgment, be civically engaged, and practice applied scholarship. Academic freedom for academic librarians is not widely studied or well understood. To learn more, we conducted a survey which received over 600 responses from academic... Read More 2020 Sep 02 Jennie Rose Halperin /1 Comment The Library Commons: An Imagination and an Invocation By Jennie Rose Halperin In Brief Commons theory can provide important interventions within neoliberal managerial information capitalism when applied to the library as an institution. The commons and its associated practices provide a model of abundance, sharing, and cooperation. Libraries can and should participate in alternative economic and management models to create an inclusive vision... Read More 2020 Aug 19 Dave Ellenwood /1 Comment “Information Has Value”: The Political Economy of Information Capitalism In Brief Information capitalism dominates the production and flow of information across the globe. It produces massive information institutions that are as harmful to everyday people as they are powerful. To this point, Information Literacy (IL) educators do not have a theory and pedagogy of information capitalism. This article appraises the current state of political... Read More 2020 Jul 22 Liz Vine /2 Comments Training Matters: Student Employment and Learning in Academic Libraries In Brief Conceiving of student employment in academic libraries as an educationally purposeful experience requires adopting a learner-centered pedagogical approach to student employee job training. Adopting such an approach is triply beneficial: it makes that job training more effective; it identifies training as an opportunity to pursue learning goals that support the growth of students... Read More 2020 Jun 24 Natalia Fernández and Beth Filar Williams /1 Comment Creating a Library Wide Culture and Environment to Support MLIS Students of Color: The Diversity Scholars Program at Oregon State University Libraries In Brief The work of social justice, equity, and inclusion is not a short-term investment by a limited number of people; instead, it should be a part of every library’s and librarian’s work. At the Oregon State University Libraries (OSUL), we felt that in order to create a program dedicated to employing MLIS students of... Read More 2020 Jun 10 Nicola Andrews /10 Comments It’s Not Imposter Syndrome: Resisting Self-Doubt as Normal For Library Workers In Brief Library workers, as with other professions, are quick to diagnose ourselves and others with imposter syndrome when we doubt or devalue our everyday work.  However, methods of coping with imposter syndrome have changed little in the forty years since the term was first theorized, and often centre on feel-good fixes which do not... Read More 2020 Apr 29 Ean Henninger /7 Comments Multilingualism, Neoliberalism, and Language Ideologies in Libraries In BriefThis article calls for a more holistic and inclusive approach to the under-examined issue of language in libraries. It begins by foregrounding language as a category of difference and arguing for its consideration in discussions of access, equity, diversity, and inclusion. By drawing on literature from applied linguistics and library and information studies, it... Read More 2020 Apr 01 Frederick Carey /0 Comments Communicating with Information: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Students with ASD In Brief The focus of this article is twofold: it 1) considers how digital humanities techniques and methodologies increase accessibility and scholarship opportunities for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder; and 2) outlines how libraries can collaborate with existing services to provide subsequently appropriate supports for students. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), one of the increasingly prevalent... Read More 2020 Feb 19 Ian McDermott /0 Comments Open to What? A Critical Evaluation of OER Efficacy Studies In Brief This selective literature review evaluates open educational resources (OER) efficacy studies through the lens of critical pedagogy. OER have radical potential as transformative tools for critical pedagogy or they can serve as a cost-free version of the status quo, inclined toward propagating austerity. This review analyzes studies published since 2008 with regard to... Read More 1 2 3 … 28 Next › This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-6205	----	Learning to teach through video – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2009 Oct 14 Kim Leeder /13 Comments Learning to teach through video samsungtv 009 photo by Flickr user ousby c/o By Kim Leeder It’s a truth so many of us keep in the dark corners of our lives as instruction librarians: we were never taught to teach. We’re not unusual, really, and the same is true of many of our higher education colleagues. We study a field, we gain some expertise in that field, and then – bam! – we’re thrown into the classroom without even a short lesson on instructional pedagogy. Of course, most instruction librarians adapt admirably to this circumstance by doing some research, talking to more experienced colleagues, and gathering ideas from conferences. We get up to speed as quickly as possible by drawing on the knowledge around us. In this way, we improvise and improve our teaching to a level that is, in most cases, sufficient. When we try to adapt our instructional strategies to a new medium, however, the challenge begins anew. Teaching in the classroom is not the same as teaching through a course management system (such as Blackboard), and teaching on Blackboard is different than teaching through video. All of these technologies tax our already minimal knowledge of instructional theory, and the results can turn out to be rather ineffective. I’ll be the first to admit that I have made students watch far too many dull, lengthy screencast videos in the effort to help them learn about research. And I’ve seen many similar videos around on YouTube and on other library websites. Our intentions are always good – to educate, to equip students with research skills – but the tools we produce could be better. Recently my colleagues and I have begun a project to train ourselves in the pedagogy and technology of how to make effective video tutorials. I’d like to share some of what we’ve learned so far. It has all been new to me, and I hope that others may benefit from our efforts. A couple of disclaimers: first, I don’t claim to be an expert in video creation or educational pedagogy. My knowledge is still nascent. Second, I don’t advocate video for video’s sake: be sure a video tutorial is the right medium for your intended goals before jumping into the recording process. When you want to teach a certain skill or idea, start by asking: how can I best get this information across? Sometimes it will be video, but other times a step-by-step text description can be simpler and more effective. Although as librarians we’re always eager to embrace the new technologies, it’s helpful to remember that the “old” technologies have their strengths as well. Tasks that involve basic, step-by-step instructions may be better presented as text on a webpage (or–gasp!–handout) that will be easier for students to follow as they complete the steps in another browser window. On the other hand, those that involve navigation through various, complex online interfaces may need video be clear. Sometimes it’s best to provide information in both formats to provide for different learning styles. Some pedagogical context Two well-known educational psychologists, Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno, have written extensively on the cognitive implications of multimedia learning. Most notable of their writings for our purposes is a 2003 article in Educational Psychologist entitled, “Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning.” The gist of the article is that the human brain’s ability to process information is divided into two channels, the verbal and the visual. And no matter what our multi-tasking Millennials would have us believe, the brain can process only a limited amount of information from each channel at any given moment. Here’s what the cognitive process looks like according to Mayer and Moreno. Information comes in through those two “channels” of our ears and eyes. From everything we take in through our immediate, sensory memory, we select certain words and pictures that are processed to our working, or short-term, memory. At that point we begin making sense out of those pieces: aligning the images and sounds, organizing them into meaning, and most importantly, connecting the results with our prior knowledge in a way that will be added to our long-term memory. All of these steps are important, but perhaps most critical here is what happens between the sensory memory absorbing information and the working memory organizing it: selection. That’s the point where details will be lost unless we are careful to provide the most essential information as clearly and simply as possible, to ease the selection process along. So our students need to go through several steps to make meaning out of what we teach them: first, by paying attention; second, by making sense out of it; and third, by applying it to what they already know about the topic. As a result, educators using multimedia need to be thoughtful about the amount of information we’re providing through video and audio channels, and the pace at which we’re providing the information, to ensure that we’re giving students enough time to process it in ways that make sense to them. If we provide too much information at once, we cause cognitive overload, at which point our students shut down, lose interest, or otherwise simply stop learning. When beginning a new video tutorial, the most critical elements are the most basic ones: (i) identifying the audience, (ii) determining the goal or goals, and (ii) breaking down the task into its most basic elements. It’s always helpful to state the video’s goals at the start of a tutorial, and restate them again at the end to reinforce the message. The clearer the message of a video, the less cognitive load it will require from students who are trying to make sense out of it, and the more brainpower they will have left to process and internalize the skills being taught. All of this needs to be taken into account to achieve the goal of meaningful learning, which Mayer and Moreno define as “deep understanding of the material, which includes attending to important aspects of the presented material, mentally organizing it into a coherent cognitive structure, and integrating it with relevant existing knowledge.” Principles of multimedia learning So how do we take advantage of cognitive theory to create meaningful learning through video tutorials? The key is to carefully review every element we add to a video to determine whether it is adding to or detracting from the viewer’s experience. To help us with this, Moreno and Mayer offer a series of principles on how people process multimedia, and in the article I mentioned above, make nine recommendations for multimedia instruction based on those principles (these were nicely encapsulated by Ross Perkins, Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Boise State University, in a workshop he provided for myself and my colleagues): Split Attention Principle: Students learn better when instruction material does not require them to split their attention between multiple sources of mutually referring information. Modality Principle: Students learn better when the verbal information is presented auditorily as speech rather than visually as on-screen text both for concurrent and sequential presentations. Redundancy Principle: Students learn better from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and text if the visual information is provided simultaneously to the verbal information. Spatial Contiguity Principle: Students learn better when on-screen text and visual materials are physically integrated rather than separated. Temporal Contiguity Principle: Students learn better when verbal and visual materials are temporally synchronized rather than separated in time. Coherence Principle: Students learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included in multimedia explanations. As recommendations based on these principles, Mayer and Moreno suggest: using narration without on-screen text to remove the need for students to read and listen to text at the same time (called “off-loading”); allowing short breaks, or pauses, between sections of a presentation (called “segmenting”); starting off the presentation with lessons about any terms or concepts that are new and important to what they will learn in the video (called “pretraining”); leaving out any unnecessary audio or visual elements (called “weeding”); using arrows, highlighting, or other cues to the viewer as a means of clarifying important points or confusing images (called “signaling”); ensuring that on-screen text and images that rely on each other are shown physically close together (called “aligning”); removing visual elements that are duplicated by narration or graphics (called “eliminating redundancy”); maintaining a close match between narration and visual elements shown in the video (called “synchronizing”); and when possible, considering the particular audience of a video and matching the presentation style to their learning style(s). For instance, consider videos that include both verbal narration and on-screen text. Providing such duplicative information is likely to bog down a student by requiring them to process the same information twice, using both verbal and visual channels. Meanwhile, if the narration and on-screen text is being shown simultaneously with a screencast or other video element, it is likely that the student will not be able to process this third piece at all. Instead, using verbal narration with a screencast will probably be more effective at keeping the student’s cognitive load manageable. Similarly, when using a screencast of a library homepage, keep in mind that the large number of images and links on an average page can also cause overload. It’s easy to add a large arrow or call-out identifying the particular link you want students to see, and it will significantly reduce the cognitive demands of the shot. Mayer and Moreno’s oeuvre includes much more guidance on these issues, as does a 2006 article by Nadaleen Tempelman-Kluit in College & Research Libraries. Planning for video instruction With busy lives and jobs, many of us choose to create video tutorials on the fly simply by transferring strategies used at the reference desk or one-shot instruction. Honestly, we do it every day at the desk, right, so how hard can it be to simply record the same information? Well, it is harder than one might think when considering both pedagogical and cognitive implications. It’s important to begin with a plan; a breakdown of exactly what the goal(s) of the video will be, how the goal(s) will be achieved, and what exact steps must be shown in the video without any unnecessary or distracting elements. Storyboarding is perhaps one of the most underestimated but most critical parts of the process of creating an instructional video. This is the same approach used by filmmakers to plan out scenes, props, and actors required in every different part of a movie. Storyboarding does not have to be complicated or high art, it can simply be a listing of what will happen in each scene, in full detail. It requires us to walk through every second of the video in advance to make sure it is doing what we want it do. Storyboards can be sketched out on paper or digitally but should incorporate whatever will be taking place on the screen visually, the full script that a narrator will speak, and an indication of any additional sound or graphical elements (such as call-outs) that may be included. I’ve just started using PowerPoint as a storyboarding tool — putting visual elements in the slide section, and audio in the notes — and fellow Leadpiper Derik suggests post-it notes as a quick and easy method. Storyboards help in planning a video so that it can be created in a way that reduces cognitive load for students, while also allowing us to budget our time more efficiently in the creation process. Storyboards photo by Flickr user cgc (CC BY-NC 2.0) Because each scene needs to be attended to individually, storyboards are useful on another issue in the planning process: reminding us to record video in short, manageable segments. First, this is helpful because it cuts out the precious seconds that tick by when we are transitioning between pages, such as when searching a database and waiting for the results to come up. Second, recording short segments can be wonderful when something in the video needs to be updated later. The web pages and interfaces we rely on for our library catalogs and research databases change frequently, which can create a challenge when trying to maintain video tutorials that include them. When video clips are kept short, it is easy to re-record part of the video that includes the changed visual elements and drop the new clip into the tutorial. Of course, those new clips can only be integrated if our method of organizing video files and completed tutorials is clear. It’s easy to let the long list of video clip, screen shot and screencast files flow into a variety of folders without keeping track of them. However, when those files are carefully tracked and identified (by filename) on the storyboard, and then all of the raw production files archived together for future reference, maintenance and updating suddenly becomes far easier and far less time consuming. The software Many of the best videos incorporate a mix of screencasting (or screen recording), live video from a camera, and slide clips. In some cases they may also include extra sound effects or supplemental audio tracks. This can get complicated when working with so many different types of files. And, not surprisingly, there is no perfect, easy-to-use software package for video tutorial creation. Camtasia Studio from TechSmith is generally considered to be the standard for true video and audio editing. Camtasia is one of the few programs that accepts a wide variety of audio and video formats, and makes it possible to edit and integrate them in sophisticated ways. On the downside it is expensive and takes time to learn; after using it for over a year I am just starting to feel competent in the software. Camtasia is available for a 30-day trial, and TechSmith provides a number of high-quality (wouldn’t they have to be?) video tutorials on how to use the software. In addition to Camtasia, there are a number of simpler, free programs that make some of the same functions possible. For screencasting only, TechSmith also provides a program called Jing that is far simpler and more user-friendly than Camtasia, so that can be a great place to start for those new to video creation. ScreenToaster is a similar program, but unlike Jing it’s web-based so does not require installation. Unfortunately, neither Jing (free version) nor ScreenToaster offer much in the way of editing options, nor do they provide screencasting files that can be integrated with other video clips. When working just with live video from a webcam or video camera, the simplest editing options are the default PC and Mac programs: Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. Both can be useful and make it easier to get started, but they also have more limited options than Camtasia. For audio editing alone, Audacity is a free program that many use for creating sound clips, sound effects, and podcasts. The settings used during video creation can have a big impact on the quality of the results. For the best quality, experts recommend that the resolution of the video recording should be as close as possible to the final product. For instance, YouTube’s standard video resolution is 640 pixels by 480 pixels, so recording should take place at that image size. We’ve all seen screencast videos that recorded the individual’s entire screen at a resolution such as 1280×720, produced the video at the same size, and then uploaded the video to YouTube, only to see the video size compressed to a degraded and unreadable result. Recording at such a high resolution would, however, be appropriate for YouTube’s High Definition video, which uses 1280×720 as the standard. Recording size can be changed within the video recording software or camera settings, or for screencasting the entire screen resolution can be changed to fit the desired result. It’s important, too, to be consistent in recording size when using video from several sources (screencast, webcam, video camera, etc.). Overall, video should be both recorded and produced at whatever size is needed for the platform where it will be viewed in the end.   Conclusion In general, all of the recommendations from cognitive theory indicate that the simpler the video, the better. The challenge is to balance this simplicity with our other needs: to cover complex material, to cater to various learning styles, to be accessible to hearing impaired students, to work within our often-limited video editing skills, and even to be entertaining. Instruction through multimedia is highly challenging, often frustrating, and extremely time-consuming, but when done well it can have a dramatic impact upon student learning. For example, let’s look at a couple of great examples of videos that are both engaging and reflect awareness of the pedagogical and cognitive considerations described above. I’ll start off with a video from Common Craft, a great example of simplicity in action: Common Craft videos are excellent at breaking down an idea or task into its simplest elements and presenting them clearly and concisely without audio or visual distractions. They do all this in mere minutes while maintaining a level of humor and entertainment throughout to keep viewers interested. Or how about this one? The University of Texas at Arlington has started a series of “Librarian vs. Stereotype” videos that are engaging and informative while still getting their message across: Notice the simple white background; the creators of this video omitted any distractions or visual elements other than the people on the screen. And it works! Our educational psychologist friends might have recommended against the background music as a non-essential element that adds to viewers’ cognitive load, but otherwise this is a terrific instructional video. Now it’s your turn: What are your favorite examples of high quality instruction videos? What have been your experiences in trying to create videos for teaching? The comments below are open for your thoughts, links, and experiences. Many thanks to Lead Pipers Ellie Collier and Derik Badman, as well as my Boise colleagues Memo Cordova and Ellie Dworak, for providing valuable feedback on an earlier draft of this post. Want to learn more? Here are a few places to start: Ganster, L. A., & Walsh, T. R. (2008). Enhancing Library Instruction to Undergraduates: Incorporating Online Tutorials into the Curriculum. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 15(3), 314-333. Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43-52. Oud, J. (2009). Guidelines for effective online instruction using multimedia screencasts. Reference Services Review, 37(2), 164-177. Tempelman-Kluit, N. (2006). Multimedia Learning Theories and Online Instruction. College & Research Libraries, 67(4), 364-9. educational theory, instruction, psychology, tutorials, videos An Inflection Point for American Public Libraries [RE]Boot Camp: Share Some. Learn More. Teach Better. 13 Responses Chad 2009–10–14 at 11:42 am Very good discussion of tools, methods, and pedagogy. The tools are getting easier to use, and it’s become really easy to slap together a video or screencast without thinking about it, which I have been guilty of doing myself. Captivate and other tools are just like Powerpoint in that they give the user the ability to make really awesome or really terrible presentations. Sometimes you don’t need to use every single feature that the software has, even though it’s tempting to do so. Hopefully your post will keep readers from using text, arrows, fade-ins, and animated gifs all over their videos. While we have Adobe Captivate, I spend most of my time making screencasts and videos with Camstudio (open source), my Flip Mino Camera, and Windows Movie Maker. It’s fairly low tech, but I can usually turn a video around pretty quickly. My storyboard is generally based on the questions I get from students, so I try to make the video for the broadest audience possible. I’m using Blip.Tv to host the videos, and then embedding them on places like this Biz Wiki page. I appreciate the links and further reading you’ve provided, and I’ll definitely be checking those out. Thanks again for a great post. –Chad Ron 2009–10–14 at 3:05 pm This was extremely useful, thank you so much. BTW, here is a tip to convert Powerpoint presentations to video: Smart PPT to Video Converter Kim Duckett 2009–10–14 at 4:58 pm Thanks, Kim! This is a wonderful overview of best practices in instructional video creation! It’s perfect content to share with librarians new to video projects as well as a good reminder for those who have been working with video for awhile. I particularly appreciate your great overview of cognitive load theory, which I also view as critical to keep in mind (but you sum it up much better than me). I second your point that video isn’t always the answer. It’s really hot right now and we librarians are all over it, but it can’t always be the right packaging for instructional content. For one thing, a video channels the user’s experience in a linear way when maybe what they really need is to scan text or images for the content that jumps out at them as most helpful. I think video is good for “show and tell” training (i.e. how to use a tool) and, in some cases, to tell a narrative that might be complicated or overwhelming to read. Here’s a great example of the narrative genre that I just came across today: Open Access 101 – Kim tom 2009–10–15 at 10:03 am this is cool. but man, creation (meaning “quality” creation) is really time-consuming. shooting a simple video with narration isn’t too hard with some rehearsal, but this professional production stuff is a full-time gig. a couple of years ago, I presented a program for creating flash-based instruction using Powerbullet and Wink (free software) for simple instruction (the files are still accessible here, http://www.pbclibrary.org/SEFLIN/energize.htm), but I haven’t gotten into video editing. before I became a librarian, I thought I would be a media specialist, so I took a few eduction classes, and before that, I thought I could get into TV so I had some production training, so the theory for video production and instruction is still in my brain, somewhere (maybe). and about converting ppt to video (re: “Ron says”), I save the slides as size 14.2 x 10.7 jpgs (matches a 1028 x 764 resolution screen) then use Nero VisionExpress that came with my DVD-burner to make video shows with pretty-good slide transitions. I have one in VCD format that plays on a cheap DVD player and it runs all day on an old TV in the teen area. (sorry, to go on so long..) thanks again. Ellie 2009–10–15 at 1:36 pm Fantastic article Kim. Thanks for summarizing and sharing. I think more of us could also be using what’s already out there and good as opposed to creating new mediocre. Going on some of the collaboration ideas from Jean’s post, I’d love to see a curated repository of exemplary instruction videos that would could direct students to. I know there are a number of places collecting instruction videos, and even specifically library instruction, but I haven’t seen one with a quality control mechanism or with explicit please copy this licensing. Derik Badman 2009–10–15 at 2:59 pm Even better, a repository of the videos as raw material (video clips, audio clips), so that different libraries could remix their own version (with their own specific logos/peculiarities… kind of like NIN releasing songs for fans to remix in Garageband. Pingback : Friday Link Round Up « ellie <3 libraries Nadaleen 2009–11–02 at 9:02 am This is a great summary, thanks! Also, thanks for the shoutout-I’m Nadaleen, author of: Tempelman-Kluit, N. (2006). Mul­ti­me­dia Learn­ing The­o­ries and Online Instruc­tion. Col­lege & Research Libraries, 67(4), 364 – 9. I love the Common Craft video examples as a good example of less is more. I actually tried a few of these type of videos for the library, and the process highlighted just how hard they are to make, and how much expertise they involve. Here’s an example of me and one other person mucking about to make pretty awful Common Craft *type* vidoes with library content: http://www.nyu.edu/library/resources/ntk/movie/teaching_lib.html Just as we-Instructional Design Librarians-aren’t trained in learning theory, we are also not technical experts in all things. I think to make such videos great, you’d need to work with a graphic designer and filmaker. Anyway, food for thought and thanks again for a great post! Pingback : pligg.com Pingback : Viral Notebook » Lights. Camera. Action! Creating video to enhance instruction Pingback : informatlinoverload Pingback : LIBR 246 Week 12 Post « phowie50 Pingback : Ben's Edublog - My Wicked Problem Project – Part A This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-5873	----	The Quest for Diversity in Library Staffing: From Awareness to Action – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2016 Jan 13 Jennifer Vinopal /34 Comments The Quest for Diversity in Library Staffing: From Awareness to Action Image by flickr user Andy Hay (CC BY 2.0) by Jennifer Vinopal The work of diversity in libraries begins at the crossroad where superiority, inaction, and denial become intolerable. – Sandra Ríos Balderrama, “This Trend Called Diversity” In Brief: Despite our ongoing quest for diversity and a growing number of initiatives to increase it, the demographics of the professional librarian population haven’t changed in any significant way. We are starkly lacking in diversity based on race and ethnicity (we are overwhelmingly white), age (librarianship is an aging profession), disability, economic status, educational background, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other demographic and identity markers of difference. This lack of diversity should be seen as a signal, an invitation to us to look critically at our culture, our practices, and our assumptions, and investigate what it is about ourselves and our profession that is preventing underrepresented people from being able to, or even wanting to, enter and stay. We need an awareness of how privilege, bias, and the attendant power differentials and oppression play out at the individual and the systemic levels of our profession. And we must consider how these affect the experiences of underrepresented and marginalized people within our dominant (white, heterosexual, cisgender, and patriarchal) culture. In this article I consider the meaning of diversity in librarianship. Then, using the ClimateQUAL Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment as an example, I analyze the potential problems with our data collection and analysis related to diversity and organizational culture. I conclude by suggesting some practical steps for library leadership and by identifying future directions for research. Why Diversity and What does it Mean? We often read about the benefits of diversity in organizations.1 The typical corporate “business case for diversity” focuses on the economic benefits of workplace diversity for the company, thereby treating staff from underrepresented groups simply as any other resource acquired and deployed to increase market share. Conversely, our professional library associations affirm a commitment to creating diverse workplaces so that we may better serve diverse user communities, and even support democracy.2 For example, the Association of Research Libraries’ Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce mentions better organizational decision-making and problem-solving, as well as the correlation between institutional diversity and customer satisfaction.3 The American Library Association’s Policy Manual section on Diversity says, “Libraries can and should play a crucial role in empowering diverse populations for full participation in a democratic society.”4 The Canadian Library Association’s Statement on Diversity and Inclusion states, “[A] diverse and pluralistic society is central to our country’s identity. Libraries have a responsibility to contribute to a culture that recognizes diversity and fosters social inclusion.”5 The International Federation of Library Association’s IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto recognizes that “[c]ultural and linguistic diversity is the common heritage of humankind and should be cherished and preserved for the benefit of all…Therefore, libraries of all types should reflect, support and promote cultural and linguistic diversity at the international, national, and local levels, and thus work for cross-cultural dialogue and active citizenship.”6 Not unlike the corporate business case for diversity, library arguments for diversity are usually framed as benefits to the organization and its users. Less frequently do these explanations center on the potential benefits, or recognize the attendant risks to the underrepresented people hired as a result of these efforts. What do librarians mean when we say “diversity”? ARL’s IRDW and ALA’s Spectrum Scholarship Program focus exclusively on “racial and ethnic diversity.”7 However, the ALA Manual’s section,“Diversity,” has a much broader scope, committing to combat discrimination based on “race, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, creed, color, religious background, national origin, language of origin or disability.”8 The CLA states that “Canada’s libraries recognize and energetically affirm the dignity of those they serve, regardless of heritage, education, beliefs, race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental capabilities, or income.”9 IFLA talks about serving a “heterogeneous society” with “complex identities,” and focuses on “cultural and linguistic diversity.”10 As well, some individual libraries and library schools have included diversity in their strategic plans and created special initiatives to diversify their staff or bring more people from underrepresented groups to the profession.11 Some are quite specific about what “diversity” means to them and why it’s important, and some are less so. Unless we are clear about what we’re trying to accomplish and why, and unless we’re willing to name and examine the underlying factors that thwart the changes we hope to see, we will ultimately fail. Despite the growing emphasis on increasing the diversity of library school students and library staff, and despite the significant demographic changes in the United States population, the demographics of the professional librarian population have barely shifted in decades.12 Our concerns sound remarkably similar to those of Gerhard and Boydston in 1993 who, looking back to affirmative action efforts of the 1970’s and 1980’s, lamented that “[l]ibrarianship has been committed to affirmative action, yet it has been historically difficult to convert that philosophical commitment into activity.”13 ALA’s 2007 “Diversity Counts” report states, “Credentialed librarians are predominantly women, ages 45–54, and white. They are not limited by disability and work full-time.”14 Comparing the 2009-2010 ALA Community Survey Estimates15 with the 2010 United States Census bureau’s figures16 reveals the disparity for race and ethnicity: Comparison of the 2009-2010 ALA Community Survey Estimates and the 2010 United States Census Bureau estimates Race/Ethnicity (includes differences in language used) 2009-2010 American Community Survey Estimates (Diversity Counts 2012 Tables) U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, 2010 ALA: White U.S. Census: White alone, not Hispanic/Latino 88% 63.7% ALA: African American U.S. Census: Black 5.2% 12.6% ALA: Asian-Pacific Islander U.S. Census has two categories 2.7% Asian     4.8% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander alone:  0.2% Native American/Alaskan 0.16% 0.9% Latino 3.1% 16.3% Two or more races 0.85% 2.5% The Association of Research Libraries statistics for 2012-2013 are comparable to the ALA numbers above and underscore the magnitude of the disparity for representation by race and ethnicity in research libraries.17 These poor numbers are not unique to libraries; the statistics are similar in most institutions of higher education across the United States. The US National Center for Education Statistics states that “[i]n fall 2013, of all full-time faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, 79 percent were White (43 percent were White males and 35 percent were White females), 6 percent were Black, 5 percent were Hispanic, and 10 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander.”18 The “Diversity Counts” authors state, “In regards to racial and ethnic diversity, the need for both intensified recruitment and retention strategies is evident.” At the same time they observe that “existing LIS minority education and recruitment programs are able to yield just enough new graduates to provide for the replacement of retirees and those leaving the profession prematurely.”19 We lack other forms of diversity as well, though demographic data for areas other than race and ethnicity are less well tracked in the profession. The “Diversity Counts” authors say “The comparatively low employment of librarians with disabilities is also deserving of attention given the increase between 1990 and 2000 of people self-identifying [on the 2000 United States Census] as having one or more disabilities.”20 While 19.2% of the population between the ages of 21 and 64 self-identified as having a disability on the 2000 United States Census, according to ALA statistics the percentage of credentialed librarians with disability status was 4% that same year.21 The authors are also concerned about the high attrition rate of librarians under age 45, which “accounted for 44% of credentialed librarians leaving the work force, [and which] speaks not so much to an inability to effectively recruit individuals to LIS education and practice as to an inability to effectively retain them.” They go on to note that, “some racial and ethnic minority groups, notably African Americans and Latinos, are actually seeing a decrease in the number of credential [sic] librarians under age 45.”22 While the attrition rates of librarians is a more generalized problem in the profession, it would be well worth examining whether and why staff from underrepresented groups are leaving the profession at even higher rates than others. The same report acknowledges a vicious cycle that the lack of diversity perpetuates: “[T]he lack of diversity [in libraries] in regards to race and ethnicity, age group, disability, and other dimensions…work [sic] to distance the very communities they seek to attract.”23 The authors continue: The persistent lag in diversity in our LIS schools, the number of librarians and library assistants leaving the profession prematurely, the aging of racial and ethnic minority library workers, and the continued under-representation of workers with disabilities, suggests a proportionally less diverse library workforce on the horizon.”24 We need to ask ourselves why “Diversity Never Happens: The Story of Minority Hiring Doesn’t Seem To Change Much.”25 Underlying Factors In attempting to answer this question, some library literature points to factors beyond just ineffective recruiting strategies. In a brief article in American Libraries magazine, Keith Curry Lance looks at the differences in the levels of racial and ethnic diversity in librarian versus library assistant positions. Comparing the percentage of racial and ethnic subgroups in the US population, he finds that the distribution in library assistant positions is more or less proportional, whereas the distribution in professional librarian positions is not, the latter skewing heavily toward an overrepresentation of white people. ALA’s 2007 “Diversity Counts” report confirms this discrepancy, and calls out academic libraries as particularly problematic: “When looking by types of libraries, the racial distributions are most pronounced in academic libraries. Library assistants in academic libraries have three times as many Latino and twice as many African American staff than their MLS counterparts.”26 Lance concludes that this is because of a “pipeline issue” related to national disparities in educational attainment between whites and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. He says, Where a relatively low level of educational attainment is usually required, the racial/ethnic discrepancies between the general adult population, high school graduates, and library assistants are either minimal, or, in the case of Asians/Pacific Islanders, favorable to the group. It is librarian jobs—positions that generally require a graduate degree—that see more troubling discrepancies.27 Based on the 2003 data tabulations from the United States Census, Lance shows that when one considers just the subset of these groups in the general population that hold graduate degrees, Hispanics, African Americans, and American Indians/Alaskan natives are actually represented proportionally in librarian positions.28 Looking at graduate degree holders only, Lance notes “the most underrepresented group, proportionally, is Asians and Pacific Islanders.”29 Recent United States Census Bureau numbers on educational attainment and ALA statistics on credentialed librarians support Lance’s observations.30 What both Lance and the “Diversity Counts” report are acknowledging is a much larger and more troubling systemic problem negatively affecting the ethnic and racial makeup of the library profession. Research shows that the educational attainment and general life trajectory of individuals is largely a result of the socio-economic status of their parents. A decades-long study of nearly 800 Baltimore children illustrates how hard it is for the children of disadvantaged parents to move out of their income brackets. Karl Alexander, a main researcher on the project, says “Almost none of the children from low-income families made it through college.”31 The library staffing pipeline is rooted in the discrepancies in socioeconomic status based on race and ethnicity, discrepancies which are inherited generationally. Alexander explains, “This view is at odds with the popular ethos that we are makers of our own fortune.”32 As a 2007 ACRL white paper on diversity acknowledges, “Academic librarianship recruitment history cannot be divorced from the history of education and federal education policy in the United States. Also important to federal education policy history is its relationship to civil rights history.”33 Library discussions of and initiatives around diversity must recognize the historical and current factors contributing to how our profession is structured and functions. In addition to the structural pressures that inhibit educational attainment in certain socio-economic, ethnic, or racial groups, there are other insidious factors working against our stated goals of diversity. The dominant culture of our profession, from its foundations to the present day, reinforces itself by normalizing whiteness and other forms of oppression and by marginalizing difference.34 As April Hathcock tweeted recently, “We treat diversity as a prob[lem] to be solved when the prob[lem] to be solved is whiteness in all its forms.”35 In a recent article, Hathcock provided a definition of whiteness that recognizes other forms of oppression by the dominant (white, heterosexual, cisgender, and patriarchal) culture. [Whiteness] is a theoretical concept that can extend beyond the realities of racial privilege to a wide range of dominant ideologies based on gender identity, sexual orientation, class, and other categories….it also stands as a marker for the privilege and power that acts to reinforce itself through hegemonic cultural practice that excludes all who are different.”36 In their article “Diversity matters? Rethinking Diversity in Libraries,” ShinJoung Yeo and James R. Jacobs suggest that “diversity means little if there is no understanding of how the dominant culture and ideas are articulated within our institutions and our daily library practices.” They continue: One must ask oneself if it would be possible to really achieve diversity without challenging our racist, homophobic and sexist consciousnesses that are so deeply imbedded that we don’t even recognize them? If we are blind to our unconscious biases, then striving for numerically diverse organizations is building on a foundation of sand.37 Unconscious or not, this ignorance of our own biases is willful and difficult to cure: the dominant group’s hold on power and privilege is at risk in any effort to open our eyes and to investigate the underpinnings of our profession’s whiteness and oppression named by Yeo, Jacobs, Hathcock and others. Recent research confirms the existence of this willful ignorance of bias within the dominant culture and how it plays out in practice. In a study of gender-based microaggressions, Basford et al. note that, while overt sexism may be in decline, “many scholars fear that discrimination is not disappearing but rather has become more subtle in nature[,]”–equally pernicious but less likely to be perceived by those not targeted. They conclude that “women were significantly more likely to perceive workplace gender microaggressions than men….” and “women are more attuned to subtle forms of discrimination than men.”38 Similarly, in her study of racial microaggressions in academic libraries, Jaena Alabi says, academic librarians of color noted that they are treated differently than their white peers. Minority academic librarians are also more likely to perceive racial microaggressions directed toward colleagues. However, non-minority librarians are unlikely to report observing racial microaggressions.39 Alabi notes as well that “Racism and racial discrimination are seldom discussed explicitly in the LIS literature, despite the presence of works chronicling the experiences of minority librarians.”40 What the research of Alabi and Basford et al. suggests is a dynamic already well known to people from marginalized groups: individuals from the dominant group have a tendency not to perceive (or to ignore) acts of subtle discrimination by members of their own group against individuals from marginalized groups. Thus there is little incentive to report such experiences to the very members of that dominant group with the potential power to do something about it. When we refuse to recognize our own biases and the biases of others around us, our actions and their repercussions go unnoticed and therefore unexamined. Image by flickr user r2hox (CC BY-SA 2.0) Measuring Diversity and its Implications One way that willful ignorance of bias manifests itself is in the ways that organizations measure “diversity” and interpret the results. I will illustrate this by considering the increasingly popular tool used by academic libraries to evaluate their organizational diversity, ClimateQUAL: Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment, designed at the University of Maryland and now run by the Association of Research Libraries. In this article I use ClimateQUAL as a means to examine the ways that collective ignorance of the dominant group to bias and unexamined perpetuation of privilege and oppression can affect how libraries interpret the data that we collect and the way that we set priorities based on it. ClimateQUAL is described on its website as “an assessment of library staff perceptions concerning (a) their library’s commitment to the principles of diversity, (b) organizational policies and procedures, and (c) staff attitudes.”41 The theory on which the survey is based suggests that: [a] healthy organization is defined as one in which employees feel empowered and believe that the organization values diversity. It is an organization in which the policies, practices, and procedures are administered fairly and employees believe that they are treated fairly.42 ClimateQUAL is clearly designed and described as a measure of staff perceptions about the organization’s climate, including what they believe and how they feel about the organization’s fairness and how it values diversity. Because of its focus on perceptions about what the organization values, ClimateQUAL can be a powerful tool for revealing and understanding fairness and bias within an organization. However, for a profession greatly lacking in diversity, relying on staff perceptions of demographic diversity and fairness as a proxy for organizational health might be quite problematic if not handled in an extremely thoughtful and well-informed way. A look at relevant research on race from outside the library literature will make it clear why this is the  case. As the above-cited statistics show, the library profession is overwhelmingly white. Research studies have shown that, while white people say they like diversity, election and census trends suggest otherwise. A Pew study found that while the majority of people in the United States profess a desire to live in racially, politically, religiously, and socioeconomically diverse communities, residential segregation belies their stated preference.43 We know that choice is hardly the reason why most people of color live where they do. As far as housing is concerned, choice in location is still a privilege primarily enjoyed by white people.44 The Pew data suggest that “when the subject is community diversity, Americans talk one way but behave another.”45 Research also shows that white people’s tolerance for residential racial diversity is much lower than that of Blacks. In “Does Race Matter in Neighborhood Preferences? Results from a Video Experiment” Krysan et al. write: For the most part studies of residential preferences find that whites are willing to live with only a handful of African American neighbors (some put the figure at around 20 percent), while African Americans are open to quite a diverse range of neighborhoods, though a “50-50” neighborhood is routinely identified as the most attractive…46 While this research did not study the preferences of whites for workplace diversity, we can imagine that many of the same dynamics and biases play out in white-dominated workplaces–even those that profess a desire for diversity. How much diversity is enough to make staff in the dominant culture, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, etc. feel like the workplace has achieved an acceptable amount of, but not too much diversity? And how much “valuing diversity” does the organization need to demonstrate in order for staff from the dominant culture to perceive it as sufficient, regardless of whether or not staff from marginalized groups would consider it enough? These questions and the research that underlies them should inspire us to think more carefully about how we interpret our ClimateQUAL results. ClimateQUAL respondents are asked to react on a 7-point scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree, to phrases such as: The race of a team/division member does NOT affect how they are valued on this team/division. The support from supervisors that team/division members receive does NOT differ as a function of team/division members’ race. The support from supervisors that team/division members receive does NOT differ as a function of team/division members’ sexual orientation.47 The survey instrument is designed to elicit individuals’ perceptions about their own relationship to the organization. Yet the way these question are worded–using the generic “a team/division member” and “they,” rather than “your race/sexual orientation” and “you”–thereby leaves the possibility open for respondents to answer based on their perceptions of how staff of other races, sexual orientation, gender, etc. are valued and supported in the organization. If your organization is between 80-90% white (a fair assumption based on ALA and ARL statistics), the overwhelming majority of the organization’s answers to questions about race will be based on white people’s perceptions and reflect a white cultural perspective. (The same holds for questions about other demographic categories vis-à-vis the dominant culture.) Both the popular press and research on diversity attest to the fact that white people are unlikely to understand the lived experience of people of color and do not recognize racial bias when it occurs.48 As Jaena Alabi noted, “non-minority librarians are unlikely to report observing racial microaggressions” even though “minority” librarians are, in fact, experiencing them.49 Thus, in an overwhelmingly white (and heterosexual, cisgender, and patriarchal) organization, it is important to recognize that the data we collect represents primarily the worldview of the dominant culture and will be shaped by its limitations and biases. The ways that the ClimateQUAL results are reported could potentially compound the problem. The results of an organization’s ClimateQUAL assessment can be evaluated in various ways. For example, organizations may compare results to their own own results from previous years’ assessments, or organizations may compare results to those of peer institutions that have also administered the survey. Comparing a library’s own results from survey to survey, it’s impossible to know, for example, if an improvement in score is a result of actual increased support for diversity within the organization, or simply the demographic majority staff’s increasing comfort with the (likely biased) organizational culture they already have. As well, a common way to review ClimateQUAL results is to look at a library’s average scores on the various rubrics. Focusing data analysis at the organizational level obscures dynamics happening within organizational subgroups, including minority identity groups. (This problem can be mitigated by further analysis, as discussed below.) Ironically, the research cited above suggests that because of the dominant culture’s willful ignorance of bias, the less diverse the organization, the more satisfied the staff may be with their library’s current support for diversity, no matter how inadequate it is. As well, the ClimateQUAL site explains that comparing a library’s results with those of peer institutions “provides feedback from the survey that is grounded in a baseline from the libraries that have already participated.”50 However, if other institutions are having the same biases in their results as described above, comparison among them is unlikely to tell us anything useful about our own biased results. In reviewing ClimateQUAL survey results, we in the dominant culture are also less likely to recognize the built-in bias described above because of confirmation bias, “the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs or hypotheses.”51 If we feel like we’re doing well on diversity and we believe our organization is fair and just (as it may well be for staff in the dominant culture), of course our diversity results will look pretty darn good to us. Why question them? Instead of falling prey to confirmation bias, it is possible instead to use the results of ClimateQUAL to reveal some of our unconscious or implicit biases. In addition to the perception questions, at the end of the survey ClimateQUAL asks respondents to voluntarily provide demographic information such as work status, race, religion, age, disability status, sex,  sexual orientation, and gender identification. Although some of these  questions are asked in problematic ways, with them we are able to contrast the organization’s demographic data with its scores for staff perceptions of its commitment to the principles of diversity. (One of the most disturbing demographic questions mixes options for sexual orientation and gender identification in a single question and allows the user to choose only one or not respond at all, thereby forcing some respondents to erase a part of their self identity. This is a good example of a microaggression.) If an organization’s perceived level of diversity fairness is quite high but the actual demographic diversity of the organization is low, that is one clue that the results may be skewed by the significant underrepresentation of the very people who would notice and experience bias and discrimination in the organization. As well, we can compare the data for individual demographic groups to see if there are discrepancies in various identity groups’ perceptions of the organization’s climate for diversity based on demographic characteristics.52 For example, what if the comparison revealed that white people (or heterosexual people) think we’re doing well on diversity fairness whereas black people (or gay people) say they perceive discrimination? Looked at this way, the ClimateQUAL data could provide us with a rare opportunity to experience organizational bias awareness, the first step toward addressing discrimination in our organizations. Image by flickr user ~Brenda-Starr~ (CC BY 2.0) A Path Toward Awareness and Action There is a large and rich body of research on workplace diversity, investigating questions such as self and group identity and stigma, power relations between groups, social networks, conflict and problem solving, and the emotional toll of being from a marginalized group in a workplace designed for and around the needs of dominant, white culture.53 The research of Dobbin and Kalev provides a cautionary note for us in our quest for diversity. In their article on corporate diversity programs from the 1960s to the present, they acknowledge the harm done in diversifying without dismantling power differentials: “[E]vidence to date suggests that bureaucratic hiring and promotion systems may have done more harm than good, institutionalizing patterns of inequality rather than challenging them.”54 They note that programs to increase gender and racial diversity had mixed success, and that even as some programs were successful, women and members of other underrepresented groups were often denied access to the management training that would have helped them move up in the management structure. They observed, innovations designed to quash managerial bias have been broadly ineffective. Bureaucratic practices designed to eliminate managerial discretion from the hiring and promotion process have not led to increases in diversity; nor have diversity training programs designed to make managers aware of their own unconscious biases; neither have diversity performance evaluations that give managers feedback and career incentives to improve diversity.55 However the authors do note that some interventions were actually successful, including making managers responsible for advancing diversity and for recruiting women and people from other underrepresented groups.56 In its 2012 Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries, ACRL acknowledges that moving from ignorance to awareness and then to positive action is a learning process. “To achieve diversity in substance as well as in form, libraries have to open their arms to all perspectives and experiences. That requires competency in matters of cultural pluralism that are not intuitive and must be learned, like any other essential skill.”57 Research indicates the effectiveness of bias awareness interventions as a first step to developing insight into how implicit biases affect negative workplace behavior. In their article on gender bias and bias literacy, Molly Carnes et al. show how becoming conscious of one’s own bias is a prerequisite for taking action to correct it: “Scholars in learning theory and organizational change converge on the importance of being able to articulate tacit knowledge to bring it into consciousness.”58 The results of their research-based bias awareness interventions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggest that this kind of approach to “consciousness raising” can be effective: “This broad range of research literature presents consistent advice regarding the steps necessary to overcome bias and produce intentional behavioral change.”59 These conclusions are supported by the research of Ferguson and Porter who looked at studies of intergroup bias and prejudice reduction. The importance of reducing implicit bias in the workplace cannot be overstated. Implicit intergroup bias has far-reaching negative effects in many organizational domains, including, but not limited to, selection, retention (including compensation and promotion issues), teams-related issues, general work environment, and worker self-esteem and well-being…. In other words, fostering harmonious intergroup interactions is at the crux of producing the best possible outcomes in organizational productivity, organizational climate, and social justice.”60 A widely used instrument in social psychology for raising awareness of individual bias is the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which is freely available on the website of Project Implicit, an organization that promotes research on implicit social cognition.61 Project Implicit’s website explains that “The IAT measures the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., black people, gay people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad) or stereotypes (e.g., athletic, clumsy).” They continue, “Implicit attitudes are positive and negative evaluations that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control.”62 Like Carnes et al.’s conclusions, Project Implicit contends that through awareness and vigilance, implicit preferences and biases can be changed. “Research shows that implicit preferences are quite malleable so it is possible to manage and change them if you want to.”63 In an article on bias in library collection development, Brian Quinn suggests the Implicit Association Test as a tool for selectors to become more aware of biases in collecting, as well as other tools such as self-paced online tutorials, guest lectures, and brown-bag discussions.64 While a crucial step, consciousness raising and addressing bias at the individual level must then be followed by critical analysis of the assumptions, behaviors, processes, and structures that undergird our profession. Creating a culture of ongoing bias awareness, challenging individual and structural discrimination, and building organizations that truly value diversity also require leaders who are awake to the biases and oppression that are foundational to our political and socio-economic systems and to our profession. While organizational culture rests in the collective hands of all staff, library leadership controls the money, resources, and power needed to transform an organization’s strategic direction and policy. Leaders can shape the organization’s values, and instigate change by setting strategic priorities, allocating staff time for learning opportunities (such as bias awareness), and encouraging critical inquiry by modeling the behavior we want to see.65 Leaders can encourage and empower us to engage with essential questions like “In what way do I benefit from and perpetuate the status quo and how can I disrupt it?” and “How is valuing difference foundational to the mission of our profession?”66 Sandra Balderrama says, We must be able to articulate why we in our profession would want someone distinct from us to work with us, not for us. To work alongside us, not beneath us. To create with us, not duplicate us. To reciprocate with us, not assimilate to us. To mentor us, not intimidate us. To be an equal, not a box in the organizational hierarchy. To be a colleague.67 In a 2014 conference paper on women in leadership, Chris Bourg cautioned library staff interested in social justice issues but reluctant to take on leadership positions, that avoiding them “might mean that you are leaving the leadership of our profession in the hands of those who aren’t concerned about those things…”68 We need socially engaged library leaders who will push us beyond the next diversity initiative toward examinations of privilege, bias, power, structural discrimination, and institutional oppression, and how they further marginalize and drive away the very people we claim we want to include. Image by flickr user MicroAssist (CC BY-SA 2.0) Brass Tacks for Library Leaders Organizations take their cues from their leaders. If our enthusiasm for diversity isn’t backed up by concrete actions, our expressions of concern about it ring hollow. Here are a few specific steps that high-level library leaders must take if we are to make our organizations and our profession inclusive, open to difference, and diverse. The ideas listed below aren’t new; many others have already suggested them. Library leaders are in a position to prioritize them and make them happen. Bias Awareness and Valuing Difference Create opportunities in the organization to raise awareness of implicit bias, discuss it, and take steps to reduce it. Research supports the importance of openly recognizing difference vs. color- or gender-blindness (or other kinds of willful ignorance to recognize difference). Ferguson and Porter conclude that “a multicultural ideology is more beneficial than a colorblind ideology for both majority groups and minority groups, and for multiple intergroup and work-related outcomes.”69 Create opportunities for staff to have meaningful conversations about bias and discrimination, organizational climate, culture, and diversity. Name the Problem Don’t disguise the issues or use euphemisms. In research under way to evaluate library diversity plans, Ione Damasco notes that, while the word “inclusion” was frequently used, none of the plans included words such as “racism,” “anti-racist,” “whiteness,” “white privilege,” “privilege,” or “racial justice.” She continues, “We have to name our problems before we can fix them….our inability to articulate these issues in our formal documents might reflect our difficulties in overcoming the lack of diversity in our field.”70 We need to learn not just to see and name bias in ourselves and in the world around us, but to understand the underlying dynamics that perpetuate them and speak openly about them. Mission and Follow-through Make diversity and social justice a genuine and regular part of the organization’s work. Rather than just paying lip service to the concept of diversity, include diversity initiatives in the library’s strategic plan and then make time and provide support for staff to accomplish them. Create a standalone diversity plan. Damasco’s research shows that of 1500+ 4-year colleges and universities libraries surveyed, only 1.4% (22) had independent diversity plans. As a profession we can’t legitimately say that we believe in diversity if only a miniscule percentage of our libraries have plans to address it.71 Data Collection Think critically about the data collection tools your organization employs, the data gathered, and how you make sense of it. In addition to knowing what kind of information the tools are designed to elicit and how they do so, it is also crucial to understand what biases we bring to our interpretation of the data, and to think about what data is missing and why. Consider how different types of data might help expose bias in interpretation, for example, as noted above, by considering what it might mean to have a high ClimateQUAL score for perceived level of diversity fairness when the actual demographic diversity of the organization is low. Recruiting For all but the highest-level library positions, for which recruiting firms may be engaged, we typically post job ads on websites and listservs and then encourage library staff to promote the position through their own networks. This reliance on personal networks, which tend to lack diversity, can serve to perpetuate demographically homogeneous workplaces.72 Instead, go out and recruit job candidates from among the communities you wish to include in your organization. Send staff to attend conferences or meetings that individuals from underrepresented groups attend and encourage them to think of your organization as a place that would welcome their applications. Within your own organizations, recruit staff who are already credentialed but who, for whatever reason, haven’t made their way into professional positions.73 Mentoring Devise targeted mentoring and professional development strategies that encourage, support, and develop all staff in your organization. In her article on diversity initiatives in the profession, April Hathcock strongly recommends mentoring early-career librarians from underrepresented groups in order to better support them as they rise in the profession. She specifically notes the importance of “[helping] library workers new to the profession to navigate the culture of whiteness in the profession at large and within your specific place of work.”74 We can also encourage non-credentialed staff already working in our libraries to pursue careers as library professionals and mentor them as they progress.75 Pay for Work All staff, including interns, should be fairly compensated for their work. As Angela Galvan explains, “only students with access to money can afford to take an unpaid internship…insuring the pool of well-qualified academic librarians skews white and middle class.”76 Leaders in a growing number of library organizations are rejecting unpaid internships. Recent examples include MIT Libraries, which will now pay all interns, and the Digital Library Federation, which no longer advertises non-paying internships.77 Future Directions for Research There is much research still to be done on issues related to the lack of diversity in librarianship and on how to recognize and dismantle the privilege and whiteness that are at the heart of our culture. Here are just a few areas that need further inquiry: Data on Diversity: It’s much easier to write about the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in libraries than about other kinds of diversity because we lack meaningful demographic data for and research on other identity groups. What kinds of data might we gather to more fully understand the landscape, while being respectful of the many reasons why people from certain identity groups may not want to share personal information? Organizational Processes: What are effective ways to incorporate bias awareness into our organizational and professional development? What kinds of processes or structures might help push an organization toward a better understanding of privilege and discrimination, and an appreciation for cultural and demographic difference? Attrition and Avoidance: The ALA’s research suggests that staff from underrepresented groups are leaving the profession at even higher rates than others. What reasons do departing staff give for leaving the profession? Are these attrition rates higher than in comparable professions? Does pay influence the decision by members of underrepresented groups to leave the profession or to avoid it completely? Leadership: Are there leadership styles or methods that can help promote organizational awareness of bias and discrimination and to develop actions to address them? How can leaders help managers and supervisors turn this awareness info positive change within their departments? How can leaders maintain a focus on these issues and hold themselves and the organization accountable, even while tending to all the other work of the organization? Acknowledgements I would like to thank April Hathcock and Jill Conte for their engaging and challenging conversations during the research process and their helpful comments and editing on drafts of this article. I’m especially grateful for Jill’s patient and careful reading and her willingness to question my assumptions and point out my own biases in my writing. A special thank you to Ian Beilin, my In The Library With The Lead Pipe Internal Peer Reviewer, who asked difficult and important questions, and pushed me to clarify my arguments and polish my prose. Finally, my gratitude to Lead Pipe editors Erin Dorney and Ellie Collier for their thoughtful feedback throughout the peer review process. Works Cited Alabi, Jaena. “Racial Microaggressions in Academic Libraries: Results of a Survey of Minority and Non-Minority Librarians.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 41 (2015): 47–53. https://www.atla.com/Members/programs/libtools/Documents/Alabi_Racial%20Microagressions%20in%20Academic%20Libraries.pdf . American Library Association. “ALA Policy Manual, Section B.3 Diversity.” American Library Association, Accessed July 27, 2015. http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/diversity . ———. “Core Values of Librarianship.” American Library Association, June 29, 2004. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/statementspols/corevalues . ———. “ALA: Diversity Counts Website.” American Library Association. Accessed July 28, 2015. http://www.ala.org/offices/diversity/diversitycounts/divcounts. Association of College & Research Libraries. “Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries (2012).” Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), 2012. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/diversity . Association of Research Libraries. “Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW).” Association of Research Libraries. Accessed July 25, 2015. http://www.arl.org/leadership-recruitment/diversity-recruitment/initiative-to-recruit-a-diverse-workforce-irdw#.VbQLDRNVikp . ———. “Minority Representation in US ARL University Libraries as of 2012-2013: Taking a Closer Look at the Evidence.” Association of Research Libraries. Accessed July 31, 2015. http://libraryassessment.org/bm~doc/24morrisposter.pdf . Balderrama, Sandra Ríos. “This Trend Called Diversity.” Library Trends 49, no. 1 (2000): 194–214. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/8331 . Barton, Dominic, Sandrine Devillard, and Judith Hazlewood. “Gender Equality: Taking Stock of Where We Are – Why Are Women Still Underrepresented at Every Level of Today’s Corporations?” McKinsey Quarterly, September 2015. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/gender_equality_Taking_stock_of_where_we_are . Basford, Tessa E., Lynn R. Offermann, and Tara S. Behrend. “Do You See What I See? Perceptions of Gender Microaggressions in the Workplace.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 38, no. 3 (September 1, 2014): 340–49. http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/38/3/340  doi:10.1177/0361684313511420 . Bourg, Chris. “Mentors, Gender, Reluctance: Notes from Taiga Panel on Leadership at ER&L.” Feral Librarian, March 24, 2014. https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/mentors-gender-reluctance-notes-from-taiga-panel-on-leadership-at-erl/ . ———. “The Radicalism Is Coming from inside the Library.” Feral Librarian. Accessed December 21, 2015. https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/the-radicalism-is-coming-from-inside-the-library/ . Canadian Library Association / Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques. “Canadian Library Association Position Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.” Canadian Library Association / Association Canadienne Des Bibliothèques. Accessed July 27, 2015. http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Position_Statements&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=4713  . Carnes, Molly, Patricia G. Devine, Carol Isaac, Linda Baier Manwell, Cecelia E. Ford, Angela Byars-Winston, Eve Fine, and Jennifer Sheridan. “Promoting Institutional Change Through Bias Literacy.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 5, no. 2 (2012): 63–77. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399596/ doi:10.1037/a0028128 . ClimateQUAL. “About: What Is ClimateQUAL?” ClimateQUAL. Accessed July 25, 2015. http://www.climatequal.org/about . ———. “ClimateQUAL: Benefits of Participation.” ClimateQUAL. Accessed August 8, 2015. http://www.climatequal.org/about/benefits . ———. “ClimateQUAL Sample Questions.” ClimateQUAL. Accessed July 25, 2015. http://www.climatequal.org/about/concepts/sample . ———. “ClimateQUAL FAQs: Survey Theory and Methodology.” ClimateQUAL. Accessed July 25, 2015. http://www.climatequal.org/about/faq . Colby, Sandra L., and Jennifer M. Ortman. “Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060.” Current Population Reports. Washington, D.C.: United States Census Bureau, March 2015. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-tps16.html . “Confirmation Bias.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, July 19, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias . Davis, Denise M., and Tracie Hall. “Diversity Counts Report.” Arlington, VA: ALA Office for Research & Statistics, ALA Office for Diversity and decision Demographics, January 2007. http://www.ala.org/offices/files/diversity/diversitycounts/diversitycounts_rev0.pdf. Damasco, Ione. “The Practice of Core Values: Academic Library Diversity Plans and the ACRL Diversity Standards.” presented at the ACRL/NY Symposium, Baruch College, New York City, December 4, 2015. Dobbin, Frank, and Alexandra Kalev. “The Origins and Effects of Corporate Diversity Programs.” In The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work, 253–81. Oxford Library of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199736355.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199736355 DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199736355.001.0001 Ferguson, Hope E. “Minorities: Time to Retire This Outdated Term?” The Root, July 28, 2014. http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/07/minorities_time_to_retire_this_outdated_term.html . Ferguson, Melissa J., and Shanette C. Porter. “An Examination of Categorization Processes in Organizations: The Root of Intergroup Bias and a Route to Prejudice Reduction.” In The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. Oxford Handbooks Online. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199736355.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199736355 DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199736355.013.0006 . Galvan, Angela. “Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, June 3, 2015. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/soliciting-performance-hiding-bias-whiteness-and-librarianship/. Gerhard, Kristin H., and Jeanne M. K. Boydston. “A Library Committee on Diversity and Its Role in a Library Diversity Program.” College & Research Libraries 54, no. 4 (July 1993): 335–43. http://crl.acrl.org/content/54/4/335.full.pdf+html . Hathcock, April M. “Twitter Post, 8/18/2015,” August 18, 2015. ———. “White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, October 7, 2015. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/lis-diversity/. Honma, Todd. “Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies.” InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies 1, no. 2 (June 21, 2005). http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj0w1mp . IFLA. “IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto.” International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Accessed July 27, 2015. http://www.ifla.org/node/8976. Kelley, Michael. “Diversity Never Happens: The Story of Minority Hiring Doesn’t Seem To Change Much | Editorial.” Library Journal. Accessed July 25, 2015. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/02/opinion/editorial/diversity-never-happens-the-story-of-minority-hiring-doesnt-seem-to-change-much/ . Krysan, Maria, Mick P. Couper, Reynolds Farley, and Tyrone Forman. “Does Race Matter in Neighborhood Preferences? Results from a Video Experiment.” American Journal of Sociology 115, no. 2 (September 2009): 527–59. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3704191/ . Lance, Keith Curry. “Racial and Ethnic Diversity of U.S. Library Workers.” American Libraries, May 2005. http://www.lrs.org/documents/workforce/Racial_and_Ethnic.pdf . Madrigal, Alexis C. “The Racist Housing Policy That Made Your Neighborhood.” The Atlantic, May 22, 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-racist-housing-policy-that-made-your-neighborhood/371439/. National Center for Education Statistics. “Fast Facts.” Accessed September 18, 2015. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=61 . Neely, Theresa Y., and Lorna Peterson. “Achieving Racial and Ethnic Diversity among Academic and Research Librarians: The Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Librarians of Color.” ACRL Board of Directors Diversity Task Force, July 2007. http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/ACRL_AchievingRacial.pdf . Page, Scott E. The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8757.html . Penn State University Libraries. “A Framework to Foster Diversity at Penn State University Libraries’ Diversity Strategic Plan 2010-2015.” Penn State University. Accessed July 30, 2015. http://equity.psu.edu/updates-10-15/pdf/academic_frmwrkplan/framework_plan/Univ_Lib_plan_10_15.pdf. Pew Research Center. “Americans Say They Like Diverse Communities; Election, Census Trends Suggest Otherwise.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. Accessed July 25, 2015. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2008/12/02/americans-say-they-like-diverse-communities-election-census-trends-suggest-otherwise/. Project Implicit. “Project Implicit: FAQs.” Accessed September 19, 2015. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/faqs.html. ———. “Project Implicit: Implicit Association Tests.” Project Implicit. Accessed August 4, 2015. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/. Quinn, Brian. “Collection Development and the Psychology of Bias.” The Library Quarterly 82, no. 3 (July 2012): 277–304. doi:10.1086/665933 . http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.1086/665933 . Roberson, Quinetta M., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199736355.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199736355  DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199736355.001.0001 Rosen, Jill. “Study: Children’s Life Trajectories Largely Determined by Family They Are Born into.” The Hub, June 2, 2014. http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/06/02/karl-alexander-long-shadow-research . Simmons School of Library and Information Science. “Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives.” Simmons College. Accessed July 30, 2015. https://www.simmons.edu/academics/schools/school-of-library-and-information-science/about/initiatives/diversity-initiatives. Starr, Terrell Jermaine. “10 Things Black People Fear That White People Don’t (Or Don’t Nearly as Much).” Alternet, March 16, 2015. http://www.salon.com/2015/03/18/10_things_black_people_fear_that_white_people_simply_dont_have_to_partner/. Unites States Census Bureau, Data Integration Division. “Current Population Survey (CPS) Data on Educational Attainment.” United States Census Bureau. Accessed August 2, 2015. http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/index.html . United States Census Bureau. “Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Tabulation.” United States Census Bureau. Accessed January 7, 2016. https://www.census.gov/people/eeotabulation/about/page_c.html . United States Census Bureau. “Profile of Selected Social Characteristics: 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4) – Sample Data.” American FactFinder. Accessed August 13, 2015. http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF4_DP2&prodType=table . United States Census Bureau. “Quick Facts, United States. Population Estimates, July 1, 2014.” United States Census Bureau. Accessed December 16, 2015. http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045214/00 . West Virginia University. “WVU Libraries Launches Librarian Diversity Initiative.” WVUToday. Accessed July 30, 2015. http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2015/07/22/wvu-libraries-launches-librarian-diversity-initiative . Wikipedia contributors. “Confirmation Bias.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Confirmation_bias&oldid=672196556 . Yancy, George, and Paul Gilroy. “What ‘Black Lives’ Means in Britain.” Opinionator: The Stone, October 1, 2015. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/paul-gilroy-what-black-means-in-britain/ . Yeo, ShinJoung, and James R. Jacobs. “Diversity Matters? Rethinking Diversity in Libraries.” Counterpoise 9, no. 2 (Spring 2006): 5–8. http://freegovinfo.info/files/diversity_counterpoise.pdf . For a recent example, see: Page, The Difference. [↩] For a critical discussion of libraries, democracy, racial exclusion, and structural oppression, see Honma, “Trippin’ Over the Color Line,” 8. [↩] Association of Research Libraries, “Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW).” [↩] American Library Association, “ALA Policy Manual, Section B.3 Diversity.” [↩] Canadian Library Association / Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques, “Canadian Library Association Position Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.” [↩] IFLA, “IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto.” [↩] Association of Research Libraries, “Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW).” [↩] American Library Association, “ALA Policy Manual, Section B.3 Diversity.” [↩] Canadian Library Association / Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques, “Canadian Library Association Position Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.” [↩] IFLA, “IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto.” [↩] Some examples include: Penn State University Libraries, “A Framework to Foster Diversity at Penn State University Libraries’ Diversity Strategic Plan 2010-2015”; West Virginia University, “WVU Libraries Launches Librarian Diversity Initiative”; Simmons School of Library and Information Science, “Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives.” [↩] The ALA’s 2007 “Diversity Counts Report,” notes that whereas the racial and ethnic minority population of the United States grew by a combined 152% from 1990-2000, “[d]uring roughly this same period…the number of racial and ethnic minorities receiving accredited MLIS degrees grew by only 4%.” Davis and Hall, “Diversity Counts Report,” 3. [↩] Gerhard and Boydston, “A Library Committee on Diversity and Its Role in a Library Diversity Program,” 335. [↩] Davis and Hall, “Diversity Counts Report,” 5. [↩] American Library Association, “ALA: Diversity Counts Website.” [↩] United States Census Bureau, “Quick Facts, United States. Population Estimates, July 1, 2014.” [↩] Association of Research Libraries, “Minority Representation in US ARL University Libraries as of 2012-2013: Taking a Closer Look at the Evidence.” [↩] National Center for Education Statistics, “Fast Facts.” [↩] Davis and Hall, “Diversity Counts Report,” 11, 3. [↩] Ibid., 3. [↩] Ibid., United States Census Bureau, “Profile of Selected Social Characteristics: 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4) – Sample Data.” [↩] Ibid., 11. [↩] Ibid., 3. [↩] Ibid., 18. [↩] Kelley, “Diversity Never Happens.” Using the term “minority” to refer to underrepresented racial and ethnic groups is increasingly seen as pejorative, and it is also becoming numerically inaccurate as the United States moves toward becoming a “plurality nation,” where no race or ethnic group is projected to have a numerical majority within the total population. Ferguson, “Minorities: Time to Retire This Outdated Term?” and Colby and Ortman, “Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060,” 13. [↩] Davis and Hall, “Diversity Counts Report,” 14. [↩] Lance, “Racial and Ethnic Diversity of U.S. Library Workers,” 43. [↩] United States Census Bureau, “Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Tabulation.” [↩] Lance, “Racial and Ethnic Diversity of U.S. Library Workers,” 41. Lance doesn’t say why this is the case. [↩] United States Census Bureau, “Current Population Survey (CPS) Data on Educational Attainment”; American Library Association, “ALA: Diversity Counts Website.” Based on the detailed United States Census Bureau CPS tables for 2014, I calculate that the percentages for higher degree attainment (meaning Master’s, Professional, or Doctoral degree) by racial group were 12% for non-Hispanic whites, 18.4% for Asians, 6.5% for Blacks, and 3.8% for Hispanics. (Here I’m using the terminology used by the United States Census Bureau. [↩] Rosen, “Study.” [↩] Ibid. [↩] Neely and Peterson, “Achieving Racial and Ethnic Diversity among Academic and Research Librarians: The Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Librarians of Color,” 8. [↩] For a recent article on the history of whiteness in the library profession, see Honma, “Trippin’ Over the Color Line.” [↩] Hathcock, “Twitter Post, 8/18/2015.” [↩] Hathcock, “White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS.” [↩] Yeo and Jacobs, “Diversity Matters? Rethinking Diversity in Libraries,” 1. [↩] Basford, Offermann, and Behrend, “Do You See What I See?,” 345. [↩] Alabi, “Racial Microaggressions in Academic Libraries: Results of a Survey of Minority and Non-Minority Librarians,” 52. [↩] Ibid., 47. See the article for her survey of the scant library literature on racism in academic libraries. [↩] ClimateQUAL, “About: What Is ClimateQUAL?” (emphasis mine). I’m not sure what “principles of diversity” they are referring to, and they don’t provide a link to a source, but their Core Scales page does describe the different kinds of diversity that are covered by the instrument. These include “surface diversity” (related to differences based on external characteristics) and “deep diversity” (related to differences based on internal characteristics like values, interests, competencies, personality, beliefs, and assumptions). These two types of diversity are related, and ClimateQUAL measures both. [↩] ClimateQUAL, “ClimateQUAL FAQs: Survey Theory and Methodology.” (emphasis mine). [↩] Pew Research Center, “Americans Say They Like Diverse Communities; Election, Census Trends Suggest Otherwise.” [↩] Madrigal, “The Racist Housing Policy That Made Your Neighborhood.” [↩] Pew Research Center, “Americans Say They Like Diverse Communities; Election, Census Trends Suggest Otherwise.” [↩] Krysan et al., “Does Race Matter in Neighborhood Preferences?,” 2. [↩] ClimateQUAL, “ClimateQUAL Sample Questions.” [↩] Starr, “10 Things Black People Fear That White People Don’t (Or Don’t Nearly as Much).” [↩] Alabi, “Racial Microaggressions in Academic Libraries: Results of a Survey of Minority and Non-Minority Librarians,” 52. [↩] ClimateQUAL, “ClimateQUAL: Benefits of Participation.” [↩] Wikipedia contributors, “Confirmation Bias.” [↩] In order to maintain respondent anonymity, the instrument requires that you have enough respondents in each demographic category in order to break the data down in this way. If there aren’t enough respondents from the already-marginalized groups in question, this method is unavailable to us and the scant voices within these groups will be further marginalized. ClimateQUAL, “ClimateQUAL FAQs: Survey Theory and Methodology.” [↩] For an introduction to the wide variety of ways to investigate diversity in the workplace, see Roberson, The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. [↩] Dobbin and Kalev, “The Origins and Effects of Corporate Diversity Programs,” 273. [↩] Ibid., 274-275. [↩] Ibid., 256. [↩] Association of College & Research Libraries, “Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries (2012).” [↩] Carnes et al., “Promoting Institutional Change Through Bias Literacy,” 64. [↩] Ibid., 65. [↩] Ferguson and Porter, “An Examination of Categorization Processes in Organizations: The Root of Intergroup Bias and a Route to Prejudice Reduction,” 105. [↩] Project Implicit, “Project Implicit: Implicit Association Tests.” [↩] Project Implicit, “Project Implicit: FAQs.” [↩] Ibid. [↩] Quinn, “Collection Development and the Psychology of Bias,” 297. [↩] A recent McKinsey Quarterly article underscored the importance of leadership in addressing the problem of gender equity in corporations. See Barton, Devillard, and Hazlewood, “Gender Equality.” [↩] American Library Association, “Core Values of Librarianship.” [↩] Balderrama, “This Trend Called Diversity,” 198. [↩] Bourg, “Mentors, Gender, Reluctance.” [↩] They define multiculturalism as “an ideology that promotes the recognition and acceptance of group differences.” Ferguson and Porter, “An Examination of Categorization Processes in Organizations: The Root of Intergroup Bias and a Route to Prejudice Reduction,” 108-109. For a critique of the term “multicultural” see Honma, “Trippin’ Over the Color Line.” [↩] Damasco, “The Practice of Core Values: Academic Library Diversity Plans and the ACRL Diversity Standards.” [↩] Ibid. [↩] Thanks to Ian Beilin for suggesting this problem. [↩] Thanks to Jill Conte for providing me with this insight. [↩] Hathcock, “White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS.” [↩] Recognizing the low pay of non-credentialed library staff and the cost of graduate school, these efforts will be most successful if financial support is provided in addition to mentoring. [↩] Galvan, “Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias.” [↩] For a statement about MIT’s new paid internship policy, see Bourg, “The Radicalism Is Coming from inside the Library.” [↩] ClimateQUAL, diversity, identity, institutional racism, microaggressions, organizational culture, perceptions, professional identity, whiteness Editorial: Introductions All Around And we’re back! 34 Responses Gina 2016–01–13 at 12:07 pm Thank you for the article! In the spirit of respect for diversity, please reconsider using the terms “blind” and “blindness” as metaphors for lack of understanding or ignorance. A few resources: http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/ableist-language-matters/ http://www.newappsblog.com/2011/07/ableist-language-and-philosophical-associations.html http://mic.com/articles/94988/7-things-people-with-disabilities-are-tired-of-hearing#.mG6k29GOf Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–13 at 7:37 pm Thank you for your comment and suggestion. Rereading my article and your links I realize I should have picked less ableist language to make my point. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–14 at 7:06 am Gina: thank you again. I’ve changed the language in the article to remove the terms “blind” and “blindness” except where they appear in direct quotations. I really appreciate your calling this to my attention. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–14 at 9:58 am Gina: Please see statement below from the editors regarding use of ableist language and changes made to the article. Thank you. Rodrigues 2016–01–13 at 12:58 pm I recognize so many factors mentioned here as things I’ve either been faced with personally in library work and HR practices or have seen happening to others. The big rub is that– as pointed to in the quote about bias becoming not less prevalent but simply more subtle, along with big words being said about diversity without a lot of real change– we’re left with a million anecdotes about microaggressions and barriers that we know are proof of these obstacles but individually make you wonder if it’s your own perception that is off. It’s like the interpersonal abuse of gaslighting but on an enormous, system-wide scale. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–13 at 1:09 pm Thank you for sharing your experience, Rodrigues. It’s insidious and so important for us to talk about and expose. And for people in the dominant culture, and those in power, to make it possible to have those conversations rather than cover it up/ignore it. Erin Dorney 2016–01–14 at 9:17 am At the request of the Lead Pipe editors, the author has amended this article to rephrase instances of abelist language. Jennifer happily complied and on behalf myself, Jennifer, Ian, and the entire Lead Pipe editorial board, we apologize that this language was not addressed during the editing process. As Jennifer said, we’re all learning, and we appreciate the comment left by Gina that reminded us to be more careful and accurate with the words we publish. Gina 2016–01–14 at 5:50 pm Jennifer and the editors’ quick response is much appreciated. Thank you for publishing the great work that you do! Max Macias 2016–01–14 at 11:49 am Libraries are really White-supremacist. They are mostly unconsciously so–which is even more dangerous. Even when POC get library degrees–many times they have bought into the White-Supremacist system of education, information and knowledge creation it makes little difference. People need to care more about equity, social justice and diversity MORE than they care about their reputations. The library world blackballs and abuses people who speak out and point of these things. I’m a fantastic librarian, was the LSTA advisory council chair for my state library, was the former REFORMA NW President, have achieved 100% retention in my info lit classes (the only one at my school to have done so), have over 22 years of experience working in libraries and I still can’t get a FT librarian job. I’ve been involved with so many councils, committees and such–and they never go anywhere–when it comes to social justice, equity and diversity. What the library world wants is POC who are “yes sir, yes ma’am” shufflers. They want a face of color who has a White-supremacist ideology within them. I can almost guarantee nobody will answer this post, or deride it. The library world, and Education in general are complicit in bolstering White-supremacy. Why don’t we have a POC terrorism task force in the library world. POC live under a constant state of terrorism, but people would rather speak about this stuff with distancing language. We need more people to speak out! Thank you for your article. Max Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–14 at 3:10 pm Thank you for sharing your experience, Max. David 2016–01–27 at 2:37 pm Wow, just wow. Here I am approx 12 years in the library community working alongside POC being completely unaware that I was actually a Nazi committing terrorism against non-white co-workers. Amanda Tarbet 2016–01–27 at 5:07 pm Way to misunderstand the comment and immediately invoke Godwin’s law. I suppose it’s too much to ask some people to think critically about the oppressive systems in which they are complicit and from which they benefit. David 2016–01–27 at 5:39 pm I’m afraid Max invoked it first. I wasn’t the one slandering an entire profession as white supremacist terrorists. Or does ‘thinking critically’ to you include calling people the worst names in the book? Amanda 2016–01–27 at 6:21 pm Except that’s not what he said. That’s what you think he said because, well, I’m not sure why. Probably you’re a white guy who doesn’t like uncomfortable truths about his privilege. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but based on past experiences that would be my go to explanation. And before you flip out, I am white.) At any rate, I’ll explain it to you. Not because I think you’re interested in a dialogue or learning anything new since your initial comment was so antagonistic, but just in case anyone else stopping by who reads this thread is interested. White supremacy does not always equal Nazism. We, Americans, live in a white supremacist society that actively oppresses non-white people. Librarians are not individually autonatically white supremacists, but white people and white librarians benefit from the white supremacy inherent in our society. And Max is correct is saying that there is rampant complacency in libraries that can prevent us from doing anything about the white supremacy inherent in our institutions. As for terrorism, he wasn’t saying that librarians are terrorists who sit around plotting how to terrorize POC. The terrorism is built into the fabric of this nation. POC absolutely DO live under a constant state of terrorism. Murders of unarmed (and often innocent) black men and women at the hands of police and covered up by those police, the fact that black men are 8 times more likely to be killed by police then white men, are proof. As are things like the school to jail pipeline, higher rates of incarceration for crimes more likely to be committed by white people, and a whole ugly, horrible history of the things that have been done to POC in this nation that I will not type here because librarians should be able to research and learn. If we are not actively working to reduce inequality in our institutions, then we are allowing this racial terrorism to have the last word. That’s as much as I have the patience for tonight. The second hand embarrassment I have for you is exhausting. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–27 at 10:53 pm David: Max did not use the term Nazi. He is talking about white supremacy, which is a form of racism that promotes the idea that white people are superior to people of other races or ethnicities, and the belief that white people should therefore have and maintain power other them. One of the many ways white supremacy is exercised is by privileging other white people, either consciously or unconsciously, in professional situations. This can happen simply by maintaining the status quo in hiring and promotion. If we’re not actively seeking to change the demographics of our profession we are maintaining that status quo. Shannon Simpson 2016–01–14 at 5:41 pm Thank you so much for your article! As a woman of color in the library field I have had many experiences validated in this and other recent research. I have MANY ideas for libraries in which we could level the playing field. From not requiring students to be enrolled full-time in order to be eligible for scholarships, (what happens when you don’t get any funding and now your weeks into grad classes?) to requiring that EVERY SINGLE LAST PERSON that is up for a library job being required to answer a question about inclusion, racism and cultural competency. If we cannot affect the pipeline immediately, at least we can seek out those members of the majority that will be willing to fight to make our field more inclusive -both in representation and thought. Imagine if every single person we hired could talk competently about race and ability? Why CAN’T that be a requirement for hire? As referenced in so much research, librarians of color feel overburdened with the work to make change in our profession on the fronts of diversity and inclusion, however, we cannot be the only ones taking up this fight. It’s the same problem in all of academia. Many of us are extremely passionate about this topic, but because it is rarely valued at the same level as teaching or scholarship, we burn out because we are so often the ones doing the majority of the work. We need every librarian understanding this problem and championing this cause if those of us that are here and care don’t keep bowing out from burn out feeling non-valued in their efforts. We need to train those that are already here, only hire those that understand and can share the burden of the work in which we must all engage in order to keep our profession progressive and reflective of the communities that we serve. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–14 at 10:06 pm Shannon, thank you for your comment and your great ideas for more actively building inclusive workplaces. I agree that this is a task for all of us, but *especially* for those of us in the dominant culture. As Chris Bourg recently said at the ARL Leadership Symposium, “it is not up to librarians of color to solve the whiteness problem in librarianship – that’s on us white folk.” https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/whiteness-social-justice-and-the-future-of-libraries/ I believe that the burnout you describe is related to the attrition rates that I mention in my article — how could it not be? Even as we work toward more being a more inclusive profession, there is research to be done to better understand the nature and the causes of burnout and attrition. I hope others continue this research and that we see more and more leaders who implement the things you mention above. Elizabeth Hopkins 2016–01–27 at 10:43 am I would say that during my career as a librarian, I have suffered reverse racism and even though I am more qualified, the job has been very often given to a member of a ‘minority.’ I am shocked and amazed that the underlying assumption is that diversity must take over and displace all whites. In general I am very disappointed that my own opportunities have been so greatly diminished because of the displacement of whites and the destruction of Western Civilization. The question is why must all of our countries be destroyed, when minorities should be encouraged to make their own parts of the world desirable places to live? Amanda Tarbet 2016–01–27 at 5:02 pm Elizabeth, are you serious right now? There is no such thing as reverse racism. There is discrimination, which can happen to anyone in the United States, but the only people who can experience racism are oppressed minorities. I’m not even going to touch the second paragraph of your comment. It’s chock full of racist nonsense. Why the hell would someone like you even want to work in librarianship if this is how close minded they are? You’re an embarrassment to our profession. Shannon Simpson 2016–01–27 at 6:13 pm Elizabeth, Your comments are extremely troubling. Did you read the article and take a look at the research? You really, really, need to learn a lot more about our shared American history, about privilege and implicit bias, among a load of other things. One of the biggest problems I have with discussing hiring, is that there is such a very disturbing assumption that when there is a minority hire that somehow it was merely there minority status that got them the job and not their qualifications or abilities. Many of us did not coast on into any job we wanted, many of us did not get scholarships and many of us are frustrated that we have to work in circumstances where diversity is just this annoying extra nuisance to some of our co-workers. I was passed over for a job that went to a young white woman that was a brand new LIS grad. I had many more years of experience and background in the area. I WOULD NEVER assume that the people that did not hire me (I am a woman of color) were racist or even that I was somehow more qualified. What I assume is that I was over-qualified and that they might have really been looking for a new grad to fill the position or a million other things. You never know what a stranger may bring to the table and diversity of people has shown over and over to bring creative and progressive ideas to the table that are much better than when homogeneous groups make decisions. If you want your library to be better, you should want to work with a diverse group of people. The fact that all you saw with the woman that was hired over you was her skin color and made assumptions about her qualifications – most HR departments require minimum qualifications before anyone can step in the door – means that you felt you deserved that job. I would never feel like that! I don’t deserve anything in this world, I am just lucky to have a job and family and roof over my head. Your comments are extremely troubling because of the assumptions you are making about people of color that are unfounded and debunked – less intelligence and inability to be from a desirable place? Don’t get me started about what was plundered from the “less desirable places” from wealth to people, in order to build these “more desirable” parts of the world. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–27 at 10:39 pm Elizabeth: this article isn’t about “displac[ing] all whites.” I’m not even sure how you could have taken that idea from the article that I wrote, because it’s certainly not in there. My article is about making our profession inclusive of all the different kinds of people who live in our society, and not discriminating against people based on disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or any other factors. Whatever your personal experience in librarianship may be, the numbers very clearly show that our profession in no way represents the demography of our country. And, as your comment so aptly demonstrates, people from underrepresented groups are frequently made to feel like they are unwelcome, that they don’t belong, and that people from the dominant group just want them to go away. Yours is a very harmful statement. Pingback : Latest Library Links 22nd January 2016 | Latest Library Links FLOYD COUNCIL 2016–01–27 at 5:21 am “Best article, ever.” African American male Librarians can’t even be counted in America. May we all find our place in the village. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–27 at 10:54 pm Thank you, Floyd. Shannon Simpson 2016–01–28 at 1:23 pm Jennifer – You should definitely turn this into a conference presentation. In fact, I would use some of the comments here and some recent and not-so recent ALA Think Tank threads, (in Facebook), to illustrate the gap in understanding about the importance of inclusion and the problems in representation among working librarians in the field. I conducted research a few years ago on race and debt and scholarships in attaining an MLIS. I had over 1000 responses and left a field for comments. Some of the comments from working librarians were appalling and completely the opposite of what was actually occurring in the field. I guess the adage: “Never read the comments,” goes for well-written research and recommendations on respected blogs, as well. Jennifer Vinopal 2016–01–28 at 2:51 pm Hi, Shannon. Thank you for your encouragement and for responding to comments above! I’m thinking about next steps and have something percolating right now. Did you publish the results of your research? If so please add a link or citation here, or send it to me at jennifer [at] vinopal [dot] org. I’d love to see it. Erin Dorney 2016–01–29 at 3:18 pm The editorial board has determined that at least two of the above comments are offensive and in violation of our Code of Conduct. However, we have chosen to leave the comments up because other readers have responded so thoroughly and intelligently. We are opting to preserve the discussion as evidence for exactly why these discussions of inclusivity need to continue. We would like to remind our readers of the “Further Reading” on social justice issues links from our Conduct page, particularly: – 18 Things White People Should Know/Do Before Discussing Racism | The Frisky (http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-06-12/18-things-white-people-should-knowdo-before-discussing-racism/) – Racism 101: This Shit Doesn’t Go in Reverse | whites educating whites (so POC don’t have to) (http://whiteseducatingwhites.tumblr.com/post/28789498254/racism-101-this-shit-doesnt-go-in-reverse) Moving forward, this comment thread will be moderated by the editors and comments will not be approved if they are determined to violate our Code of Conduct. Pingback : “Five Generations of Asian Americans” by Molly Higgins | APALA Maha Kumaran 2016–02–08 at 10:16 am My colleague sent me a link to this interesting article. I am one of the few Canadian librarians interested in diversity in librarianship in Canada. We don’t use the term “color” instead we use “visible minorities.” I am a visible minority and data on minorities in Canadian libraries is hard to find. If interested please do see this article https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/23294 In 2011 a few foundational members started the visible minority librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) as a network with CLA https://vimloc.wordpress.com/publications/ Pingback : Valuing Professional Librarianship | hls Pingback : Prioritizing Diversity and Inclusion | Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe Pingback : Reducing Bias in the Library Job Interview Pingback : Tech-ing to Transgress: Putting Values into Library Practice Pingback : Making Institutional Change – Checking out Whiteness This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-ifla-org-3706	----	Library Services to Indigenous Populations: Case Studies Compiled and edited by: Loriene Roy (Anishinabe), PhD & Antonia Frydman, MSIS ! Dedication This work is dedicated to the vision and spirit of Ms. Rangiiria Hedley (Ng!ti T"wharetoa) former Ng! #poko Tukutuku Project Team member for the Ng! #poko Tukutuku/M!ori Subject Headings project.   1 Overview By Antonia Frydman and Loriene Roy (Anishinabe) Interest in indigenous matters has been communicated at the highest levels of IFLA with support from IFLA Presidents Kay Raseroka, Alex Byrne, and Ingrid Parent. Program sessions including “Information Systems for Indigenous Knowledge in Agriculture” and “From the Global Village to the Indigenous Village: The Role of the Library in Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Indigenous People” were held at the IFLA World Library and Information Congresses, and “Indigenous Knowledges: Local Priorities, Global Contexts” was the theme of Ingrid Parent’s First Presidential Meeting held on the campus of the University of British Columbia in April 2012. A new Special Interest Group (SIG) on Indigenous Matters was formed in December 2008 and located under the Library Services to Multicultural Populations Section. During the SIG’s first business meeting at the 2009 IFLA Library and Information Congress in Milan, Italy, IFLA members requested that the SIG attend to five tasks: examining the role of libraries in supporting Native languages; establishing and maintaining connections with indigenous librarians globally; reviewing IFLA documents for content about indigenous knowledge; paying attention to key questions and issues; and identifying protocol documents. Since this first meeting, the IFLA SIG has held annual business meetings, published bi-annual columns on topics such as the seventh International Indigenous Librarians Forum in the Section’s newsletter, and created a successful program on “Empowering Library Services for Indigenous People” at the 2012 World Library and Information Congress. The IFLA SIG has encouraged an international dialogue among librarians about indigenous librarianship. Among the librarians who have contributed to this conversation are citizens of Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, France, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Sweden, Mexico, Spain, India, Norway, and Zimbabwe. They are members of tribal communities including the Anishinabe, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Cree, Hawai’ian, Ho Chunk, Kiche Maya, Maori, Mojave, Navajo/Shoshone, Saami, San Carlos Apache, Torres Strait Islander, Winnebago, Wyandotte, and Yorta Yorta. Many have collaborated on task forces, and are members of the IFLA SIG’s Facebook group. This publication is an extension of—as well as a tool for—the discourse on indigenous librarianship, and is linked to the five tasks of the SIG on Indigenous Matters. This online book was developed with the following goals: • To provide librarians around the world with a reference guide that they can use to guide their services for and with indigenous peoples. • To establish strong networks of indigenous librarians so that international efforts are inclusive and reflective of good policy.   2 The majority of this book consists of a collection of case studies that describe work being done around the globe within the field of indigenous librarianship. Preceding the case studies, and providing them with context and background, is an essay written in response to the question, ‘who is indigenous?’ The case studies in this collection offer descriptions of library-related programs, collaborations, and resources that serve indigenous populations all over the world. This compendium of case studies is by no means comprehensive or complete, but it is an exciting start. It is the editors’ hope that this project will continue to be expanded in the coming years, as more initiatives are developed, documented, and shared. The case studies were collected by means of a call for submissions, sent out to libraries and programs that had demonstrated a commitment to the following IFLA principles: Supporting the Role of Libraries in Society; Promoting Literacy, Reading, and Lifelong Learning; Preserving Our Intellectual Heritage; and Promoting Standards, Guidelines, and Best Practices. The libraries and programs that received the call for submissions replied enthusiastically, resulting in the collection of forty unique case studies. The libraries, programs, and services included in this collection of case studies span four continents— North America, Asia, Africa, and Australia—and eleven countries. Indigenous populations served include the Anishinaabe, Dakota, Lakota, Coast Salish, and Native Hawaiian peoples; the Navajo Nation and the Muckleshoot Reservation; tribal college and university students in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand; First Nations, Inuit, and Metis communities in Ottawa and British Columbia; indigenous and migrant groups of Jalisco, Hidalgo, Puebla, Guerrero, and Oaxaca; native communities in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia; the Tswana tribe of South Africa; Torres Strait Islander communities across Queensland, Australia; and the Māori of New Zealand/Aotearoa. Cases are organized by site country and listed alphabetically within their locational grouping. This was the most optimal classification system, as other potential classifiers—services provided or communities served—are in many cases manifold and would therefore overlap. Some of the programs described in the collection offer one specified service, whereas other programs provide a wide array of services. Common services include literacy support (The Grades for Peak Success); access to technology, books, and other library resources (Ruth A. Myers Library/Ojibwe Archives, Making Books Making Readers); community events (Diné College Libraries and Wetaskiwin Public Library, Language Coffeehouse); online databases (ATSIDA, LIANZA, iPortal); and activities focused on the preservation of cultural material (BlackWords, Ngā Kupu Ora, Center for Indigenous Cultures). Many programs serve or aim at one community or age group, such as elementary or secondary students (Operation Teen Book Drop, Segenat Children and Youth Library), college students and faculty (American Indian Cultural House, Leech Lake Tribal College), or tribal librarians (Tribal   3 College Librarians’ Institute, Intercultural Workshop Series in Wetaskiwin); while other programs serve entire reservations and villages (Kitengesa Community Library, ALU LIKE, Inc., Riecken Community Libraries). This collection of cases is a snapshot of the status of indigenous librarianship in the early 21st century. We hope this record of existing programs will inspire new library services that are created by, for, and with indigenous people, and that support indigenous communities in the recovery of their cultural heritage and in the advancement of future generations. Additional Resources: (1) “Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous People.” 1993. Available at: http://ankn.uaf.edu/IKS/mataatua.html. (2) Society for American Archivists (SAA). “Protocols for Native Archival Materials.” 2007. Available at: http://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/protocols.html. (3) “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Library and Information Resource Network Protocols.” 2012. Available at: http://aiatsis.gov.au/atsilirn/protocols.php. (4) Assembly of Alaska Native Educators. “Guidelines for Respective Cultural Knowledge.” 2000. Available at: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/publications/Knowledge.pdf. (5) ALA. “DRAFT Principles. Librarianship and Traditional Cultural Expressions: Nurturing Understanding and Respect.” 2009. Available at: http://wo.ala.org/tce/2009/04/01/draft-of-library-principles-and-tces/.       4 Who is Indigenous? By Loriene Roy (Anishinabe) One of the most basic and persistent questions that arises when discussing library services for indigenous peoples is ‘who is indigenous?’ Like indigenous peoples themselves, the full cultural and historical significance of this question is generally overlooked and undervalued; fortunately however, this query has begun to be more scrupulously examined in recent library and information science publications.1 As the findings in these publications make apparent, the question regarding who and what qualifies as indigenous is not neutral, nor is the answer straightforward. The convoluted pathway to seeking a definition for indigeneity speaks to the term’s “ambiguous and dynamic nature.”2 At different points in history, Native identity has been based on “descent, residence, culture, social ties, or combinations of such criteria.”3 Relative to the questioner and his or her motivation, the query of ‘who is indigenous?’ can be answered truthfully and with an incredible degree of variation. Whereas each individual answer has its limitations when determining what factors determine indigeneity, together these answers shed light on the complex issue. In this essay I use the terms indigenous peoples and Native peoples to refer to the first or original people of the land. Like many Native people, I prefer to be recognized as a member of my specific tribal nation, but have opted to apply the aforementioned terms to this essay for the sake of brevity and directness. I respectfully acknowledge that some individuals may consider the words indigenous and/or Native to be pejorative and reflective of colonizing attitudes, but I maintain that this essay intends to utilize these terms for identifying purposes only. Indigenous People Know Who They Are Some readers may already be familiar with the word indigenous. To those not previously exposed to the term, the answer to ‘who is indigenous?’ might simply be that tribal communities determine who their members are. Within this line of reasoning, indigenous people are defined by indigenous communities. This explanation of indigeneity rests on recognized membership of a distinct group, and also requires an understanding of the “origins, continuity, distinctiveness” of Native communities “that had particular resources, particular ancestors and histories, unique ways of doing things, and special partnerships with beings who had power to ensure their health and prosperity.”4 Native peoples are understood to be distinct as well as sharing commonalities across tribal communities. Considering the Necessity to Define Indigenous People Whereas few people who are indigenous actively seek a universal definition of indigenous identity, having a concrete designation is often of concern to those who are not indigenous, especially those who live in proximity to tribal nations. This necessity for a clear- cut means to identify indigeneity is likely based on a desire to create a taxonomy of cultures that illustrates interconnections—much like branches of language or family trees. To many Native peoples themselves, the act of defining replicates a colonial attitude of itemization and may be       5 felt to diminish tribal knowledge and acknowledgment. It incorporates an element of competition, of insider-outsider status, and recalls metaphors of evolution: that humans have progressed linearly from early man to today’s royalty. Strictly defining indigenous peoples can thereby be perceived as a step toward challenging their identities and perpetuating the tiresome nomenclature of classifying indigenous people as ‘the other.’ This act of defining can also be utilized as an academic tool, providing the research community with the power to ascertain who belongs to a tribal nation and who does not. Forbes describes this process as the means by which some researchers are able to circumvent ethical practices: by contriving the definition of Native peoples’ identity, and then creating ‘stumbling blocks’ within the perimeters of this definition, researchers ensure “(1) that the oppressed frequently do not have access to their own written records and do not know all of the details of their own history; (2) that the oppressed frequently are forced to accept the categories and perspectives of the dominant elites; and (3) that academic specializations have often contributed to arbitrary and even colonially determined ways of dividing up reality.”5 In any case, defining sets up a “binary coding of the world” into phrases such as “Christians-heathens, superman-subhuman, human-inhuman . . . [which are] the central prerequisite for colonial rule.”6 This typology “homogenizes the disparate group of rulers as well as the ruled, and at the same time creates a distance between the two groups, a distance that is necessary for colonial supremacy.”7 These taxonomies foreshadow dangerous ulterior motives, when considering that “such preparation was laid by early travelers, observers, ethnographers, and amateur anthropologists who provided ‘evidence’ for a classification of human groups and their subsequent subjection to a hierarchy of qualities.”8 As Holocaust scholar Dr. Steven Koblik explained in 2010 on National Public Radio (NPR)’s Weekend Edition regarding the physical transfer of the Nuremberg Laws, “If you’re going to really persecute a group of people, you need to define them.”9 Are There Any Indigenous People? It is unlikely that any readers of this text would believe that there are no indigenous peoples in contemporary society. That said, though this belief is certainly extreme, it is not an unheard-of point of view in American society. It is not uncommon to hear museum visitors remark that American Indian cultures are extinct, and that only their cultural artifacts remain. This conception is obviously problematic; beyond rendering indigenous peoples presently nonexistent, it also points to a subconscious desire for a homogenized population. In this context, Homogeneity refers to the mid-twentieth century philosophy that envisioned America as a melting-pot society. Within the homogenized model, everyone’s lineage would ideally be assimilated or blended, and therefore no distinct indigenous peoples would survive. This school of thought advocated the integration of Native peoples into the majority culture by means of intermarriage and indoctrination. In regards to the latter, during the process of conforming to the beliefs and behaviors of a unified national identity, Native peoples would lose their cultural lifeway, including their language. Accordingly, any cultural or racial allegiance would be       6 secondary, nonexistent, or noted in a superficial way—for example, by communally observing designated holidays or sanctioned celebrations like Thanksgiving. What evidence do we have that the melting-pot society is not a reality? The first line of evidence is that within the United States alone, there are over 500 tribes recognized by the federal government, and the International Workgroup for Indigenous Affairs has identified some 200 million indigenous peoples around the globe.10 Secondly, these tribal nations have vastly different histories, languages, and lifeways. While there are common features across tribal nations, they themselves are not homogenized. Even the tribes within these tribal nations have not melted together; they remain distinct. Isn’t Everyone Indigenous? Equally extreme is the inverse of the idea that there are no indigenous people, which is the belief that everyone is indigenous. Positioning themselves in the center of the discourse surrounding indigeneity are those who reach back into their genealogical history in order to find links to peoples with distinctive cultural expressions. A conceived or true genealogic connection to such cultural expressions, which might include language, clothing, dance, and celebration are presented as evidence that the descendant—and therefore everyone else—is indigenous. While this attitude may on the surface appear to be self-defining and celebratory, it emerges from a western or European concept. These believers are generally opposed to what they might perceive as special treatment, insisting instead that everyone should be compensated based on personal achievements or direct inheritance, rather than on descendancy through bloodlines or tribal membership. This rationale also correlates with the dismissal of historical wrongs. If everyone is indigenous, then what would prevent a universal ‘washing of the hands’—a quick cleansing of the wrongs committed by their ancestors? Some People Just Wannabee The mix of personages interested in indigenous peoples also includes the wannabee—the non-Native person who is motivated to associate with a tribal community. This motivation might be attributed to a desire to connect with an idealized past where one can be ‘one with nature.’ Wannabees might attribute their physical features, such as high cheekbones, to an undocumented indigenous ancestry. These individuals tend not to want to associate with the everyday difficulties of indigenous life, and instead will cherry-pick romanticized attributes of indigeneity while choosing to shed their newfound identities at any time. They often have no contact with native peoples, or even with the tribes to which they claim affiliation. Well-known Spokane/Coeur d’Alene writer Sherman Alexie once described the distinction between a wannabee and a true indigenous person: “I’ve always had a theory that you ain’t really Indian unless, at some point in your life, you didn’t want to be Indian.”11 Blood Quantum Another noteworthy definition of indigeneity can be found in federal governments’ standards for recognizing indigeneity. In some areas of the world, indigenous affiliation is       7 determined by percentage of indigenous blood, also referred to as the blood quantum. For legal and governance purposes, the United States federal government pushed tribes in the United States to adopt the blood quantum enrollment for membership requirements in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tribal membership rosters or rolls were consequently taken; such designation required genealogical or blood descendancy percentages, which resulted in mandates that tribal members needed to be one-fourth blood-related to the tribe. Unfortunately, a number of these tribal membership rosters or rolls were corrupt or otherwise flawed. Even with a genealogical/blood connection, an individual—who might have been adopted by or married to a non-tribal person, for instance—would not necessarily be considered indigenous if he or she was not formally recognized by the desired tribal communities, and would thereby be excluded from their blood communities. Subsequently, meeting requirements for tribal membership came to involve alternate criteria: proven connection to ancestors listed on treaty documents through “lineal descent . . . residence on tribal lands, knowledge of tribal language and culture, or membership in a recognized clan,” and the continued active affiliation with the tribal community.12 This set of requisites is by no means all-inclusive, however, and might very well be modified again. The variance among tribal nations, tribes, and indigenous individuals indicates that “even if non-Indians had consistently advanced a single idea of what it meant to be Indian, they would have gotten a wide variety of responses from native people and their progeny.”13 Linking the Various Definitions of Indigeneity In regards to the act of attempting to define indigeneity, identifying two extremes—at one side of the spectrum, the belief that indigenous peoples no longer exist, and at the other, the belief that everyone is indigenous—should allow readers to begin to acknowledge and challenge their own perspectives. Hopefully, this acknowledgement will prove a step toward being more receptive to and interested in how indigenous peoples view themselves. Regardless of the rationale for examining definitions, it is worthwhile to recognize that “Indian people are burdened with defending their identity more often and more extensively than any other ethnic group in America.”14 Often the focus of researchers, indigenous peoples find themselves studied and categorized in academia, and constrained by federal government mandates. Yet, "when indicating the paths that Indians should take, non-Indian fingers have pointed in different directions. It is no wonder that there have been so many ways to be Indian.”15 How Have Indigenous Librarians Answered the Question, ‘Who is indigenous?’ Native identity is tied to multiple factors, and it is evident that indigenous peoples’ “sense of themselves as Indians is the product of a kind of layering process.”16 This layering process is one that has developed over time, and there was likely a period in history when “knowledge of one’s ancestors and allegiance to one’s home place suffice[d] to make an individual as an Indian.”17 Certainly, indigenous peoples assign extreme significance to ancestry and home place, to the extent that these descriptors tend play a key part in introductions among other Native peoples. It is in their introductions to non-indigenous communities, especially among       8 federal governmental representatives, that layering in other descriptors and criteria becomes obligatory. As tribal communities have reorganized their governance to match that of western nations, they have more often than not assimilated non-traditional requirements sanctioned by these federal governments into their assessments of membership. Using numerous criteria is also not without negative results: “Mixing such elements as kinship, lineage, property law, social relations, and residence . . . In the years to come it would offer some people welcome shelter, trap others against their will, and shut out still others who wanted in.” The United Nations’ definition of indigenous peoples points to an enduring and distinctive community identity: Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.18 Native peoples hold close two aspects of their cultural identities: their connection to the land and their genealogy. In 1999, Te Rōpū Whakahau (Māori in Libraries and Information Workers), the organizers of the first International Indigenous Librarians Forum, defined indigenous peoples as “those who have become minority peoples in their places of cultural origin.”19 Over time, this statement was perceived to be a working definition due to problematic components: it does not acknowledge indigenous peoples who are majority in their lands, or those who have moved away from homeland areas over time and through generations. This working definition’s strength lies in the fact that it recognizes the unique relationship original people have to the land. Māori use the phrase tangata whenua—people of the land. Rewi outlines the criteria to keep in mind when considering whether someone is tangata whenua: • They have sovereign occupation in the area; • They have long-term residency, whether by means of first discovery, occupancy, force, purchase, cession, or by gift; • They have tribal affiliation to the land; and • They have governance over the land, regardless of the duration of their occupation.20 Trask observes that “indigenous peoples are defined in terms of collective aboriginal occupation prior to colonial settlement.”21 In other words, Native Hawai’ians of today are “the contemporary remnant of the original people inhabiting the Islands.”22 Trask points out an important difference between indigenous history and settler history: whereas settlers can claim a voluntary status, having chosen to relocate to lands where their descendants now claim a legal inheritance, indigenous peoples have an involuntary status, in that their physical lives on homeland areas are tied to emergence or other creation stories. Accordingly, indigenous       9 peoples’ formal nationalities were imposed upon them by outside governments: unlike the settlers of Hawai’i (haole, Asians, and others) who voluntarily gave up the nationality of their homelands when they became permanent residents of Hawai’i, Hawaiians had their nationality forcibly changed within their own homeland.23 Forbes presents a rationale for the discord between indigenous peoples and settlers of Hawai’i, asserting that “colonial settlers could not truly become ‘natives’ until the real natives were gone. Their continued existence as a separate population is a constant reminder of the foreignness of the white minority or majority, as the case may be.”24 This phenomenon supplies an economic basis for actions taken where “by and large, racism and colonialism have sought to make Native Americans ‘vanish,’ in some cases directly (through ethnocide and genocide) and in some cases indirectly (through intermarriage and ‘benign’ culture change).”25 Yet, affiliation with one area does not reflect the histories of all Native peoples, and “many Indian communities are more accurately characterized by geographic movement (rather than attachment to one specific place).”26 Some argue against the settler/indigenous dichotomy, seeking evidence that Native people also relocated at some documented or distant past. The history of Native peoples’ emergence from the earth of their homelands or migration is not often taken as valid evidence, as these records are handed down through oral tradition, and often do not have material documentation. In many societies, however, family traditions “the only evidence of ancestry available (since even recent colonial or governmental records such as birth certificates, census reports, and marriage licenses usually use arbitrary racial categories imposed by a white official or by white prejudice). Moreover, the family mythic tradition has a cultural- social reality which, often, renders it ‘a social fact.’”27 Connection to the land is frequently implicated in Native protocol or etiquette; in many parts of the world, indigenous people introduce themselves by the landmarks that demarcate their homelands (‘This is the mountain, river, rock near where I was born’). The land grounds indigenous peoples in their genealogy. Some indigenous people may, for example, know where their umbilical cord is buried, and this may also be the land where their bodies will return after death. In fact, in te reo, the Māori language, whenua, ‘land’, has the same meaning as ‘placenta’. In addition to sustaining a relationship to one’s homeland, maintaining knowledge of one’s bloodlines is crucial to many indigenous peoples. Genealogy is considered by Native peoples not as a tool to determine Blood Quantum, but as the connection to life, as is evident in this self-introduction: “My name is Lawrence Shorty. I am Nashaashe born for the Mississippi Choctaw people. My maternal grandfather is Táachíni I, and my paternal grandfather is Mississippi Choctaw. These things are what make me a man.”28 The act of defining indigeneity extends across centuries of colonialism. The result of one tribe’s approach to determining membership showed that “during decades of dialogue about where to draw lines around Indians, there have always been some people who were not sure where to stand, some who resisted pressure to stay inside official lines, and some who faced skepticism or objections when they took up a position.”29 Julie Good Fox summarized the role       10 of the tribe in determining membership: “Fundamentally, it’s the tribe’s right to determine who its citizens are and are not.”30 In distinguishing between tribal enrollment and genealogy, Good Fox noted, “Anyone can claim ancestry, but those who do can’t always claim citizenship.”31 In many ways, the ‘indigenous people know who they are’ approach comes closer to answering the question of indigeneity than almost any other. That said, it could be slightly improved, to read: ‘indigenous communities know who their people are.’                                                                                                                           References 1See publications such as (1) Roy, Loriene. 2009. “Indigenous Matters in Library and Information Science: An Evolving Ecology.” Focus in International Library and Information Work 40 (2): 8-12. (2) Roy, Loriene and Kristen Hogan. 2010. “We Collect, Organize, Preserve, and Provide Access, With Respect: Indigenous Peoples’ Cultural Life in Libraries.” In Beyond Article 19: Libraries and Social, and Cultural Rights, ed. Julie Biando Edwards and Stephan P. Edwards, 113-147. Duluth, MN: Library Juice. This article is a revised version of the piece published in Focus in International Library and Information Work, published with permission of the editor. 2Harmon, Alexandra. 1998. Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities Around Puget Sound, xi. Berkeley: University of California Press. 3Harmon, Indians in the Making, 246. 4Harmon, Indians in the Making, 3, 11. 5Forbes, Jack D. 1990. “The Manipulation of Race, Caste and Identity: Classifying Afroamericans, Native Americans and Red-Black People.” Journal of Ethnic Studies 17 (4): 10. 6Zimmer, Jurgen. 2007. “The Birth of the Ostland Out of the Spirit of Colonialism: A Postcolonial Perspective on the Nazi Policy of Conquest and Extermination.” In Colonialism and Genocide, ed. A. Dirk Moses and Dan Stone, 107. London; New York: Routledge. Forbes, “The Manipulation of Race, Caste and Identity,” 1-50. 7Zimmer, “The Birth of the Ostland,” 107. 8Finzsch, Norbert. 2007. “`It is Scarcely Possible to Conceive that Human Beings Could be so Hideous and Loathsome’: Discourses of Genocide in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century America and Australia.” In Colonialism and Geonocide, ed. A. Dirk Moses and Dan Stone, 7. London; New York: Routledge. 9NPR Staff. 2010. “Four Pages That Decreed Six Million Deaths.” Weekend Edition, 28 August 2010. Available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129492523. Accessed on April 22, 2013. 10Molbech, Anette. 2001. The Indigenous World 2000-2001. Copenhagen: The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. 11Alexie, Sherman. 1995. Reservation Blues. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 169. 12Siek, Stephanie. 2012. “Who’s a Native American It’s Complicated.” Available at: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/14/whos-a-native-american-its-complicated/. Accessed on April 22, 2013. 13Harmon, Indians in the Making, 152. 14Maynor, Malinda M. 2008. “Practicing Sovereignty: Lumbee Identity, Tribal Factionalism, and Federal Recognition, 1932-1934.” In Foundations of First Peoples’ Sovereignty: History, Education & Culture, ed. Ulrike Wiethaus, 85. New York, New York: Peter Lang.       11                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         15Harmon, Indians in the Making, 12. 16Maynor, “Practicing Sovereignty,” 61. 17Maynor, “Practicing Sovereignty,” 62. 18Martinez Cobo, Jose. 1987. Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations. Geneva: United Nations, 379. 19Makoare, Bernard and Chris Szekely. International Indigenous Librarians’ Forum 1999. 1999. Preliminary Program. Auckland, New Zealand: National Library of New Zealand, 8. 20Rewi, Poia. 2010. Whaikōrero: The World of Māori Oratory. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 38. 21Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1999. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2nd ed., 33. 22Clark, Kauila. 2008. “Pondering Sovereignty for Native Hawaiians.” In Foundations of First Peoples’ Sovereignty: History, Education & Culture, ed. Ulrike Wiethaus, 45. New York, New York: Peter Lang. 23Trask, From a Native Daughter,” 30. 24Forbes, “The Manipulation of Race, Caste and Identity,” 28. 25Forbes, “The Manipulation of Race, Caste and Identity,” 27. 26Maynor, “Practicing Sovereignty,” 85. 27Forbes, “The Manipulation of Race, Caste and Identity,” 38. 28Shorty, Lawrence. 2008. “Reclaiming Health as an Act of Self-Determination: Tobacco Addiction Resistance.” In Foundations of First Peoples’ Sovereignty: History, Education & Culture, ed. Ulrike Wiethaus, 123. New York, New York: Peter Lang. 29Harmon, Indians in the Making, 248. 30Siek, “Who’s a Native American It’s Complicated.” 31Siek, “Who’s a Native American It’s Complicated.” 12 Case Studies Table of Contents United States of America Page 1. Aaniih nakoda College (ANC) Library……………………………………….…………….14 2. ALU LIKE, Inc., Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi~Native Hawaiian Library………….……..…...15 3. American Indian Cultural House (AICH), University of Minnesota…………………….....17 4. Diné College Libraries……………………….……………………………………………...18 5. Ethnic Studies Library, University of California (UC Berkely)…………………………….20 6. Diné College Libraries: Hidden, Silenced, Banned, Burned . . . and Beautiful...…………...21 7. Labriola National American Indian Data Center, Arizona State University (ASU)…….......23 8. Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) Agindaasowigamig……………………………………26 9. Muckleshoot Library and Tribal School…………………………………………………….28 10. Ruth A. Myers Library/Ojibwe Archives, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College…30 11. Tribal College Librarians’ Institute (TCLI), Montana State University (MSU)………......32 Canada 12. First Nations Storyteller-in-Residence Program…………………………………………..34 13. Indigenous Filmmakers Collection Development, Xwi7xwa Library……………………..37 14. Indigenous Studies Portal (iPortal), University of Saskatchewan (U of S)……………….39 15. Intercultural Workshop Series in Wetaskiwin…………………………………………….42 16. Ottawa Public Library (OPL) Aboriginal Outreach Initiative…………………………….46 17. Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Resource Centre……………………48 18. Wetaskiwin Public Library, Language Coffeehouse…………………………………...…51 Guatemala 19. Riecken Community Libraries…………………………………………………………….57 Mexico 20. Center for Indigenous Cultures, Public Library of the State of Jalisco……………………60 Ethiopia 21. Segenat Children and Youth Library: A project of the Tigray Libraries and Literacy Development Project (TLLDP)………………………………………………………………………………63 South Africa 22. Logaganeng Library in South Africa……………………………………………………...66 Uganda 23. Kitengesa Community Library……………………………………………………………68 Various Countries in Africa 24. School Libraries in Africa: Every School A Library……………………………………...71 China 25. Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County Library. ……………………………73 Pakistan 26. Sunday Book Bazaar………………………………………………………………………75 Australia 27. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA)…………………………..77 13 28. The Akaltye Antheme Collection, Alice Springs Public Library (ASPL)………………...79 29. BlackWords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers…………….81 30. The Grades for Peak Success (GPS): Your Local Library Program…………………....…83 31. Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC) Network…………………………………………...86 32. Making Books Making Readers (MBMR)………………………………………………..90 Aotearoa/New Zealand 33. Christchurch City Libraries/Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi (CCL)………………………94 34. Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA)……………..96 35. Ngā Kupu Ora: Recognising Excellence in Māori Publishing……………………………99 36. Ngā Tūpuna o Te Whanganui-ā-Tara: Biographies of Māori who Resided in the Wellington Region from 1840……………………………………………………………………………..102 37. Ngā Ūpoko Tukuktuku/Māori Subject Headings and Iwi-Hapū Names Projects…………105 38. Tumu Herenga/The University of Auckland Library……………………………………..108 39. Te Whakatipu o Hauora: Growth for life…………………………………………………112 40. Tihei Matariki (Long Live New Year)……………………………………………………115 14 CASE STUDY 1 Aaniih nakoda College (ANC) Library Submitted by Eva English, Library Director at ANC Library. City, State: Harlem, Montana Country: USA Name of Library: ANC Library. Mission: The primary goal of the ANC Library is to provide library services to ANC students, faculty, and staff, as well as to residents of the Fort Belknap Reservation. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The ANC Library serves a dual purpose. It is the academic library for ANC students, faculty, and staff; and it also serves as the public library for the Fort Belknap Reservation and surrounding communities, a population base of approximately 2,000. Description of Service(s): The ANC Library undertook a multi-year outreach effort after community surveys revealed a lack of participant knowledge about available library services. The most successful aspect of this effort has been adding semi-monthly bookmobile services to the remote areas of the reservation. Impact of Service(s): Through these outreach efforts, circulation has increased approximately ten percent and the number of patrons has been increased by approximately twenty percent. Patrons have expressed the desire for the service to be continued and appreciation for the delivery of reading and research materials to their communities. Relevant Website: “Aaniih nakoda College: ANC Library.” Available at: http://www.fbcc.edu/library. Accessed on April 20, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Eva English Library Director Aaniih nakoda College (ANC) Library P.O. Box 159 Harlem, Montana USA Phone: +1 406-353-2607 ext. 311. Email: eenglish@mail.fbcc.edu 15 CASE STUDY 2 ALU LIKE, Inc., Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi~Native Hawaiian Library Submitted by Keikilani Meyer, Interim Director of Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi. City, State: Honolulu, Hawai’i Country: United States Name of Library: ALU LIKE, Inc., Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi~Native Hawaiian Library. Mission: The mission of ALU LIKE, Inc. is “to kōkua (assist) Native Hawaiians who are committed to achieving their potential for themselves, their families, and their communities.”1 The purpose of Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi~Native Hawaiian Library is to “to kōkua Native Hawaiians with access to information and provide materials and services that foster reading and lifelong learning.”2 Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Native Hawaiians. Description of Service(s): Propelled by a purpose to increase access to information and provide materials and services that foster lifelong learning to the Native Hawaiian community, Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi (The Native Hawaiian Library) continues to provide services to Native Hawaiians predominantly in rural communities. Services are administered through three distinct components: Library, Literacy, and Legacy. For Library, an array of services are offered through four libraries located on three islands: O’ahu, Hawai’I, and Moloka’i. These services include storytelling, adult education, oral history, genealogy research, book launches, book borrowing, a summer reading program, and community read-alouds. For Literacy, efforts are focused upon strengthening the literacy foundation of the family unit by offering parent literacy workshops to equip parents in the role of their child’s in-home teacher; homework assistance and tutoring; culture- based literacy programs; book fairs; family reading nights; an annual parent conference; and an annual literacy fair. For Legacy, Hawaiian history, language, culture, and literature are emphasized. Global user access to Hawaiian resource materials is provided through Ulukau, the Hawaiian electronic library. The collection in their virtual library provides the 1 “ALU LIKE, Inc.” Available at: http://www.alulike.org/. Accessed on April 29, 2013. 2 “Third Annual Kauikeaouli Literacy Fair Brings Literacy and Fun to the Community,” Ka Waihonoa Puke ‘Ōiwi~Native Hawaiian Library (November-December 2010). Available at: http://www.alulike.org/services/NHLP%20Newsletter/2010_11-12.pdf. Accessed on April 30, 2013. 16 user with a historical glimpse of Hawai’i and its people by browsing through Hawaiian language newspapers published between 1834 and 1948, Hawaiian dictionaries, Ka Ho’oilina journals, books, place names, the Māhele (Land Division) database, the Ed Greevy photo collection, and genealogy indices. This last component also perpetuates Hawai’i’s legacy by developing resource materials for the classroom, families, and greater community. Impact of Service(s): Each month, these physical libraries service over 1,000 patrons. The global outreach services through Ulukau, the Hawaiian electronic library, accumulate over 8.8 million hits annually. Relevant Websites: • “ALU LIKE, Inc.” Available at: http://www.alulike.org/. Accessed on April 29, 2013. • “Native Hawaiian Library.” Available at: www.nativehawaiianlibrary.org. Accessed on April 29, 2013. • “Ulukau: The Hawiian Electronic Library.” Available at: www.ulukau.org. Accessed on April 29, 2013. For more information, contact: Keikilani Meyer Interim Director Ka Waihona Puke ‘Ōiwi Native Hawaiian Library ALU LIKE, Inc. 458 Keawe Street Honolulu, Hawai’i 96813 USA Phone: +1 808-535-1315 Email: almeyer@alulike.org 17 CASE STUDY 3 American Indian Cultural House (AICH), University of Minnesota Submitted by Jody Gray (Cheyenne River Lakota), Diversity Outreach Librarian/American Indian Studies Librarian at the University of Minnesota. City, State: Minneapolis, Minnesota Country: USA Names of Libraries: University of Minnesota Libraries. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: First-year American Indian undergraduate students, primarily Dakota/Lakota or Ojibwe. Description of Service(s): The University of Minnesota American Indian Cultural House (AICH) is a living and learning community for freshman with American Indian heritage, or those interested in learning more about American Indian culture. AICH, which began in 2003, is a partnership with the Circle of Indigenous Nations, Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence, Office of Admissions, Department of American Indian Studies, and the Office of Housing and Residential Life at the University of Minnesota. Students who participate have the option of living on the same floor in Comstock Hall, or they may commute. Commuter members participate in all of the activities and classes as the members living in Comstock, but they reside in different residence halls or off campus. Impact of Service(s): AICH helps students develop leadership skills and gives a voice to young American Indian students. Students acquire some copyright and information literacy skills from the University Libraries, and become familiar with the University Libraries American Indian video collection, as well as the work done by American Indian librarians. AICH provides students with the opportunity to meet members of the American Indian community at the University of Minnesota in both personal and professional capacities. Relevant Websites: • “American Indian Cultural House.” Available at: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/mcae/aich/. Accessed on April 19, 2013. • “University of Minnesota Libraries.” Available at: blog.lib.umn.edu. Accessed on April 19, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Jody Gray Diversity Outreach Librarian/American Indian Studies Librarian University of Minnesota 108 Walter Library 117 Pleasant Street SE Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 USA 18 CASE STUDY 4 Diné College Libraries Submitted by Victoria Beatty, Youth Services Librarian at the Tony Hillerman Library, Instruction/Distance Services Librarian at Diné College, 2004-2008. City, State: Tsaile, Arizona Country: The Navajo Nation, USA Name of Libraries: Diné College Libraries. Mission: The Diné College Libraries adhere to the Diné College mission. Diné College is a public institution of higher education chartered by the Navajo Nation. The mission is to apply the Sa'ąh Naagháí Bik'eh Hozhóón principles to advance quality student learning: • Through Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Living), and Siihasin (Assurance). • In study of the Diné language, history, and culture. • In preparation for further studies and employment in a multi-cultural andtechnological world. • In fostering social responsibility, community service, and scholarly research that contribute to the social, economic and cultural well being of the Navajo Nation. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Diné College students, faculty, and staff, and local community members. Description of Service(s): From 2005-2008, the Diné College Libraries in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation hosted a monthly community open mic coffeehouse, called Friday Nights @ the Library. Friday Nights @ the Library brought together students, faculty, staff, and members of the wider community in a comfortable and casual gathering place with coffee, tea, and a community potluck supper. The library setting created a relaxed, intimate atmosphere that was welcoming for performers and stimulating for audiences. It also offered patrons a chance to interact with librarians in a friendly and social environment, helping to overcome “library anxiety.” Because the remote tribal community of Tsaile lacked “third places,” defined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in The Great Good Place3 as places that “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work,” Friday Nights @ the Library quickly became a community institution that welcomed people from every part of the community and of all ages and ethnicities. 3 Oldenburg, R. 1989. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You through the Day. New York: Paragon Books. 19 Regulars included Diné College students, faculty, and staff members, along with their families; faculty and children from the public elementary school; medical personnel from the Indian Health Service clinic; and occasional visitors who drove thirty to sixty miles across the reservation to attend. Impact of Service(s): The community potluck supper that began every coffeehouse promoted mingling among the attendees, and the readings and music were great conversation starters. Many people became regulars, and new friendships—and in some cases, artistic collaborations—grew out of the series. Local artists discovered the coffeehouse to be a supportive environment for trying out new work, and the regularly scheduled events encouraged them to continue creating material. The libraries benefited by taking on a more participatory role in the production of knowledge, while at the same time forming relationships with the community’s next generation of leaders, thinkers, and performers. The Diné College Libraries, whose name in Navajo means “house of papers,” became more accessible to community members with different learning styles when oral traditions, music, and the arts were celebrated. Through the relationships that subsequently developed, the library was able to become more responsive to community needs. In May 2006, the Diné College Libraries were awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services-funded Library Services and Technology Act grant through the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, in the Community Focal Point category. During the 2006-07 academic year, Friday Nights @ the Library travelled to Diné College’s community centers in the towns of Window Rock, Ganado, Kayenta, and Tuba City. Reaching far beyond library walls, librarians gained new opportunities to promote the library and its services, and to support lifelong learning, in every community they served. These events promoted new partnerships with other campus departments and divisions, as well as with other libraries and community organizations across the Navajo Nation. They also served as important recruitment opportunities for Diné College. Relevant Websites and Documents: • Friday Nights @ the Library website.” (No longer maintained). Available at: http://library.dinecollege.edu/spotlight/fridays/. Accessed April 29, 2013. • Yurth, Cindy. “Traveling coffeehouse jolts rez nightlife.” Navajo Times. May 3, 2007. Available at: http://bit.ly/oFjg4c. Accessed on April 29, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Victoria Beatty Youth Services Librarian Tony Hillerman Library Albuquerque/Bernalillo Library System USA 8205 Apache NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110 Phone: +1 505-291-6264 Email: vlbeatty@gmail.com 20 CASE STUDY 5 Ethnic Studies Library, University of California (UC Berkeley) Submitted by John D. Berry, MLIS, MA, Native American Studies and Comparative Ethnic Studies Librarian at UC Berkeley. City, State: Berkeley, California Country: USA Name of Library: Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Mission: Tier 1 research collections for the UC Berkeley campus and the world community. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The library holds representative collections for communities within the Native American, Asian American, Chicano Studies, and Comparative Ethnic Studies subject areas. Description of Service(s): Each representative collection holds approximately 15,000 volumes and maintains archival collections, art, audio-visual materials, microfilm, posters, photographic series, and some realia. Reference services for each of the four collections are provided by librarians who specialize in these subject areas. Impact of Service(s): Researchers come from many countries worldwide to use the collections. There is heavy use of the collections year round by the entire UC Berkeley campus community, as well as by other students and researchers. These collections were founded as a result of the Third World Student Strikes in 1968-69. Relevant Websites: • “Ethnic Studies Library.” Available at: http://eslibrary.berkeley.edu. Accessed on April 4, 2013. • “UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library – Facebook.” Available at: http://www.facebook.com/eslibrary. Accessed April 4, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Ethnic Studies Library 30 Stephens Hall #2360 Berkeley, CA 94720-2360 / USA Phone: +1 510-643-1234 Fax: +1 510-643-8433 Email: esl@library.berkeley.edu 21 CASE STUDY 6 Diné College Libraries: Hidden, Silenced, Banned, Burned . . . and Beautiful Observing Banned Books Week and the September Project on the Navajo Nation Submitted by Victoria Beatty. City: Tsaile, Arizona Country: The Navajo Nation, USA Name of Libraries: Diné College Libraries. Mission: The Diné College Libraries adhere to the Diné College mission. Diné College is a public institution of higher education chartered by the Navajo Nation. The mission is to apply the Sa'ąh Naagháí Bik'eh Hozhóón principles to advance quality student learning: • Through Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Living), and Siihasin (Assurance). • In study of the Diné language, history, and culture. • In preparation for further studies and employment in a multi-cultural and technological world. • In fostering social responsibility, community service, and scholarly research that contribute to the social, economic and cultural well being of the Navajo Nation. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Diné College students. Description of Service(s): In 2007, the Diné College Library in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation observed Banned Books Week and The September Project with an exhibit, “Hidden, Silenced, Banned, Burned . . . and Beautiful.” Including displays throughout the library and an online exhibit spotlighted on the library's web page, the project was divided into three sections. “Silenced Voices” showcased Native American authors/artists and themes of American Indian literature, sovereignty, constitutional history, decolonization, and representation. “Hidden Treasure” featured literature challenged in schools and school libraries, and “Banned & Burned” presented classic literature that had been challenged or censored. All exhibits emphasized attacks on First Amendment guarantees of free access to information. The travelling instruction/distance services librarian also presented the exhibit during information literacy sessions with classes and individuals, using issues highlighted in the “Silenced Voices” section as examples. Citing Michael Yellow Bird's analysis of critical 22 thinking as “intelligently subversive activity,” 4 she challenged students to become informed, critical thinkers. Students were responsive and engaged in class, and the books from the exhibit circulated briskly, keeping librarians busy restocking the display. Impact of Service(s): Assessment of the Information Literacy outcome of Diné College's General Education Program had begun during Fall 2003, and was based on research papers completed by English 102 students. During the Fall 2007 semester, librarians and faculty members noted that more students chose to research and write about topics showcased in the exhibit, particularly sovereignty, decolonization, and representation. Constructing a research project to measure the impact of targeted displays on student learning would be a valuable next step. Relevant Websites: • “Hidden, Silenced, Banned, Burned...and Beautiful.” Available at: http://library.dinecollege.edu/spotlight/bannedbooks/bannedindex1.html. Accessed on April 29, 2013. • “The September Project.” Available at: http://theseptemberproject.org/. Accessed on April 29, 2013.5 • “Banned Books Week.” Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/ bannedbooksweek/index.cfm. Accessed on August 10, 2012. 6 For More Information, Contact: Victoria Beatty (See Case Study 4) 4 Wilson , A. C., Yellow Bird, M. 2005. For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press. 16. 5 Since 2004, libraries across the world have organized events about freedom and issues that matter to their communities during the month of September. This grassroots project favors free over fee, public over private, and voices over silence. 6 Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. “Diné College September Project.” 23 CASE STUDY 7 Labriola National American Indian Data Center, Arizona State University (ASU) Submitted by Joyce, Martin, Curator of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center. City, State: Tempe, Arizona Country: USA Name of Library: Labriola National American Indian Data Center, Arizona State University (ASU) Libraries. Mission: The Labriola National American Indian Data Center's primary purpose is to support undergraduate, graduate, and faculty level curriculum and research on American Indian language, culture, social, political, and economic issues at ASU. The Labriola Center is responsible for a multidisciplinary collection of resources, most notably in the disciplines of American Indian Studies and history. The Center also has considerable resources in American Indian literature and linguistics, and encompasses a broad spectrum of subjects in nearly every academic discipline. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Primary users are American Indian students, faculty, affiliated faculty, and members of the wider community who are seeking information or conducting research related to American Indians. Description of Service(s): Dedicated in 1993, the Labriola National American Indian Data Center holds both primary and secondary sources by and about American Indians across North America. This center consolidates historic and current resources regarding government, culture, religion and worldview, social life and customs, tribal history, and information on individuals from the United States, Canada, and the states of Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico. Endowed by Frank and Mary Labriola, the center was founded on the hope that “the Labriola Center be a source of education and pride for all Native Americans.”7 Reference personnel are prepared to research, answer questions, or make referrals to other research centers on all topics dealing with North American Indian Tribes. The Labriola Center co-sponsors special events highlighting contemporary indigenous intellectual discourse. The Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community at ASU addresses topics in the arts, humanities, sciences, and politics. Underscoring indigenous American experiences and perspectives, this series seeks 7 “Labriola National American Indian Data Center.” Available at: http://lib.asu.edu/labriola. Accessed on April 30, 2013. 24 to create and celebrate knowledge that evolves from an indigenous worldview that is simultaneously distinctive and inclusive of all walks of life. Lectures are held twice a year in March and October; past speakers include Wilma Mankiller and Gerald Taiaiake Alfred. Past lectures can be found in the Labriola Center collection on DVD and online at The ASU Library Channel.8 The center works with Distinguished Foundation Professor of History Dr. Donald Fixico to sponsor the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award. The award is presented to an author whose book crosses multiple disciplines or fields of study, is relevant to contemporary North American Indian Communities, and focuses on modern tribal studies, modern biographies, tribal governments or federal Indian policy. Malinda Lowery, an Assistant Professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recently received the award for her book, Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation: Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South.9 Impact of Service(s): Around 3,500 people either visited or contacted the Labriola Center for research assistance during the academic year of 2010-2011. Additionally, over 3,000 people visit the Labriola Center web pages and research guides each year. The Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community not only facilitates discussion at the events; through the innovative use of technology, the ASU Libraries enable additional forums for discussion in the forms of blogs and web pages that are linked to the streaming videos. One example of this is the Wilma Mankiller lecture, which has been downloaded over 400 times. The Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community website has received positive feedback from Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources, who placed a link to the lecture on their web page and added this comment: “Thank you for posting this podcast. I’ve downloaded it. Wilma Mankiller is a respected indigenous activist, and I am always eager to hear her opinion on matters.”10 Relevant Websites: • “Labriola National American Indian Data Center.” Available at: http://lib.asu.edu/labriola. Accessed April 29, 2013. • “Labriola LibGuide.” Available at: http://libguides.asu.edu/content.php?pid=3897. Accessed April 29, 2013. 8 “ASU Libraries - The Library Channel.” Available at: http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/tag/american- indians/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. 9 Lowery, Malinda. 2010. Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation: Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 10 “Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources.” Available at: http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. 25 • “The Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community.” Available at: http://english.clas.asu.edu/indigenous/. Accessed April 29, 2013. • “Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award.” Available at: http://lib.asu.edu/labriola/bookaward. Accessed on April 29, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Joyce Martin Curator of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center ASU Libraries PO Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 USA Phone: +1 480-965-6490 Email: Joyce.martin@asu.edu 26 CASE STUDY 8 Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) Agindaasowigamig Submitted by Melissa Pond, Director of Library Services at Leech Lake Tribal College. City, State: Cass Lake, Minnesota Country: USA Name of Library: Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) Agindaasowigamig (Library). Mission: The mission of the LLTC Agindaasowigamig is to support the goals of LLTC and its learning community, and to uphold Anishinaabe worldviews by providing quality resources and capable service. The Agindaasowigamig abides by the seven Anishinaabe values: • Dabasendizowin/Humility – by giving courteous service to library users. • Debwewin/Truth – by delivering information using multiple kinds of resources from a variety of perspectives and by preserving cultural materials for future generations. • Zoongide’iwin/Courage – by addressing problems openly and directly and by finding innovative and constructive solutions. • Gwayakwaadiziwin/Honesty – by maintaining established policies and procedures which make our actions transparent and accountable to others. • Manaaji’idiwin/Respect – by treating all people, all things, and all ideas with fairness, care, and dignity. • Zaagi’idiwin/Love – by understanding and accepting others and ourselves. • Nibwaakaawin/Wisdom – by valuing the coming together of people, traditional knowledge, and lifelong learning. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: LLTC students, employees, alumni, Leech Lake community members, and all people interested in learning more about the people, history, and culture of Leech Lake. Description of Service(s): The LLTC Agindaasowigamig offers print and electronic resources to supplement the subjects taught at LLTC. Resources include nearly 7,000 print volumes, special collections and archives devoted to Anishinaabe humanities and the Leech Lake Reservation, and access to journal databases through the Electronic Library for Minnesota. This library provides reference services in person, over the phone, and via email to campus and community members; and supplies bibliographies, research instruction that is both tailored to user needs and delivered in a classroom, and pathfinders for specific courses and 27 assignments. It additionally contains eight computer terminals with Microsoft Office Suite and Internet access, three study tables, one couch for leisure reading, and public wireless access. Library staff maintain online lists of subject-specific web resources through the LLTC website, as well as a regularly updated blog summarizing current campus and Great Lakes Anishinaabeg news and events. Impact of Service(s): During the 2010 calendar year, the library saw 16,586 visits and 155 circulations of materials, with students taking advantage of the library’s computer access, information resources, and reference services. On campus, thirteen library-classroom information literacy collaborations occurred in 2010. 272 blog entries were posted, attracting 6,532 site visits and 10,898 page views. Library staff assisted with highly-successful campus initiatives, including a donation drive for the ice storm-ravaged Cheyenne River Reservation, which resulted in 500 dollars raised and a truckload of blankets, bottled water, and clothing. Staff played a leadership role in constructing and writing the institutional self-study for continuing accreditation. The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools granted Leech Lake Tribal College ten years of continuing accreditation with no focus visits required. Relevant Websites: • “Leech Lake Tribal College Library - Official Website.” Available at: http://www.lltc.edu/academics/library. Accessed on April 4, 2013. • “Leech Lake Tribal College Library Blog.” Available at: http://lltclibrary.blogspot.com. Accessed on April 4, 2013. • “Leech Lake Tribal College Library Catalog.” Available at: http://www.northstarcatalog.org/common/welcome.jsp?site=100&context=leechcollege Accessed on April 4, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Melissa Pond Director of Library Services LLTC Agindaasowigamig Leech Lake Tribal College PO Box 180 6945 Little Wolf Road NW Cass Lake, Minnesota 56633 / USA Phone: +1 218-335-4240 Email: library@lltc.edu 28 CASE STUDY 9 Muckleshoot Library and Tribal School: Partnering with Authors, Publishers, and a National Reading Club for Native Children on Operation Teen Book Drop (OTPD) Submitted by Rachel McDonald, Teen Librarian at King County Library System. Reservation: Muckleshoot Reservation City, State: Auburn, Washington Country: USA Name of Library: Muckleshoot Library. Mission: To promote teen literature and reading for pleasure among Native American teens by providing a book to each student attending middle and high school at the Muckleshoot Tribal School. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Teen-aged students at the Muckleshoot Tribal School. Description of Service(s): On April 15, 2010, the Muckleshoot Library partnered with Readergirlz (an online reading community for girls) and If I Can Read I Can Do Anything (a national reading club for Native children) to distribute 300 books to teens at the Muckleshoot Tribal School as part of OTPD. Middle and high school students were invited into the school library to choose a book from ten different young adult novels donated by Boyds Mills Press. Local authors Lorie Ann Grover, Dia Calhoun, Justina Chen Headley, and Holly Cupala were also on hand to visit with the students and answer questions about their work as authors and members of Readergirlz. That morning, students filed into the library and picked out their books. The students were generally surprised that they would be able to keep the books, and many had difficulty choosing just one. As high school senior Megan Yellowboy explained, “People say that teens don’t like to read, but I don’t think that’s true. Books are expensive.” Tribal School librarian Sherri Foreman was thrilled by the event, emphasizing that books are terrific gifts for students. The students received autographs from the authors, and asked the authors questions. This initiative was not limited to the Muckleshoot reservation. Across the United States, OTBD delivered approximately 10,000 new books, largely donated by publishers, with 29 additional donations from authors, librarians, and readers. OTBD was part of a massive effort to spur reading on a nationwide scale. In 2008 and 2009, Readergirlz coordinated the delivery of 20,000 new books to teens in hospitals. “While we donated books to hospitalized teens for two years,” Readergirlz co- founder Lorie Ann Grover said, “I was personally compelled to donate books to the local Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. We were thrilled to discover we could broaden this effort with If I Can Read and gift OTBD to our second targeted group, Native American teens.” Impact of Service(s): Each student received a copy of a book to keep. While most books were distributed to students, the few books that remained were compiled into sets that teachers can use for classroom assignments. Students were able to meet local authors, generating further interest in the authors’ work. Relevant Website: “Readergirlz.” Available at: http://www.readergirlz.com/tbd. Accessed on April 4, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Rachel McDonald Teen Librarian, King County Library System Email: rmmcdonald@kcls.org or readergirlzdivas@gmail.com “IFLA Book Operation: TBD Students.” 30 CASE STUDY 10 Ruth A. Myers Library/Ojibwe Archives, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) Submitted by Jeff Tibbetts, Title III Project Director at the Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College. City, State: Cloquet, Minnesota Country: USA Name of Library: Ruth A. Myers Library/Ojibwe Archives. Mission: The mission of the Ruth A. Myers Library/Ojibwe Archives is to select, maintain, enhance, promote, and make accessible the information, material, and research resources necessary to support the FDLTCC mission: teaching, cultural diversity, public service, and lifelong learning. The library and archives serve as a repository of Native American (with emphasis on Anishinaabe) history, culture, and sovereignty, within the limits of the library's resources and its primary commitment to the FDLTCC community. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College students, faculty, and staff and members of surrounding tribal communities. Description of Service(s): The Ruth A. Myers Library/Ojibwe Archives is central to the academic mission of the college. The library, recently expanded in 2008, is located on the first and second floors on the north end the academic building. Adjacent to the library on the first floor is the Ojibwe Cultural Resource Center. There, surrounded by a collection of Native art, a language lab with an audio and visual recording studio is used by students, elders, teachers, and researchers to assist in the preservation and growth of the Ojibwe language. The Ruth A. Myers Library is both a tribal college library and a community college library, and provides its users with a full range of services. These include access to materials supporting the FDLTCC academic curricula and emphasizing Native American history, culture, and sovereignty, especially of the Anishinaabeg. Among the library’s in-house materials are monographic, audio-visual, newspaper/journal, and microform collections. Government materials include Minnesota State documents on microfiche and federal documents deemed relevant to the missions of the library and college. Native American materials are a major focus of all collection areas. Special 31 collections are comprised of the Anishinaabe and Minnesota regional collections and a juvenile/young adult collection of American Indian materials. The library’s physical collection is accessed via an online catalog system linked with academic libraries in Minnesota and other states. The library also provides electronic access to subject databases and indexes, and to the Internet. In addition, the library provides Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services to assist users in obtaining materials from other libraries. Skills in library use and research methods are essential to the library’s mission. Library staff provides educational services, and integral to these services is the provision of reference and research assistance, available most hours the library is open. Library instruction is available to classes and individuals, and is tailored to meet specific needs from general and point-of-use to subject-specific research. Relevant Website: “Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College - Library.” Available at: http://www.fdltcc.edu/current/support/library. Accessed April 4, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Nancy Broughton, Library Director Phone: +1 218-879–0837 Email: sam@fdltcc.edu Diane Kauppi, Library Technician Phone: +1 218-879–0790 Email: dkauppi@fdltcc.edu Library Service Desk Phone: +1 218-879–0838 Email: library@fdltcc.edu 32 CASE STUDY 11 Tribal College Librarians’ Institute (TCLI), Montana State University (MSU) Submitted by Mary Anne Hansen, Professor/Reference Librarian at MSU. City, State: Bozeman, Montana Country: USA Name of Library: MSU Renne Library. Mission: The mission of the MSU Library’s TCLI is to (1) provide an annual face-to-face professional development opportunity for librarians serving the information needs of indigenous college students and (2) to foster collaboration and group problem solving among this unique and international group of library professionals who typically serve in isolated areas. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Tribal college librarians and any librarians serving the information needs of indigenous college students. Description of Service(s): TCLI is an annual professional development opportunity tailored to the cultural and professional needs of library personnel working at tribal colleges in reservation communities, and librarians in any location who directly serve tribal college students. Hosted by the MSU Libraries, TCLI typically takes place on the MSU campus in Bozeman, Montana. Funded by grants from the National Agriculture Library and the National Museum of the American Indian, TCLI has also met twice, in 2001 and 2006 in Washington, D.C. Approximately thirty-five to fifty-seven tribal college librarians from across the U.S. and Canada participate each year, and Māori librarians attended in 1997 and 2011. A three-year grant from the U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services facilitated the largest attendance yet, with fifty-seven participants, in 2010. This number includes student presenters who were encouraged to pursue careers at tribal college libraries, and who educated TCLI participants on new trends and issues taught in schools of library and information science. TCLI provides educational and cultural programming relevant to indigenous peoples, tribal colleges, tribal college libraries, and their staff. This service operates on a shoestring budget, relying on grants and limited university support. TCLI has never charged participants a registration fee, and the majority of funding received is used to either defray or entirely cover participants’ travel costs to the institute. Since it first began in 1990, 33 TCLI has striven towards an intimate environment specifically geared to the needs of its participants. Librarians attend the institute not only to be informed on up-to-date topics of discourse, tools, and skills pertaining to librarianship, but also to share their stories and to support and advise one another. Each year at the institute, Native and non-Native participants are exposed to new knowledge and skills, as well as valuable group problem solving. Impact of Service(s): TCLI participants come together for five days of professional development, cultural knowledge, and peer networking. The institute is intended specifically for librarians who, in their roles as academic librarians and public librarians, serve the information needs of indigenous college students and greater tribal communities. Relevant Website: “The Tribal College Librarians’ Professional Development Institute.” Available at: http://www.lib.montana.edu/tcli. Accessed on April 4, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Mary Anne Hansen, TCLI Coordinator James Thull, TCLI Coordinator Professor/Reference Librarian Associate Professor/Reference Librarian Montana State University Montana State University PO Box 173320 PO Box 173320 Bozeman, MT 59717-3320 Bozeman, MT 59717-3320 USA USA Phone: +1 406-994-3162 Phone: +1 406-994-5305, voice Fax: +1 406-994-2851 Fax: +1 406-994-2851, fax Email: mhansen@montana.edu Email: jjthull@montana.edu 34 CASE STUDY 12 First Nations Storyteller-in-Residence Program Submitted by Stephanie Kripps, Librarian, Selections Team at Vancouver Public Library. City, Province: Vancouver, British Columbia Country: Canada Name of Library: Vancouver Public Library. Mission: The idea for this program grew from the Vancouver Public Library’s increasing awareness that First Nations people have been significantly underserved by and underrepresented in library services. The Storyteller-in-Residence program provides a valuable link between the library and First Nations communities. It is one way for the library to honour First Nations culture and begin to build trust in the community. The mission of the program is to establish ongoing, positive relationships between the library and its local First Nations communities. This relationship provides contrast to a history pervaded by a lack of awareness, mistrust, indifference, miscommunications based on cultural stereotypes, and similar legacies of colonialism. Building new and positive relationships allows the library to collaboratively plan and deliver programs and services for First Nations communities, ensuring that present and future services meet the needs of First Nations people as defined by First Nations communities themselves. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The Storyteller-in-Residence program engages storytellers from local First Nations communities, collectively known as the Coast Salish people. The storytelling events are open to everyone. Thusfar, the library has hosted storytellers from the Squamish Nation, Sliammon Nation, and Musqueam Nation. Events were attended by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal community members. Description of Service(s): The library hosts one First Nations Storyteller-in-Residence per year for a four-month period. Each storyteller devotes his or her time to three broad areas: developing story material or related projects; telling stories for the general public at libraries, schools, and other community locations; and mentoring other individuals who wish to develop their own storytelling process. Within this general framework, each residency is unique and delineated by the individual storytellers. 35 An important area of learning and discovery for non-aboriginal audiences and library staff who experienced the storyteller events was the distinctive definition of storytelling in the First Nations tradition. Within many First Nations communities, storytelling encompasses every aspect of learning and culture: history, genealogy, spiritual and sacred beliefs, humour, education of the young, drumming, singing, carving, and much more. A key component of the program is the library’s determination to encourage each storyteller to pursue projects and presentations in whatever ways are most culturally appropriate and meaningful to their heritage, even—perhaps especially— when this creates challenges for the library’s standard procedures. A very simple example is that if drumming plays an essential role in a storyteller’s presentation, then the library and its patrons who are not attending the program will accept the drumming, despite the fact that it is loud! Impact of Service(s): Attendance at public storytelling events has increased consistently since the inception of the program. These events provide non-aboriginal patrons with an opportunity to connect with aboriginal peoples over an extended period of time. Chiefs and elders have formally acknowledged the value of the program. In addition, the program contributes to the personal and professional growth of individual storytellers, library staff, and community members. The inaugural Storyteller-in-Residence reflected that, “These stories are not only benefitting me, they are also influencing family to carry on with our traditional processes, use of language, and traditional forms of knowledge comprehension.” The second storyteller, a hereditary chief, gained confidence and inspiration during his residency, that led him to speak his endangered Kla ah men language in public— something that he had never done before—and to resume more of responsibilities in his role as hereditary chief. The third storyteller developed enough trust to share “Henry Charles, First Nations Storyteller-in-Residence.” 2011. 36 genealogical and historical information that had never been discussed outside of his Musqueam community. The First Nations Storyteller-in-Residence program has allowed the library an unprecedented opportunity to improve its credibility with some First Nations groups, to expand staff members’ understanding of First Nations culture, and to share that culture with its non-aboriginal patrons. As a result, the library has been able to gather honest and enthusiastic feedback on further activities to explore, in order to provide more relevant services and programs to First Nations communities. The collaborative planning with First Nations and aboriginal communities continues. Relevant Websites: • “Vancouver Public Library – Events and Courses.” Available at: http://www.vpl.ca/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar.cgi. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Learn about the First Nations Storytellers in Residence.” Available at: http://www.vpl.ca/events/details/first_nations_storytellers_in_residence_previous. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Squamish Nation Network.” Available at: http://www.squamish.net/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Sliammon First Nation.” Available at: http://www.sliammonfirstnation.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Musqueam – A Living Culture.” Available at: http://www.musqueam.bc.ca/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Anne Olsen Phone: +1 604-665-3506 Email: Anne.Olsen@vpl.ca 37 CASE STUDY 13 Indigenous Filmmakers Collection Development, Xwi7xwa Library Submitted by Kim Lawson, Reference Librarian at Xwi7xwa Library. City, Province: Vancouver, British Columbia Country: Canada Name of Library: The Indigenous Filmmakers Collection Development at the Xwi7xwa Library, First Nations House of Learning, University of British Columbia (UBC). Mission: The mandate of the First Nations House of Learning is to make the University of British Columbia’s vast resources more accessible to aboriginal peoples, and to improve UBC’s ability to meet the needs of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Xwi7xwa is open to the public. The film collection seeks to strengthen indigenous voices within the UBC library collection, support the aboriginal faculty and students on campus, and make indigenous films more accessible Description of Service(s): Xwi7xwa Library is developing a film collection to promote and make accessible the work of indigenous filmmakers, particularly from British Columbia and Canada. Centred around well-established and influential indigenous films such as Zacharias Kunuk’s Fast Runner (Isuma Productions) and Alanis Obonsawin’s documentary, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance as well as her related films about Oka from the National Film Board, the collection includes shorts, animation, documentaries, ethnographic films, features, educational series, and experimental films. The library includes American and Māori films, and will expand its international coverage in the future. UBC is fortunate to have aboriginal filmmakers on faculty including Charles Menzies (UBC Ethnographic Film Unit) and Dana Claxton. The collection also includes Shirley Cheechoo’s documentary series Medicine Woman; Dorothy Christian’s Spiritual Land Claim; Nitanis Desjarlais’s Native Youth Movement; and all three seasons of Urban Rez’s Storytellers in Motion, a series created by Jeff Bear and Marianne Jones about indigenous filmmakers. While some types of usage for specified materials in the collection are limited by licensing and public performance rights, aboriginal people without UBC library cards and other members of the public are welcome to view the films at Xwi7xwa. 38 Impact of Service(s): The collection includes over 900 films, and at least 200 of these are by indigenous filmmakers. Many of the films are unique and unavailable at any other public or academic libraries. Relevant Websites: • “Xwi7xwa Library.” Available at: xwi7xwa.library.ubc.ca. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Charles R. Menzies.” Available at: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Xwi7xwa Library 1985 West Mall Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2 Canada Fax: +1 604-822-8944 Ann Doyle Phone: +1 604-822-2385 Kim Lawson Phone: +1 604-827-4598 39 CASE STUDY 14 Indigenous Studies Portal (iPortal), University of Saskatchewan (U of S) Submitted by Deborah Lee, Aboriginal Engagement and Indigenous Studies Liaison Librarian in the University Library at the University of Saskatchewan. City, Province: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Country: Canada Name of Library: University Library, University of Saskatchewan (U of S). Mission: The mission of the Indigenous Studies Portal (or iPortal) is to find/create, link to, organize, and make accessible interdisciplinary Indigenous Studies resources aggregated from a wide variety of sources in order to support and enhance the teaching, learning, and research needs of U of S faculty, students, and staff in the areas of aboriginal research, programming, and scholarship. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Aboriginal students and faculty, as well as those researchers interested in Indigenous Studies at the U of S. Description of Service(s): The iPortal is a strategic initiative of the U of S Library. The iPortal has been supported with six full-time staff members and part-time IT programming assistance since 2005. It is a virtual library and a research tool that links to more than 28,000 full-text resources related to Indigenous Studies. These resources include scholarly articles, book reviews, theses, e-books, government reports, websites, film and audio recordings, as well as archival documents including photos, correspondence, and other unpublished materials. About half of the resources are open-access, meaning that they are available to anyone. The other half are subscription-based resources paid for by the library; due to copyright restrictions, these resources are available only to U of S authenticated users, and to those institutions that either choose to link up to the iPortal with link resolver software, or pay for the same subscription-based resources. The interdisciplinary database known as the iPortal covers several topics, among which are art, education, governance, health, history, law and justice, literature and stories, science and technology, social issues, spirituality, and sports. One value-added component of the iPortal is its user-friendly search engine. The search engine allows for several helpful search features, including automatic truncation and word proximity with word-order flexibility in searches. The Advanced Search option enables the user to 40 combine search fields, or to search by journal title and date. Also popular is the engine’s Google Maps search feature, which helps users find iPortal resources associated with First Nations reserves in Western Canada. The iPortal has been involved in several digitization projects that have provided unique content, such as the Our Legacy aboriginal archives digitization project; the first four volumes of the Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development; and aboriginal content in the Prairie Forum journal and out-of-print books, such as Geniesh: An Indian Girlhood, the first autobiography of a residential school survivor. The iPortal also harvested records from the Indian History Film Project of the Canadian Plains Research Centre at the University of Regina, after being granted the necessary permissions for this project. Of interest to many iPortal users is a blog of news and events related to indigenous communities, of which the indigenous academic community is one. Calls for papers by indigenous conferences, new books, and student-hosted events are posted to the blog. The blog entries also include links to news articles covering environmental, political, health, and social issues. Impact of Service(s): The iPortal virtual library has helped first and second-year post-secondary aboriginal students search for resources relevant to their academic research papers and assignments. This vital resource has assisted disadvantaged students who have experienced under- resourced libraries in their communities. Professors at the U of S have referred their students to the iPortal, knowing that these students will find better and more authoritative resources for their research papers in a more efficient manner than if they were to use Google. That the U of S Library has supported the iPortal initiative with full-time staffing since 2005 conveys its conviction that aboriginal cultures are dynamic, continue to contribute to the evolution of mainstream society, and are recognized as important in the academic realm. The iPortal is a tool for the growing industry of Indigenous Knowledge, and its popularity corresponds to the growth of academic publishing in the interdisciplinary field of Indigenous Studies. Dr. Marie Batiste, the Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre, has provided this statement in support of the iPortal: “This ‘iPortal’ has been a significant asset to the work of graduate students and faculty in the area of Aboriginal studies and [the] sustained research on making it an effective tool has enhanced the iPortal’s usability and its functions. When I travel, I find people acknowledging University of Saskatchewan for its many initiatives in Aboriginal education and learning and among the things noted is the iPortal. It will no doubt continue to serve our university in many diverse ways to 41 enhance our vision and agenda as articulated in the Integrated Plan and Aboriginal Foundation Document.”11 Relevant Websites: • “Indigenous Studies Portal.” Available at: http://iportal.usask.ca. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Our Legacy Aboriginal Archives.” Available at: http://scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Deborah Lee Aboriginal Engagement and Indigenous Studies Liaison Librarian University Library University of Saskatchewan Room 122, Murray Bldg. 3 Campus Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A4 Canada Email: deborah.lee@usask.ca 11 Marie Battiste, email message to Deborah Lee, July 2011. U ntitled. 42 CASE STUDY 15 Intercultural Workshop Series in Wetaskiwin Submitted by Manisha Khetarpal, Librarian at Ermineskin Elementary School. City, Province: Wetaskiwin, Alberta Country: Canada Name of Library: Wetaskiwin Public Library. Description of Service(s): The project was collaboration between Alberta Employment & Immigration, Wetaskiwin Community Literacy Program, City of Wetaskiwin, and the Wetaskiwin Public Library. Workshops were hosted in Wetaskiwin on Mondays from 12-3 p.m. at the Wetaskiwin Community Literacy Office. The schedule for the workshops was as follows: 1. Above and Below the Waterline 2. Building Blocks of Canadian Culture 3. Strategies and Tools to Use When Working with Newcomers 4. Communicating with First Nations People 5. More Strategies and Tools When Working with Newcomers Participants represented the following organizations: Tim Hortons, Safeway Edmonton, Home Hardware, Servus Credit Union, ATCO Pipelines, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Boys and Girls Club, Horizons Centre, Friends of Reynolds Alberta Museum, Wetaskiwin District Association for Community Service, County of Wetaskiwin, Hospital, Wetaskiwin Community Literacy Program, Wetaskiwin Health Foundation, Hope Mission, Person with Development Delays – Central Region, Communication Knots, Addictions – Mental Health, Central Alberta Child and Family Services Authority, Catholic Social Services, City of Edmonton, College, Community volunteers/leaders, County and city of Wetaskiwin, Alberta Employment and Immigration, and the Wetaskiwin Public Library. Participants resided in the following areas: Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Camrose, Red Deer, Leduc, Lac La Biche, Westerose, Hobbema, and Edmonton. U nt itl ed . 43 Impact of Service(s): When asked what topics they found most useful and interesting, participants responded accordingly: • “Cultural difference-specifically how a culture may interpret something.” • “Communication styles and how they cause problems in the workplace.” • “Definitions: permanent residents, immigrants, temporary foreign workers, etc.” • “Cultural diversity: the iceberg example.” • “Communication styles.” • “Diversity, various beliefs.” • “The historical overview as helpful fair and thorough with the historical events.” • “Where the tribes are the same and where they are different.” • “Snippets about native beliefs.” • “Topics about evolution, ecological and environment circumstances. The influence of natives on European settlers and influence of Europeans on Canada.” • “The historical beginnings or 'policies' and the names of significant leaders of the native communities.” • “Learning about barriers of the First Nations people.” Participants’ requests for future workshop topics: • “The next process in helping businesses to welcome and understand native culture into the workforce.” • “More about how to communicate effectively with today’s First Nations people.” • “Cultural differences that affect workplace behaviour.” • “Treaty information.” • “Health characteristics of First Nations and modern living habits.” • “More about native spirituality, native about native spirituality, native healing, medicine.” U ntitled. U ntitled. 44 • “Efforts being made to heal families, family systems, residential schools experience, and drugs/alcohol abuse recovery.” • “More about native cultures and customs.” • “How to improve relations with First Nations.” • “I would like to learn more; continue to develop my knowledgebase on multiculturalism in the workplace.” • “Cohesive multicultural workplace.” • “Built in cultural attitude of the Mexican populace.” • “How to deal with different communication styles and cultures.” Participants’ ideas regarding what topics were most useful for them to explore in their professions: • “Outsiders’ opinion on Canadians.” • “Understanding what it means to be Canadian.” • “Sharing relevant identity characteristics.” • “Learning how to be a welcoming workplace.” • “How to handle employee issues with new Canadians.” • “Coming with pre-programmed culturally learned responses.” • “What you can’t see?” • “More in-depth awareness of my communication styles and understanding of others.” • “Volunteer activity.” • “Learning where the other person comes from and utilizing this knowledge to improve teaching skills.” • “Self-awareness.” • “How to try different communication styles.” • “Understanding cultural differences.” ! “Understanding different cultures’ diversity, and acceptance.” U ntitled. U ntitled. 45 Relevant Websites: • “Communicating with First Nations People.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunication4firstnatio.blogspot.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Library Pathways and Footprints.” Available at: http://librarypathwaysandfootprints.blogspot.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Workshop 1: Above and Below the Waterline.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunicationswetaskiwin.blogspot.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Workshop 2: Building Blocks of Canadian Culture.” Available at: http://workshop2interculturalcommunications.blogspot.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. • “Workshop 3: Strategies and Tools to use when working with Newcomers, June 6th, 19 participants.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunicationsworkshop3jblogspot.com/. Accessed on April30, 2013. • “Workshop 4: Communicating with First Nations People.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunication4firstnatio.blogspot.com/. Accessed on April 30, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Manisha Khetarpal, Manager of Library Services Phone: +1 780-361-4447 Email: manishacommunications@gmail.com 46 CASE STUDY 16 Ottawa Public Library (OPL) Aboriginal Outreach Initiative Submitted by Philip Robert, Manager of the Cumberland, Vanier, Rockcliffe Park, and Rideau Branches Ottawa Public Library. City, Province: Ottawa, Ontario Country: Canada Name of Library: Ottawa Public Library (OPL). Mission: The mission of the OPL Aboriginal Outreach Initiative is to increase awareness of the importance of early literacy, encourage the love of reading, and increase awareness and use of the OPL. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities in Ottawa. Description of Service(s): The OPL is working in partnership with aboriginal service providers to host culturally specific activities in library branches and to provide programming and awareness activities in the aboriginal community. The library works with aboriginal service providers and schools that have a higher concentration of aboriginal students in order to connect their clients and students with literacy, reading, and the library. These connections are initiated by hosting culturally specific programs in the library and by holding community open house events. The OPL has organized presentations with Ojibway writer Jan Bourdeau Waboose, Cree writer Larry Loyie, Inuit author Michael Kusugak, Metis author Jacqueline Guest, and aboriginal storyteller Daniel Richer. Art therapy, peri-natal, and seniors’ groups from the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health are frequent participants of these events, as are students from the Urban Aboriginal Alternative High school, children from the Sacred Child program of Minwaashin Lodge, and groups from the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre. Community open house events have been hosted at the library for families involved in the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre. These events have included storytelling by two Inuit elders; country food such as caribou stew, muktuk, and bannock; and a monthly scrabble night. The library is also incorporating aboriginal-themed programs in its regular public programming, among which are the Summer Reading Club, School March break, and Family Literacy Day. 47 The OPL additionally encourages literacy, reading, and library use by sending employees into the aboriginal community. This allows employees to talk to aboriginal community members about what the members expect, want, and need from the library, as well as to offer library services in aboriginal community spaces. An example of these services are the story-time programs at the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre and at Makonsag, an aboriginal Head Start nursery school housed at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre. Information kiosks are held at community events, including Louis Riel Day, the Parents as Teachers conference, career fairs, and a seniors’ information fair specifically organized for the aboriginal community. At the Shawenjeagamik Aboriginal Drop-In Centre for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and at other service providers and centres, library staff presents Every Child Ready to Read workshops. A librarian regularly visits the Urban Aboriginal Alternative High school and once invited aboriginal author Leo Yerxa, who brought his artwork and spoke about his artistic and literary process. Impact of Service(s): The aboriginal community has a greater awareness of the importance of early literacy, as well as of OPL’s programs and services. Aboriginal children and adults enjoyed culturally specific programs in the library and in their community spaces. Their interest and love of reading was and continues to be encouraged and developed. For More Information, Contact: Philip Robert Manager of the Cumberland, Vanier, Rockcliffe Park, and Rideau Branches Ottawa Public Library 377 Rideau Street Ottawa, Ontario K1N 5Y6 Canada Phone: +1 613-241-6954 x 8. Email: Philip.robert@biblioottawalibrary.ca 48 CASE STUDY 17 Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Resource Centre Submitted by Alissa Cherry, Resource Centre Director at the UBCIC Resource Centre. City, Province: Vancouver, British Columbia Country: Canada Name of Library: Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Resource Centre. Mission: The mission of the UBCIC is to improve intertribal relationships; to hold the Canadian federal government to its fiduciary obligations; to support aboriginal peoples at regional, national, and international forums; and to defend aboriginal peoples through the revival of their way of life. The UBCIC aims to build trust, honour, and respect so that aboriginal people may achieve security and liberty in their lifetimes while continuing the healing and reconciliation of their Nations. The Resource Centre supports land claims research; preserves the documentary history of the UBCIC; disseminates critical information to further the goals of the UBCIC; provides research skills training; and supports other indigenous libraries, archives, and information professionals. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The UBCIC Resource Centre serves UBCIC staff and First Nations community members throughout British Columbia. It also welcomes visiting researchers from aboriginal organizations as well as scholars from various levels of academia. Description of Service(s): The UBCIC Resource Centre holds specialized collections that are used primarily for First Nations land rights research in British Columbia. The library collection also has materials related to politics, history, and culture of indigenous peoples throughout the world. The UBCIC Resource Centre holds extensive federal and provincial government archival records on microfilm, including the largest collection of Canadian federal government archival records (RG10) on microfilm in British Columbia. A comprehensive legal research collection, a unique array of serial publications produced by small First Nations communities and organizations, a legendary vertical file, maps, photographs, and audio/visual materials comprise the library holdings. The UBCIC Archives contains textual records, photographs, and audio and video recordings documenting UBCIC’s history. Collections are made as accessible as possible. Reference services are provided in- person or remotely by phone or email. Most materials do not circulate, but document 49 delivery services and reproductions are provided, and items are borrowed via interlibrary loan. Because the vast majority of people served by the UBCIC Resource Centre are not located near Vancouver, innovative solutions are employed to get information to the people who need it. For a small non-profit aboriginal organization, the UBCIC Resource Centre is highly regarded in the areas of digitization and using the Internet to bring collections to communities. Due mostly to budget limitations, the UBCIC Resource Centre utilizes mostly open source software including Greenstone, Evergreen, and Drupal as the platforms for online resources, and is active with numerous associated user groups. By being active in professional organizations such as the BC Digitization Coalition, and by offering direct support and advice for other small libraries and archives, assistance is provided to help other small institutions make their collections more accessible at a price they can afford. The UBCIC Research Department and Resource Centre host workshops that train First Nations community members on how to access and interpret key research materials and/or gather and organize information. These workshops usually are geared towed land claims researchers but special topics such as conducting oral history interviews, creating land use occupancy maps, or genealogy are also offered on occasion. The UBCIC also created an online course for Specific Claims researchers in Canada. The UBCIC Resource Centre serves as a teaching library and archive by hosting numerous students from various post-secondary programs each year. The students gain valuable practical experience while at the centre, and often end up volunteering once they complete their internship or practicum placement. UBCIC Resource Centre’s ‘distinguished alumni’ usually land great jobs upon graduation, strengthening existing relationships and forging new connections with other organizations and institutions. Impact of Service(s): The UBCIC is primarily a political organization and its actions and activities have had a significant impact on many events, while also helping to shape the political agenda at provincial, national, and international levels. The UBCIC is a non-governmental organization that has been granted Special Consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. “UBIC Resource Centre.” 2009. 50 Over the years, the services provided by the UBCIC Resource Centre have facilitated hundreds of land claims and assisted thousands of students and community members with academic or personal research. The digital collections are now reaching interested parties all over the world, and serving as examples of what can be done with limited financial resources. The centre has cultivated a strong network of institutions and individuals who can be drawn on for feedback and support. Relevant Websites: • “Union of BC Indian Chiefs.” Available at: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/. Accessed on May 13, 2013. • “UBCIC Resource Centre.” Available at: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/department/library.htm. Accessed on May 13, 2013. • “Library Catalogue.” Available at: http://evergreen.ubcic.bc.ca/. Accessed on May 13, 2013. • “Digital Collections.” Available at: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/Resources/Digital/index.htm. Accessed on May 13, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Alissa Cherry Resource Centre Director UBCIC Resource Centre 342 Water Street, 5th Floor Vancouver, BC V6B 1B6 Canada Phone: +1 604-684-0231 Fax: +1 604-684-5726 Email: library@ubcic.bc.ca 51 “4 Ps of public speaking presentation by Lauren de Bruin from the Alberta Library.” CASE STUDY 18 Wetaskiwin Public Library, Language Coffeehouse Submitted by Manisha Khetarpal, Librarian at Ermineskin Elementary School. City, Province: Wetaskiwin, Alberta Country: Canada Name of Library: Wetaskiwin Public Library. Mission: The coffeehouse was organized to celebrate UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day and National Flag of Canada Day.12 The coffeehouse demonstrated that “Learning together builds an inclusive community.” Description of Service(s): Language Coffeehouse is a resource for cultural literacy, adult literacy, family literacy, essential communication skills, engaging/interacting, and participating with citizens/learners. The first Language Coffeehouse (LC) took place on February 20, 2010 from 2 to 4 p.m. The activities offered included: presentations on Norsk and Japanese cultures, a “Tell Me More” language learning database demonstration, an Eritrean coffee making ceremony, a sampling of five blends of coffee, a Tagalog and Mandarin language “learning basket,” a Peoplefirst Initiative, a Spanish language conversation circle, and general interaction for all attendees. The coffeehouse framework expanded in 2011 to emphasize visual literacy, oral communications, body language, tone, manner, and language as tools for effective communication. The 2011 LC additionally included technology (Wordles), word houses, public speaking presentations, demonstration of language learning software, live print demonstrations (brush painting), dumpling demonstrations, a Visible Expressions gallery, language pinwheels (in which the participant writes his/her name in five languages), more language stations (Mandarin, Japanese, and Cree), and increased intercultural communications. 12 “UNESCO – Languages and Multiculturalism.” Available at: http://www.unesco.org/en/languages-and- multilingualism/. Accessed on May 17, 2013. 52 “Thirty-five dictionaries were donated by the community and redistributed Dictionary Exchange.“ LC believes that libraries are the invisible schools and the centers for lifelong learning, marketing, idea creation, networking, project management skills, and language exchange. The partners and coffeehouse facilitators were The Alberta Library, Yellowhead Regional Library, EBSCO, Wetaskiwin Tomorrow, Catholic Social Services, City of Wetaskiwin, City Archives, Public Works, Community Learning Council, Community Literacy Program, Friends of the Library, Industry Canada’s CAP interns, and the Library Board. The goals, objectives and/or desired outcomes of this service were: • to celebrate both UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day and languages used to communicate in the community; • to share, exchange and learn words through a “Just do it” ideology, by means of engaging in conversation circles; • to showcase the benefits of the cultural diversity; • to build vocabulary; • to instil in people the idea that public libraries are the modern-day public square; • to gather people at the public library and collaborate to create entertainment and learning; • to demonstrate “Tell Me More” and other language learning resources available at the public library; • to celebrate life by communicating face to face, helping people make new friends with a common goal of learning a new language; and • to position the public library as a welcoming and inclusive “lifelong learning” place in the community. Impact of Service(s): • More than 100 people participated in the event. Participants stayed for at least thirty minutes. This totalled 3,000 minutes spent by the community at the library. • Over twelve free and enjoyable activities were offered at the library. • Eighty-five people wrote messages in the LC language scrapbook. • 221 cultural prints were picked up from the language learning baskets. • 250 cups of coffee were consumed. • Fifty people played with the “Tell Me More” language learning database. • Twenty-five new membership cards were issued. 53 “5650 words were written by citizens and students and dropped off in the Word Houses.” • Thirty-five dictionaries were donated by the community and redistributed through the Dictionary Exchange. • 2,100 Wordles were created. • 5,650 words were written and dropped off in the word houses. • The library was the hub of activity, with webs of conversations and reading. • The Wetaskiwin Times wrote an article about the event, and included two full pages of photo coverage. • Twelve community partners and organizations worked together and weaved a tapestry of many different threads. • The event was listed on the ACE (Active Engaged Communities) website, NALD (National Adult Literacy Database), and Citizenship and Immigration websites. • There is talk of creating a program flagship, as well as interest in recreating the program from IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) sister libraries, other public libraries in Canada, the USA, and Australia. • EBSCO conducted a database training session for library staff prior to the event, since smaller libraries are usually run by part time staff. • Team building and relationship development were facilitated by the library staff. The LC was excellent and innovative because it allowed participants to: • develop new ways of using language to communicate and create understanding; • learn new words; • encourage pride in the ability to communicate in more than one language; • generate an interest in learning languages such as Spanish, Japanese, English, Mandarin, French, Tagalog, and Norsk; • showcase and access materials in other languages by means of the public library; • use “webs of conversation” and essential of oral communication skills to engage the LC community, while simultaneously marketing the range of products and services offered by public libraries; “Playing word games.” 54 “Patron using Google Translator to write a word in five different languages for the pinwheels.” • utilize the two in one approach: access and accountability; • use Manga graphic novels to learn the Japanese language; and • use email technology to add posts to the blog and thus create a database of professional networking contacts and a platform for knowledge exchange. The coffeehouse designated the library as the natural and visible “Welcoming Centre” of the community. No money was exchanged during the course of this project. The increase in traffic of people to the library helped with the following goals of the library’s Plan of Service, 2008-2012: • Goal C1: Reinvigorate adult programs. • Goal C1: Develop new ways to promote programs and services. • Goal B2: To promote the new materials in the collection. • Goal A2: Promoting the special needs computer. The community needs assessment was part of the LC’s Plan of Service. A service need was identified to use cultural literacy to draw people to the public square. Relevant Websites: These websites include media articles, blogs, community feedback, and a presentation. Blogs to keep the community and working partners informed and to focus on their roles and responsibilities: • “Library Pathways and Footprints.” Available at: http://librarypathwaysandfootprints.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Language Coffeehouse 2011.” Available at: http://languagecoffeehouse2011.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. “Gloria sharing constellations and Cree teachings with Michael.” ! ! 55 • “Language Coffeehouse 2010.” Available at: http://languagecoffeehousefeb2010.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. Community engagement and feedback: • “Language Coffeehouse Word Houses.” Available at: http://languagecoffeehousewordhouses.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Language Coffeehouse Scrapbooks.” Available at: http://languagecoffeehousescrapbook.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. Photographs: • “Language Coffeehouse Slideshare.” Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/programsatthelibrary/language- coffeehousepresentationfeb20ss. Accessed on May 1, 2013. Media Coverage: • Wetaskiwin Times. “Library event will be good to the last drop.” February 15, 2010. Available at: • http://www.edmontonexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=23861 62. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • Wetaskiwin Times. “Language coffeehouse helping stir Wetaskiwin cultural melting pot.” February 9, 2011. Available at: http://www.wetaskiwintimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2970173&auth=Jerold %20LeBlanc. Accessed on May 1, 2013. Resource Created (Collective intelligence): • “Cree Words Resource.” Available at: http://creelanguagelearningresource.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. Community engagement initiatives: • “Annual Report Card.” Available at: http://annualreportcard.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Aboriginal Celebration June 2010.” Available at: http://aboriginalcelebrationjune2010.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “International Day of Persons with Disabilities.” Available at: http://internationaldayofpersonswithdisabili.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Cap 2010.” Available at: http://cap2010accountability.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. 56 “Oriental Brush painting.” Partnerships that have resulted because of the Language Coffeehouse: • April-June, 2011: Intercultural communications workshops. Alberta Employment and Immigration providing support to employers. • “Intercultural Communications Workshop 3.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunicationsworksh op3j.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Intercultural Communications Workshop 2.” Available at: http://workshop2interculturalcommunications.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Intercultural Communications Workshop 1.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunicationswetaskiwin.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Communicating with First Nations People.” Available at: http://interculturalcommunication4firstnatio.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “April 19, 2011: Cultural Experience Presentations at Seniors Homes.” Available at: http://culturalenergy.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “May 4, 2011: Cultural Market Day at the school in Falun.” Available at: http://culturalmarketdaymay4falun.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “May 2011: Word houses in schools to celebrate International Bird Migratory Day.” Available at: http://languagecoffeehousewordhouses.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Manisha Khetarpal Manager of Library Services Phone: +1 780-361-4447 Email: mkhetarpal@wetaskiwin.ca or manishacommunications@gmail.com 57 CASE STUDY 19 Riecken Community Libraries Submitted by Elias Tzoc, Digital Initiatives Librarian at Miami University. Community, City: Xolsacmaljá, Totonicapán Country: Guatemala Name of Library: Ka’k Nojib’al (New Knowledge) Xolsacmaljá. Mission: The Riecken Foundation (doing business as Riecken Community Libraries) helps transform the simple building block of a community library with free Internet into a springboard for democracy building, leadership development, and social justice. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Maya K’ichee’. Description of Service(s): The Ka'k Nojib'al Library opened its door on March 26, 2009 at the community center Pixab’al Ja’ (Home of Advice). It serves a population of 1,210 Maya K’ichee’ people. Four-year-old Elena is bi-lingual, speaking her native Quiché as well as Spanish. Home for Elena is a very remote village in central Guatemala by the name of Xolsacmaljá in the city of Totonicapán. Elena probably won’t ever know her father, who, like many of the other men in her village, is in the United States working long hours so that he can send money home to the family that he hasn’t seen for several years. Two years ago, after five years of planning and negotiation by the community leaders, a miracle happened in Elena’s village: a library full of books, toys, games, and computers opened its doors. A dozen or so years ago, illustrator Susan Riecken and her social entrepreneur husband Allen Andersson started pondering their retirement. They knew that they wanted to transform their success into help for the less fortunate. From his Peace Corps days, Allen knew the needs of remote Central America: food, medicine, schools, fertilizer, an honest government, good jobs, and more. “What travels cheapest over a hundred miles of bad road, then multiplies its value every time it is used?” Allen asked himself. He soon found his answer: information. Through this answer, the idea for what today is a network of sixty-four libraries in Honduras and Guatemala was born. All over the world, rural libraries in developing countries perish early from neglect. The Riecken Foundation determined that their libraries would succeed. That meant keeping 58 them independent and free to all patrons, and teaching both librarians and visitors about the benefits of a community information center. Over the years, Riecken learned from experience that the key to a successful library is strong community governance. From its inception, each Riecken library relies on a board of trustees drawn from all sectors of the community, and is thereby supported but not controlled by the local government. In 2007, another library opened its doors in San Juan Planes, Copán, Honduras. Today, that library is open and full every day, and is staffed entirely by community volunteers. The local junta (board) that oversees the library’s operations has gone on to develop a clean water project for the village of some 2,500 people. Volunteers from this library routinely mount up and deliver books to seven rural communities by horseback. Impact of Service(s): There is no dearth of evidence that good nutrition and intellectual stimulation in early childhood lead directly to educational success. A current focus of the Riecken Community Libraries is supporting early childhood development, including nutritional counsel. Other programs include story hours in both Spanish and local indigenous languages, youth groups (some of whom are doing GPS mapping of historical Mayan sites), book clubs, debate teams, and the publication of legendary Mayan stories handed down orally by grandparents. Relevant Websites: • “Riecken Community Libraries.” Available at: http://www.riecken.org/. Accessed on May 17, 2013. • “El Espiritu de Descubrimiento en Centro América.” Available at: http://bibliotecasriecken.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 17, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Riecken Community Libraries Email: info@rieckenlibraries.org 59 “Unifoliar Riecken.” 60 CASE STUDY 20 Center for Indigenous Cultures, Public Library of the State of Jalisco Submitted by Helen Ladrón de Guevara, Adviser of the Jalisco State new Library Building Project, University Cultural Center. Translated by Elias Tzoc. City, Municipality: Jalisco, Zapopan Country: Mexico Name of Library: Juan José Arreola Public Library of the State of Jalisco. Mission: (1) “To promote the integral development of all socioeconomic groups in Jalisco through the provision of library and information services with quality, effectiveness, and accessibility to all on an ongoing basis [and] to respond to current changes and needs. (2) …[To] be the most important public institution of library and information services in western Mexico with a general and historical documentary heritage that meets the information needs of users and offers on a permanent basis a wide and varied quality and number of services and programs of interest to the community.”13 13 Plan Maestro del Centro Magno de Servicios Bibliotecarios y de Información: Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco (Master Plan for the Grand Center of Library and Information Services: New Public Library of the State of Jalisco). Noviembre, 2001. Coordinator: Helen Ladrón de Guevara Cox. Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, Centro de Estudios Estratégicos para el Desarrollo-Universidad de Guadalajara. “Memory: New Building of the Public Library in the State of Jalisco Juan José Arreola.” Photo by Center for Cultural University. 61 Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The new library building in the area of Belenes, municipality of Zapopan, Jalisco will include a section called the Center for Indigenous Cultures of Jalisco. Jalisco’s population includes indigenous groups (Huicholes-Huixarica and Nahuas in Southern Jalisco) and migrant groups from other states including the Coras (Nayarit) and natives of Hidalgo, Puebla, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. Description of Service(s): A dream soon to come true: Un sueño que pronto será realidad. This new library building is currently being built. In chapter 5 of Plan Maestro del Centro Magno de Servicios Bibliotecarios y de Información: Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco, the original planning document for the new state public library building, paragraph 2.1 states that “The community or group interests should be treated with special organization and efficiency as the primary objective of the library.” The planning document outlines the activity centers through which the library aims to address the various social groups: • Center for Indigenous Cultures – It is the first time that the state library will offer specialized services to indigenous people per se. These services directly address the needs of the indigenous population that were revealed through a survey. Examples of these services include a collection development policy regarding materials in indigenous languages, as well as bilingual signage, furniture, and appropriate technology. • Memory of the World – The library has in its bibliographic treasury Mexico's Indigenous Language Collection, which was inscribed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Memory of the World register in 2007.14 • New environment and activity at the Public Library of the State of Jalisco – The new library building will be the largest and most important library in Mexico. It will be part of a large architectural complex called the Culture Center at the University of Guadalajara. • Façade – Although the redesign of library’s façade has caused some debate, it is inspired by Mexico's Indigenous Language Collection (see Memory of the World). The five indigenous languages that have disappeared are the 5 diagonals and the other 17 diagonals represent the languages currently spoken in the country. 14 “Mexico's Indigenous Language Collection added to UNESCO's Memory of the World programme: Collection consists of 166 unique books written in 17 native languages.” June 2007. LINGUAMÃN. Available at http://www15.gencat.net/pres_casa_llengues/AppJava/frontend/noticies_detall.jsp?id=125&i dioma=5. Accessed on May 1, 2013. 62 Relevant Website: “Centro Cultural Universitario.” Available at: www.centrocultural.org.mx. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Arq. Mauricio de Font-Réaulx Coordinador General del Centro Cultural Universitario Email: mfr@centrocultural.org.mx 63 CASE STUDY 21 Segenat Children and Youth Library: A project of the Tigray Libraries and Literacy Development Project (TLLDP) Submitted by Janet Lee, Technical Services Librarian at Regis University. City, Region: Mekelle, Tigray Region Country: Ethiopia Name of Library: Segenat Children and Youth Library. Mission: The mission of the Tigray Libraries and Literacy Project shall be to bring libraries and literacy to the children of Ethiopia through the establishment of children’s libraries, school library partnerships, and portable libraries. Emphasis will also be placed on the development of literature for children in their first language or “mother tongue” through support of local authors and illustrators. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Children and Youth of Mekelle and surrounding communities. “Segenat Library.” 64 Description of Service(s): The Segenat Children and Youth Library is a modern, full-service library serving the information needs of the children and youth in Mekelle, Tigray Region, Ethiopia and its environs. The 20,000-volume library has a networked computer lab with limited Internet access, an online catalog, reference services, and a variety of clubs and other programming. It is open 48 hours per week, Monday through Saturday. Significant features of the library include the Dr. Thomas Hooyman Youth Reading Center, an IT/Media lab, a reading nook, an active reference desk, an online public access catalog, significant programming, and an arboretum. The building itself is beautifully designed and well suited for a library. A central atrium and large exterior windows provide a substantial amount of natural lighting for student reading needs. In addition, the TLLDP has established school libraries in Fre Sewat, Myliham, and Debri Elementary Schools and is setting up a full-service public library in nearby Adi Gudom. Impact of Service(s): A minimum of 200 children visit the Segenat each weekday and over 400 children attend the library each Saturday. The children avail themselves of story hour, reference desk “Segenat Library indoors.” 65 services, a substantial non-fiction book section, and abundant picture books. Most popular are titles in Amharic (the common language of Ethiopia) and Tigrigna (the local language). The spacious seating, which is partitioned by careful placing of shelving, is conducive to individual study and allows for a natural separation of the very young from the more studious high school students. Relevant Websites: • “Segenat Foundation.” Available at: http://segenatfoundation.org/. Accessed on May 17, 2013. • “Segenat Children and Youth Library – Facebook.” Available at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Segenat-Children-and-Youth- Library/161388783881687. Accessed on May 17, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Yohannes Gebregeorgis Tigray Libraries and Literacy Project Segenat Children and Youth Library P.O. Box 1028 Mekelle, Tigray Region Ethiopia Phone: +251 91-1401563 Email: tigrayreads@yahoo.com 66 CASE STUDY 22 Logaganeng Library in South Africa Submitted by Jenneffer Sixkiller. Village: Logaganeng Village Country: South Africa Name of Library: Logaganeng Library. Mission: The mission of the Logaganeng Library, located in one of the four classrooms at Bogare Primary School, is to promote literacy in the community, to provide a safe meeting place, and to serve the learners at Bogare Primary School by supplementing the teachers’ curriculum and teaching the children about libraries. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Community members of Logaganeng village, including orphans and vulnerable children, those affected by HIV/AIDS, out of school youth, and the elderly. The people living in Logaganeng are from the Tswana tribe. Description of Service(s): The Logaganeng Library was created in 2003 with the help of a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Although not professionally educated as librarians, many volunteers help their communities create small libraries, which are usually located inside schools. Rural schools in South Africa are far behind their urban counterparts in both funding and staff. The schools typically have four walls, a roof and a closing door, but little else. The library is inside a classroom that has electricity but no temperature control. During the school term, the library is open when the librarian is present, usually Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The collection has yet to be fully catalogued and original acquisition lists have yet to be completed. However, items are circulating and being recorded. The Northern Cape Library Services recognized the local library governing body several years after the library’s opening. As a result, the librarian, who was an unpaid volunteer from the community, began to receive training and a pay check for her services. She was previously in contact with a librarian from the nearest town whom she would visit with questions, but for the most part she was trying to run things on her own with very little training. 67 Recently, a Peace Corps volunteer worked on character building and empowerment with the librarian. They organized the adult fiction books by authors’ last names alphabetically, unpacked and catalogued items, and weeded. Much of their work was also focused on networking and outreach programs. Impact of Service(s): As a result of the collaboration with the Peace Corps volunteer, the librarian began to develop program ideas on her own, and organize the people and resources to make them happen. She created a network with other relevant stakeholders in the neighbouring communities, and keeps in regular contact with them. She is passionate about the youth in the community, ages eighteen to thirty-five, and she holds regular programs to inspire their leadership and keep them involved. At a workshop to discuss starting libraries with other communities, she spoke in front of a group for the first time; previously, she had been happy to stay behind the scenes and let others do the talking. She takes the initiative to contact stakeholders when they do not keep their promises, and to solicit donations for the library. She has begun to view her job as a profession and act accordingly. For More Information, Contact: Jenneffer Sixkiller RPCV South Africa 2009-2011 MLIS, University of Oklahoma, 2008 11100 Willow Oak Road Norwood, NC 28128 USA Phone: +1 704-819-0547 Email: thesixkillerlibrarian@gmail.com “L og ag an en g Li br ar y. ” 68 CASE STUDY 23 Kitengesa Community Library Submitted by Valeda F. Dent, Dean of Long Island University Libraries. City, District: Kitengesa, Masaka District Country: Uganda Name of Library: Kitengesa Community Library. Mission: The mission of this small library is to serve the needs of the local and surrounding villages in this very rural location in Uganda where there is no electricity and no running water. The library is also designed to provide services not available elsewhere in the community such as literacy classes targeted especially towards women; reading groups for pre-school children; activities for older children; and the provision of reading materials in the local language, Luganda. One main goal of the library is to promote the development of a reading culture in this tiny village. Moreover, the Kitengesa Community Library serves as a catalyst and model for the creation of other village and community libraries in Uganda. In 2005, the Kitengesa U ntitled 69 Community Library precipitated the creation of the Uganda Community Library Association, which provides guidance, expertise, and some start-up funding for other rural villages seeking to set up their own libraries. To present a broader continental context: the Kitengesa Community Library joined the Friends of African Village Libraries organization, which operates mostly in West Africa, to help disseminate important information about the impact of the rural village library. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Residents of the Kitengesa community and surrounding local communities in this region of rural Uganda. Young children and secondary school children are a major target population. Impact of Service(s): Starting in 2005, researchers have meticulously documented the impact of this small village library in a variety of scholarly publications, presentations, and academic settings. Numerous residents have benefitted from the literacy services. Local teachers are heavy users of the library as they prepare for their lessons, and local mothers visit to learn about better health care for their families. The library is open almost seventy hours per week, and anyone can visit. Solar panels provide limited lighting for night-time users. Teachers bring younger children to the library every week to participate in reading groups in which the collection is used to practice reading. The library has more than 3,500 volumes and, in addition to many patrons from the village, hosts international visitors who come to learn more about the library. The library also focuses on its own sustainability, finding ways to generate income to keep operating. A tree farm was started in 2006 and is flourishing. Young girls miss almost a week of school each month because of lack of proper sanitary materials. A local business that employs young girls to make washable sanitary napkins is using one of the library buildings and this project also generates some income. To date, researchers have studied the impact of the library on local economic development; the scholastic achievement of secondary school students who use the library; the intergenerational transmission of literacy practices; and the learning readiness of very young children. Relevant Websites: • “Kitengesa Community Library.” Available at: www.kitengesalibrary.org. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Uganda Community Libraries Association.” Available at: http://ugcla.org/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. 70 • “Friends of African Village Libraries.” Available at: www.favl.org. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Valeda F. Dent Dean of Long Island University Libraries Long Island University 720 Northern Blvd Brookville, NY 11548 USA Email: Valeda.dent@liu.edu U ntitled 71 CASE STUDY 24 School Libraries in Africa: Every School A Library The following case study is composed of excerpts from a paper presented to SCECSAL 2010 in Gaborone, Botswana, written by Margaret Baffour-Awuah. Continent: Africa Name of Library: Africa: A Library in Every School (ALIES) Mission: It is envisaged that there will evolve a network of primary school libraries not just in Kenya, but across Africa. The ALIES network will potentially carry the Millennium Development Goals’ vision on literacy long after 2015. A solid foundation of exposure to primary school libraries and more importantly extensive reading could build a strong foundation of literacy across Africa, then by the time pupils get into high school they will be readers and independent learners. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: All children in Africa. Description of Service(s): ALIES is still in the early stages. The kick-off for this project was a meeting between Mr. Peter Kisombe of Action Aid (Kenya) and Mrs. Lourense Das, president and coordinator of Stitching ENSIL (Netherlands) in Utrecht in August 2010. Kisombe and Das came together to discuss the possibility of joining forces to develop a network of African school libraries, school librarians, teachers, and others dedicated to school libraries in Africa. The goals of ALIES are: • to build a (virtual) network of practitioners and experts in school librarianship in Africa; • to exchange information, tools, and best practices in school librarianship; • to collect information on school libraries in Africa; • to think globally and act locally; • to develop tools for school libraries, teachers, and other stakeholders to fulfil basic library functions; • to lobby for school libraries in Africa; and • to fund local projects. 72 Simply put, ALIES aims to get a library into every school. Each library should have suitable reading material assigned with appropriate reading levels; a secure and accessible place to put these materials; and personnel to ensure proper use and security of these materials. At this stage, the membership network consist of: Stichting ENSIL and IASL, both represented by Lourense Das; SA and IASL Africa, represented by Ms. Busi Dlamini; Action Aid, represented by Peter Kisombe; ABC-project, represented by Daniel Mangale; Local School libraries project in Iringa region (Tanzania), represented by Rev. Cornelius Simba; Ms. Margaret Headlam, former school librarian Arusha Int. School (Tanzania); and Mrs. Margaret Baffour-Awuah, former Head of Educational Libraries Division in the Botswana National Library. As there is no official body and budget for the network, the people mentioned above are working voluntarily and in personal capacity. Important issues at this stage include: advocacy and visibility of the network; funding; development; cooperation model with ENSIL, IASL, IFLA, SLRC, and African library and teachers’ organizations. Africa cannot leave its children a greater legacy than to leave them readers: informed, equipped, and empowered. If ALIES could help raise a generation of readers, who will in turn raise another, this program would have finished the relay race well, for the baton will continue to be passed down into time. Relevant Websites: • “African Network for School Librarianship – Facebook.” Available at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Network- forSchoollibrarianship/151582838200985. Accessed on May 17, 2013. • “SCECSAL XIX CONFERENCE.” Available at: http://www.scecsal.org/conferences/2010/2010.html. Accessed on May 17, 2013. 73 CASE STUDY 25 Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County Library Submitted by Dr. Jing Zhang, Ph. D., Associate Professor at the School of Information Management, Sun Yat-sen University. City, Province: Mianyang, Sichuan Province Country: China Name of Library: Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County Library. Mission: Reopened in May 2011 after the 5.12 earthquake disaster, the new Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County Library in new Beichuan provides basic services for the public in an effort to help the public recover from the catastrophe and resume their day- to-day lives. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The Qiang people of Beichuan. Description of Service(s): The old Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County Library was destroyed along with the old Beichuan County during the 5.12 earthquake in 2008. The new Library, showing the perfect integration of the traditional Qiang Culture and modern architecture technology, is located in the new Beichuan County and has become the most important public culture center since resuming services in May 2011. The floor area of the building is 2,500 square meters and the building area is 3,393 square meters. It can hold about 200,000 volumes. Within the library there are circulation and newspaper reading areas, a young people’s reading area, a digital reading room, a reference area, a lecture hall, an area for special collections, and a local collections area. The main library was built with the support of Shandong province and the special and local collection room was funded by a Prince Claus Award. The main library is open nine hours per day, Monday through Sunday. The library additionally provides outdoor movies every night for the public. All of the services are free. The library serves the general public, most of whom are the Qiang people. The Qiang people are an ethnic group of China with a population of approximately 200,000 living mainly in the northwestern area of the Sichuan province. Nowadays, the Qiang are only a small segment of the Chinese population but they are commonly believed to be a long existing, once strong and populous people whose history can be traced at least to the 74 Shang Dynasty and whose descendants are thought to include the some modern Tibetans, some modern Han Chinese, and many minority ethnic groups in Western China. As a result of the May 12, 2008 earthquake, old Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County was destroyed and survivors had to migrate to a new area. Impact of Service(s): The migration is still occurring; by July 2011, approximately one third of the residents had moved to the new Beichuan County. As the first cultural institution open to the public, the Library has welcomed about 8,000 visits over three months. The Qiang people of Beichuan benefit from the helpful resources within the library collection and receive services at the library that encourage them to emerge from the ravages of the earthquake to a more restored state of living. For More Information, Contact: Li Chun Librarian Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Beichuan County Library Mianyang, Si Chuan 622750 China Phone: +86 816-4821068 “Two Qiang Girls Reading in the Library.” 75 CASE STUDY 26 Sunday Book Bazaar Submitted by Mahjabeen Ali, Research Librarian at the National Institute of Management, Karachi. City, Province: Karachi, Sindh Province Country: Pakistan Name of Library: City district government of Karachi. Mission: The mission of the Sunday Book Bazaar Project is to bring books and book lovers together, and to enhance literacy and reading culture in society. The focus is to provide old and cheap books to book lovers who cannot afford expensive titles of interests. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Men, women, children, and youth of the area; surrounding communities of the city. Description of Service(s): The Sunday Book Bazaar takes place at historic Frere Hall, also known as Bagh-e Jinnah (Jinnah Garden). The bazaar is held every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Prominent book sellers/publishers put their books on sale and large numbers of book lovers and readers visit the bazaar each week. The city district government of Karachi provides stalls to the vendors free of cost, thereby enabling a large number of publishers and booksellers to display new and second-hand books on a variety of subjects. Needless to say, the saying “old is gold” comes true in this market as, from time to time, buyers do find the favourite titles that they had been searching for. One can get a good book starting from twenty to 5,000 Rupees. And, the greater the number of books a buyer purchases, the less the individual book prices are. The Sunday Book Bazaar not only provides a service for those seeking to buy books. It also serves as a suitable market for people to sell their old books. Unlike other parks in the city, this is the place on a Sunday for the whole family. Most people buy one or two books at the bazaar and then stay to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Frere Hall park. After they make their purchase, they sit on a bench and purchase a hot cup of tea from a seller who brews the tea in a kettle fixed to a coal-burning stove. Within the park itself is an art gallery that is beautifully designed and well suited for literary activities such as book launches held in years past. 76 Impact of Service(s): A minimum of 300 persons visits the bazaar each Sunday. Most people spend at least an hour browsing and reading the books. The most popular titles are in Urdu (the national language) ranging from subjects as varied as children’s variety books to classical literature, available at costs lower than market prices. For More Information, Contact: Director General Cultural Wing City District Government Karachi Pakistan 77 CASE STUDY 27 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) Submitted by Kirsten Thorpe, ATSIDA Project Officer at the University of Technology, Sydney. Cities: National digital project, based in Sydney and Canberra Country: Australia Name of Library: University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Library. Mission: ATSIDA is a national trusted repository for indigenous research data. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Researchers engaging with aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities nationally and internationally. ATSIDA works nationally with indigenous Australian communities to manage appropriate access and return of research data. Description of Service(s): ATSIDA is a specialist archive with the Australian Data Archive (ADA) (formerly the Australian Social Science Data Archive) with its datasets securely stored at the Australian National University (ANU) Supercomputer facility. ATSIDA is guided by a board of internationally recognised experts in Australian indigenous research. Staff managing the data are experienced professionals in process and information management, indigenous research, and digital preservation management. ATSIDA works with aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, researchers, higher education institutions, and government agencies to ensure the appropriate capture and management of data created during the course of research with indigenous Australian communities. Central to ATSIDA’s objectives and guiding principles is the notion of returning digital copies of research data to the indigenous Australian communities from which it is gathered. This is mainly being carried out through the consultation of communities and researchers. The process is additionally informed by two websites: www.atsida.edu.au, designed with community requirements in mind, and ADA Indigenous, a website for researchers. ATSIDA has a formal Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to work collaboratively to 78 ensure that quality services are being provided to both researchers and aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Impact of Service(s): Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations and issues relating to them continue to attract much study. But frequently, often due to ethical concerns intrinsic to small population research—and to research on indigenous communities in particular—datasets are not made available for secondary analysis. ATSIDA’s aim is to collect and preserve these fragmented research resources and to make them available for further research under appropriate protocols, so as to reduce the response burden on indigenous communities while enabling informed analysis and commentary in areas of national priority. Relevant Websites: • “ATSIDA.” Available at: www.atsida.edu.au. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Australian Data Archive (ADA).” Available at: www.ada.edu.au. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “ATSIDA Protocols for the preservation, access, reuse and repatriation of research data relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.” Available at: http://www.atsida.edu.au/protocols/atsida. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “UTS eScholarship.” Available at: http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: ATSIDA PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 123 Australia Telephone: +61 2-9514-3681 Fax: +61 2-9514-3687 Email: atsida@lib.uts.edu.au 79 CASE STUDY 28 The Akaltye Antheme Collection, Alice Springs Public Library (ASPL) Submitted by Georgina Davison, Manager of Library Services at ASPL. City, Territory: Alice Springs, Northern Territory Country: Australia Name of Library: Alice Springs Public Library (ASPL). Mission: To provide high quality recreational services and library, information, educational, and lifelong learning opportunities to the community of central Australia equitably, and in a friendly and courteous manner. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The Alice Springs community, both indigenous and non-indigenous. Description of Service(s): The ASPL embraces its commitments to its indigenous patrons by providing resources that are relevant to the indigenous people of central Australia. This library is unique in the town of Alice Springs, in that it is well utilized by indigenous patrons; it is a comfortable and welcoming place to meet, use the Internet, browse the collections, or simply watch a movie. The Akaltye Antheme Collection was contributed by Lhere Aretepe, the traditional owner of the Alice Springs area. The name is Arrernte for ‘giving knowledge.’ This unique collection contains books, magazines, and newspapers produced by, for, and about the aboriginal people of central Australia. The collection also provides computer access to databases, one of which is the Ara Winki database that shows life on the Pitjantjatjara homelands in pictures, movies, and sound. The most recent addition to the Akaltye Antheme Collection is the Local Languages Collection. This collection consists of publications in the many local languages that exist in central Australia. Many of the indigenous people who use the library are illiterate in English, as well as in their own language. The goals of the Local Languages Collection are to strengthen indigenous people’s literacy in their own languages, and to make local language resources available for all patrons. 80 Impact of Service(s): This collection facilitates the comfort of indigenous patrons within the ASPL and the regularity with which they utilize the library. Users of the databases frequently search the library looking for familiar faces and it is a joy to see their excited faces when they locate someone they know. Relevant Website: “Alice Springs Public Library Homepage.” Available at: www.alicesprings.nt.gov.au/library. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Kathryn Bailey Phone: +61 08-8950-0507 Email: kbailey@astc.nt.gov.au 81 CASE STUDY 29 BlackWords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers Submitted by Dr. Jeanine Leane, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Education & Cultural Transmission, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. City, State: Canberra, Queensland County: Australia Name of Libraries: The University of Queensland is the lead institution for AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource of which BlackWords is a part. AustLit team members are split between The University of Queensland Library and the School of English, Media Studies, and Art History. Funded by the Australian Research Council, AustLit is a collaborative project between eleven different universities across Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. Mission: The mission of BlackWords is to identify and index the vast and still growing collection of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature; to develop complementary research and teaching material for the literature; to promote and raise awareness of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing, particularly in educational settings; and to provide an information rich website, a searchable database, and a forum for the communication of information about the lives and works of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, schools, and universities. Description of Service(s): BlackWords provides access to both general and specific information about aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literary culture and traditions, as well as articulations defining what ‘Black’ writing and aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literatures encompass. BlackWords also contains records describing published and unpublished books, stories, plays, poems, Dreaming Stories, and literary criticism associated with writers and storytellers. These works are presented in English, aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander languages. BlackWords will always be a work in progress. It welcomes the participation of users, community members, and scholars of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature; such participants help BlackWords towards its goal of building the most authoritative and 82 detailed resource of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling in Australia, in both written and oral forms. A significant feature of the resource is that an all-indigenous team, located at three different universities around Australia and AIATSIS, are responsible for both the identification and recording of the literature of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This ensures that appropriate cultural protocols are adhered to in this process. The team is also responsible for creating and amending definitions relating to aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature for the AustLit manual. The team is coordinated by Dr. Jeanine Leane from AIATSIS, who is a specialist in Australian aboriginal literature. Dr. Leane is responsible for developing critical material to complement the literature for the purposes of teaching and research. Impact of Service(s): The BlackWords resource has resulted in a heightened awareness of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature, as well as the implementation of this literature in educational settings. Relevant Websites: • “BlackWords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers.” http://www.austlit.edu.au/specialistDatasets/BlackWords. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).” Available at: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource.” Available at: http://www.austlit.edu.au/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Australian Research Council.” Available at: http://www.arc.gov.au/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “The University of Queensland.” Available at: http://www.uq.edu.au/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “The University of Western Australia.” Available at: http://www.uwa.edu.au/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “The University of Wollongong.” Available at: http://www.uow.edu.au/index.html. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Dr. Jeanine Leane Email: Jeanine.leane@aiatsis.gov.au Kerry Kilner Email: k.kilner@uq.edu 83 CASE STUDY 30 The Grades for Peak Success (GPS): Your Local Library Program Submitted by Kellie Ayre, Youth Librarian at the Tablelands Regional Libraries’ Mareeba Library. Region, State: Atherton Tablelands, Queensland Country: Australia Names of Libraries: Tablelands Regional Library Service, with 11 branch libraries. Atherton, Kuranda, Mareeba, and Ravenshoe Libraries were directly involved in the program. Mission: The aim of the GPS Program was to provide assistance with homework and help upper high school children gain some work-ready skills. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The program was designed to support any student who was in danger of disengaging from school or had already developed a pattern of non-attendance. While the program was designed to support all students who could benefit from help outside of school hours, in reality, the majority of these students identified as either aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. Description of Service(s): Funding for GPS was provided through a Back on Track grant. The grant stipulated that the program aim to provide continuing benefits to youth who were in danger of disengagement from educational facilities after the grant period expired. The grant supported the purchase of four laptops that were dedicated to youth usage. These laptops would be prioritized for study, job applications and searches, assignment research and printing, and other tasks that enable Tablelands Regional Council (TRC) youth to fulfil educational requirements and improve their chances of obtaining work. A manual was developed for library staff members to assist youth if the Youth Librarian was not available. The manual included tips on using on-site resources, advice on online research, resume construction templates online, work skills sites, and employment agency sites. In addition, the TRC Libraries subscribed to yourtutor, an online tutoring service, and promoted this service with trips to the local high schools, flyers in the library, and newspaper advertisements. Vocational Partnerships Group Inc. (VPG), a government funded youth organisation, was a partner on the application and was enlisted to nominate students from the local high school who would benefit from the extra scholastic support. All eleven libraries across the Tablelands were free to utilise and promote the Homework Help section of the program. The yourtutor service was available to any child with a 84 TRC Library card and each library branch administrator was given a GPS Manual and instructed on how to use both these resources. The four key libraries (Atherton, Kuranda, Mareeba, and Ravenshoe) were selected because of their longer opening hours, and were also given a laptop that could be used in the libraries to complete assignments, search for work, or type up resumes. These four libraries also offered a scheduled study session one afternoon a week after school. In addition, students could print out assignments for free and book computer time at no charge. The Youth Librarian visited high schools in each of the key areas to advertise the online tutoring service and let students know about the Homework Help sessions. Yourtutor also provided a great deal of support with advertising materials, flyers, and templates for school newsletter articles. The program also offered free online tutorials to explain to teachers and parents how yourtutor could help their students. TRC Libraries hosted a tutorial session at the council building and arranged for yourtutor representatives to hold an online tutorial for local high school staff. Members from each local high school attended this session. Additionally, the P&C (parents support group) at Kuranda High School undertook a tutorial session. The Youth Librarian also attended a Skills Expo, staffing a booth to demonstrate how students applying for part time work could dress appropriately, and inexpensively source interview clothes from local charity stores. Across the TRC, approximately 200 students visited their local library for help—or utilised the online tutoring service from home—using their TRC Library card. Only a few students requested the use of the laptop during the grant period but since that time it has been more widely used by a youth worker who has been bringing indigenous youth into Mareeba Library to study for their learner driver’s license. The laptop has also been used to type up community justice statements by youth who have been sent to court. Impact of Service(s): The GPS Program was designed to help young people in the TRC council area to develop their potential both as students and as possible employees. Some elements of the program worked very well: students from the local high schools came into the library regularly to type out and print out their assignments. They had free computer time, as well as the offer of assistance in selecting material from the Internet and in the construction of their finished assignment. Most significantly, Mareeba Library had five students who said they could not have completed their work on time without the provision of free computer services and printing. In a remote rural area, there are issues with access to the Internet, and many families do not have computers at home. 85 The job-seeking element of the program was less productive with only the occasional student requesting help with resume construction or the completion of an online job application. In terms of usage, the least requested service was the online tutoring assistance. Although each month yourtutor sent a report showing on average of ten students accessing the service using their TRC Library card, we saw very little demand for the service in the libraries themselves. This result was quite surprising as it was envisioned that the online tutoring would form the backbone of the program with demand for the other services acting as support. In reality, what the kids really needed was more access to the basic resources, such as PCs and printers. The online service was seldom used, possibly because students were wary of discussing problems with a faceless stranger. Instead, students needing help were grateful for a staff member to talk to, spend some time with, and direct their efforts. Although the laptop was not as frequently used as expected in the initial grant period it was found to be one of the most beneficial and long lasting elements to come from the GPS Program. This resource is typically requested by indigenous youth who would prefer to work alone and in private. It is regularly used in the quiet reference room by individuals studying for their driver’s license, or completing job application and resumes. Relevant Website: “Libraries Homepage with Yourtutor Link.” Available at: http://www.trc.qld.gov.au/libraries. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Kellie Ayre Youth Librarian Tablelands Regional Libraries Mareeba Library Phone: +61 07-4043-4152 Email: kelliea@trc.qld.gov.au 86 CASE STUDY 31 Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC) Network Submitted by Terena Hopkins, Regional Director in Cairns of the State Library of Queensland. Location: Twenty remote aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the State of Queensland Country: Australia Name of Library: State Library of Queensland. Mission: The mission of the Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC) Network is to provide cultural keeping places with 21st century library services. These services connect, engage, and empower aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders living in some of the most remote and culturally rich regions in Australia. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: There are two vibrant and distinct indigenous cultures in Australia. Each community with an IKC also has their own distinct tribal groups, languages, and cultures. The network of twenty IKCs is reaching up to 8,600 aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities in Cape York, the Torres Straits, Palm Island, Woorabinda, and Cherbourg. The IKC network is expected to expand to over thirty remote aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Two new IKCs will continue to be established annually until all remote Queensland communities have access and equity in communication and information services. Refer to the relevant websites listed below for IKC locations and indigenous language maps. Description of Service(s): Indigenous Knowledge Centres (IKCs) located in remote aboriginal communities and Torres Strait islands provide safe, welcoming spaces. With public Internet access and resources that recognise two-way cultural learning, these centres engage all generations in creative, cultural, and educational activities to promote literacy, build life skills, maintain language, and keep culture strong. Many of the remote communities involved with the centres are small and unable to 87 provide basic retail; banking; post-primary education; health, economic, employment, and business opportunities: or facilities enjoyed by mainstream Australia. The IKCs, serve as public libraries, enabling aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders to confidently and actively contribute their voice through the digital economy. IKCs are also used as small museums and community keeping places where heritage material is stored. Improved digital literacy and Internet facilities in the Centres support access to heritage material through online databases belonging to institutions and opportunities to develop contemporary and heritage collections. The success of the IKC model is the strong and collaborative partnership between the State Library of Queensland and the aboriginal and Torres Strait Local Government Shire councils. The Council’s commitment includes the physical infrastructure, staffing costs, and day-to-day operations of the IKCs. State Library funds the establishment and professionally develops council and IKC staff to deliver library services and ancillary programs. Each IKC has ownership of the creative programs offered; these programs entail activities that celebrate living indigenous culture and promoting inter-generational participation. Staffed by local aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, the IKC coordinators understand their community’s interests and needs, running weekly activities that include after school activities, homework clubs, music, photography, basic computer skills, local history, and celebrations for special events. Programs supported by the State Library of Queensland are delivered through a participatory community development framework that encourages indigenous authorship. To this effect, programs incorporate innovative new media that records indigenous knowledge, affirms local authority, and builds relevant local resources. Some of the IKC programs include: • Culture Love Children’s Workshop: A school holiday program that provides weeklong activities for children, employs local artists, and supports the intergenerational sharing of stories, song, and dance. • Writer and Illustrator Workshops: An arts rich literacy program hosted by IKCs in partnership with local schools, where a group of children spend a week developing individual and shared stories. • Recognition of IKCs as the on-ground implementation method for the commonwealth and state government’s National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Public Internet Access. This agreement was created to improve infrastructure and provide training for the following function: increasing public access to, and awareness of the benefits of online resources and services relating to financial, educational, health, economic, and social purposes. 88 • Installation of and training for an online library management system. • Virtual museums being piloted at two IKCs using the innovative ara iritja software. This software enables communities to create and own digital repositories of new and culturally significant heritage material. Impact of Service(s): Whether to read a book or magazine, watch a video on YouTube, apply for jobs online, or use Internet banking, people of all ages, interests, and skills visit their IKC and engage in the lifelong learning programs. These are the community-driven services that have been missing from remote indigenous communities. These services build capacity; reinvigorate positive social norms; recognise cultural authority; contribute to cultural, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing; and achieve the vision of a socially inclusive society. Relevant Websites and Documents: • “Indigenous Knowledge Centres.” Available at: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about- us/indigenous-knowledge-centres. Accessed on May 23, 2013. “Culture Love Children’s Workshop: a school holiday arts and culture program.” Wujal Wujal, 2010. . 89 • “Indigenous Knowledge Centres of Queensland – Facebook.” https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indigenous-Knowledge-Centres-of- Queensland/100720560019888. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Knowledge Centre Workshop.” Available at: http://www.ikcnetwork.blogspot.com/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Culture Love Children's Workshop – Mabuiag Island, May 2010.” Available at: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/atsi/contemporary-stories/retold/culture-love- childrens-workshop. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Closing the Gap: National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Public Internet Access.” Implementation Report 2009-2010. Australian Government Indigenous Communications Program. Available at: http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/rtf_file/0018/132192/QLD_Implementation_ Report_2009-10.rtf. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages.” Available at: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/atsi/languages. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Australian Indigenous Health InfoNet.” Available at: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Terena Hopkins Regional Director – Cairns State Library of Queensland P O Box 2352 Cairns, Queensland 4870 Australia Phone: +61 7-4042-5200 Email: Terena.hopkins@slq.qld.gov.au 90 CASE STUDY 32 Making Books Making Readers (MBMR) Submitted by Christine Andell, Project Officer, Family Services, Reader Development at the State Library of Victoria. City, State: Melbourne, Victoria Country: Australia Names of Libraries: State Library of Victoria Libraries. Mission: Imagine a child who picks up a book up and can identify with the cultural themes being represented and how that might improve the child’s confidence in his or her reading abilities. If a child comes across a culturally relevant book in the beginning of his or her exposure to English/print culture, he or she will be likely to experience lasting positive effects on future reading habits. The State Library of Victoria has been working with Kids Own Publishing initiative to create community based publishing projects under the Making Books Making Readers (MBMR) program. The program consultant, Victoria Ryle, has had many years of local and international experience in empowering communities by means of enabling storytelling. The need for programs addressing the on going issues of health, education, and social justice in aboriginal communities continues to be signalled by the communities themselves. The MBMR program works to promote literacy by: (1) Making connections between oral cultures and print cultures and (2) Strengthening cultural awareness and community cohesion. This program brings books and emergent literacy skills into communities where books have traditionally played little or no part in people’s lives. It additionally encourages aboriginal communities to tell their stories by means of making of culturally relevant picture books with high production values. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Aboriginal Communities of Victoria Description of Service(s): Each project is run by an aboriginal community so that the community can tell their own story in their own way. The community selects the elders and mentors they feel will inspire children and young people. The children and young people are encouraged to write and/or illustrate their experiences and to contribute these stories and illustrations to the production of a high quality picture book, which is a baseline, mandatory result of the project. Other results may include performances, recording of material as CDs or DVDs, 91 photography, and art projects. This project aims to help build self-esteem and encourage pride in aboriginal heritage. An initial workshop day helps give community leaders/elders an understanding of the project, providing clarity and a framework for what is needed to produce their own book. This is followed by a series of workshops extending over a five-week period, attended by families/members of that community and run by the artist/facilitator of that group. The initial workshop is attended by Victoria Ryle and a State Library of Victoria representative from the Reader Development Unit. Victoria invites all present to begin making their own story. Over the ensuing weeks, the community organizes and runs/facilitates these workshops themselves. They decide what story they want to tell and produce artwork and narrative to support that story, often with the help of cultural workshops and other activities. After the workshop series, members of the group come to Melbourne to edit the artwork with Victoria’s guidance in InDesign, resulting in the production of a beautiful book. A number of communities have followed the MBMR process through to the very successful publication of their own books. The books have been given ISBNs and have been taken into collections by the State Library of Victoria and local libraries. The aboriginal community of Inverloch was an unrecognised group in the region until they came together via MBMR. More than twenty-five families from the region collaborated to make a beautiful book called Coming Together. The community had an indigenous artist/facilitator within the group and invited a didgeridoo player, a traditional dancer, a traditional weaver, and a number of community elders to come and work with the families. Each family then made a response to that experience with a story and/or artwork that was included in the final production. The theme, workshops, and mentors were chosen by the community. Collage forms the basis for most of the artwork. There are no people from the original Gunnai-Kurnai tribe left in the area due to colonial incursion so this group was creating a visible, cohesive community was a strong need of this group; other objectives included aiding literacy and encouraging use of books in the home. The community called the project “Books for Boorai,” and presented each participating family with a handmade book bag containing not only the book they had made together, Coming Together, but a U nt itl ed . 92 range of indigenous books for the whole family: a history of the region, picture books, and novels. Impact of Service(s): MBMR has been shown to be successful as a community strengthening and bonding process, likely owing to the fact that these communities—rather than outside facilitators—own and direct their MBMR project. Three hundred people came to the launch of Coming Together and, for the first time, the aboriginal flag was added to the official flags flown in Bass Coast Shire. The aboriginal community described the MBMR experience and the flow-on effects as “empowering.” This is a fun and engaging process that leads to cultural validation and preservation as well as increased book sharing and reading. The books produced are a legacy for the families and communities involved. The strengthening of community—both within specified groups and in relation to the wider aboriginal population—has been welcomed by all. The success of the Making Books Making Readers program has informed further reader engagement outreach projects being developed by the State Library of Victoria. Within the MBMR program, there will continue to be a focus on families and early childhood literacy. Work will also focus on specific communities that have high literacy intervention needs among school-aged children with educational achievement and school retention issues. The project has been shown to positively influence school retention rates across indigenous communities in both primary and secondary schools. The first two pilot projects are now underway in schools with a strong indigenous cohort, with considerable success. The projects are proceeding with a loose theme of “the U nt itl ed . U ntitled. 93 journey, from past to present,” drawing on cultural material from past and present, and using indigenous hip-hop groups alongside traditional dance and storytelling. Again, the themes, content, and elders/mentors for these projects are chosen by the students and the indigenous community. Each community has ownership of the book and the material that they produce. The school needs to be very involved, giving the project timetabling, launches and updates, and a sense of significance in the wider school community. The support of the local aboriginal community is equally important to support the participation of that community’s students, and reinforce the importance of literacy and cultural grounding. Most schools in Victoria have access to regional Koori (Victorian aboriginal) Education Support Officers who work to form bridges between school, students, elders, families, and communities, in order to help students transition through the difficult years of potential disengagement with school. Relevant Websites: • “State Library of Victoria.” Available at: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Reading and Literacy.” Available at: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/learn/reading- literacy. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Read Alert.” Available at: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/readalert/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Inside a Dog.” Available at: http://www.insideadog.com.au. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Centre for Youth Literature.” Available at: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/learn/centre- youth-literature. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Paula Kelly Reader Development and Offsite Learning Manager (including the Centre for Youth Literature) Learning Services State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia Christine Andell Project Officer, Family Services Reader Development State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000 Australia Email: candell@slv.vic.gov.au 94 CASE STUDY 33 Christchurch City Libraries/Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi (CCL) Submitted by Ariana Tikao (Ngāi Tahu), Research Librarian, Māori at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Wellington. Aotearoa/New Zealand. City, Region: Christchurch City, Canterbury Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Name of Library: Christchurch City Libraries/Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi (CCL). Mission: Emphasis is on providing library services to the local tribe and other Māori communities living in Christchurch and providing training to all staff to enable them to provide culturally appropriate services to Māori communities. Services include provision of Māori-themed physical spaces; extensive Māori resources; a Māori services team that provides leadership, support and training in biculturalism for library staff; events and outreach to Māori communities; and extensive online resources. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Ngāi Tahu (local tribe), Ngā Maata Waka (other Māori communities now residing in Christchurch), and all other people interested in Māori culture. Description of Service(s): The population of urban Christchurch has the third largest population of Māori out of seventy-three districts in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Out of 348,435 residents in Christchurch, 25,725 are Māori. Christchurch City Libraries’ Māori Services include specific Māori collections totalling 12,350 items. These contain Māori cultural books and resources, and Māori language books. These resources are available to all of the twenty libraries within the library network across the city, and there is an additional core collection of resources that each library must hold. The Ngā Ratonga Māori (Māori services) team is headed by the Kaiwhakahaere Ratonga Māori (coordinator) Haneta Pierce, who has developed these services over seventeen years; a small team of Kaitakawaenga (liaison staff) and a larger team of Kaiawhina (support staff) in each community library across the network. Māori services include annual programmes associated with Māori New Year and Māori Language Week. Māori components are also included in other events such as Book Week, New Zealand Music Month, and regular children’s programmes, including weekly story times. CCL has adopted bicultural philosophies and policies. The Māori Services Team provides comprehensive staff training in the following areas: meeting the needs of Māori 95 customers, Māori culture and language, and how to provide access to Māori information. The libraries have bilingual Māori names and Māori signage, Māori collections, a Māori resource centre with a television tuned to the Māori channel, a play area for children, and a Māori display area. It also houses the Ngāi Tahu Collection and photographs of the Ngāi Tahu Claim (the local tribe’s land claim). The library created an online index to materials relating to this significant land claim. There is an extensive range of online resources in the Māori section of the CCL website, including Tī Kōuka Whenua, a local Māori history website and database. Tī Kōuka Whenua contains published histories of sites of significance, as well as oral histories, which include podcasts of interviews with local elders. It is widely used by schools and tertiary institutions. An example of a successful programme is their Matariki (Māori New Year) programme. In 2011, CCL ran forty-three events across the city including an educational programme. All twenty CCL libraries and Learning Centres, two urban-based marae (Māori traditional cultural centres), and seven primary schools participated. This programme included performances and cultural seminars. Over the three years of its existence, the programme has had an average of approximately 3,000 participants. Outreach programmes are regularly run at local festivals and community events. Impact of Service(s): CCL won the Local Government category and was runner up for the Supreme Award in the inaugural Māori Language Week awards in 2004. Relevant Websites: • “CCL home page.” Available at: http://www.christchurchcitylibraries.com/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Māori zone.” Available at: http://www.christchurchcitylibraries.com/Maori/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Tī Kōuka Whenua.” Available at: http://www.christchurchcitylibraries.com/TiKoukaWhenua/. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Haneta Pierce Email: Haneta.Pierce@ccc.govt.nz 96 CASE STUDY 34 Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Submitted by Ann Reweti, Māori Librarian at Wellington City Libraries. Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Name of Library: Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Mission: To support 6,000 staff employed as library professionals gain an understanding of indigenous cultural practices. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Experienced librarians seeking professional registration or revalidation with LIANZA. Description of Service(s): LIANZA has long committed to biculturalism, arising out of a treaty between Māori and Crown. Body of Knowledge (BoK) 11 as a compulsory requirement for professional registration that raises awareness of traditional knowledge/mātauranga Māori, and becomes a framework for employers to coach and develop their staff. The first ten Bodies of Knowledge are closely aligned with the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) parameters. BoK 11, unique to Aotearoa/New Zealand, was developed by Hinureina Mangan and Marie Waaka at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, where the world’s first indigenous librarians’ tertiary qualification was launched in 1999. BoK 11: Awareness of Māori Knowledge Paradigms encompasses: • An understanding of the importance, diversity, and structure of Māori knowledge frameworks (mātauranga Māori). • Awareness of the importance that tikanga and te reo Māori assumes in the development of Māori knowledge constructs and principles (concepts), including appropriate care. • Awareness of the importance of kaupapa Māori methodologies in researching the needs of Māori clients. Specific components include: • Taonga (Treasure, property; prized and protected as sacred possessions of the tribe) – Understand the place of taonga tuku iho (taonga handed down from one generation to the next in contributing to the survival of Māori as a people). 97 • Whakatupu mātauranga (Creaking knowledge, and new knowledge) – Affirm creative activity (‘research’) to enhance the information and recreational needs of clients. • Manaakitanga (Mana-enhancing behaviour towards each other, where mana is equated with influence, prestige, power) – Commit to giving care and respect to clients, the organisation, and the taonga that they hold. • Te reo Māori – o Understand that te reo Māori is vital to the identity and survival of Māori as a people; and o Recognize that competence in te reo Māori has intrinsic value to the client, organisation and staff. • Whakapapa (Tacit and explicit knowledge frameworks) – o Recognise that whakapapa is the backbone of Māori society; o Recognise that whakapapa represents the growth of knowledge; o Recognise that all things are connected, both animate and inanimate; o Recognize that collections (as in libraries) have direct links to an original source; and o Recognise that whakapapa is the layering towards both the future and past. • Kaitiakitanga (Preserving, maintaining and protecting all knowledge) – o Practise at all times the ‘five-way test for eligibility to be a recipient of restricted knowledge’; o Receive information with utmost accuracy; o Store information with integrity; o Retrieve information without amendment; o Apply appropriate judgement in using information; and o Pass on information appropriately. • Rangatiratanga (Acknowledging the attributes of others) – o Demonstrate the ability to lead and unite people; and o Demonstrate the ability to recognise the potential of others. Impact of Service(s): A unique BoK sets out a Māori worldview that underpins compulsory continuous professional development (CPD) for seekers of professional registration to LIANZA. Relevant Website: “Continuing Professional Development – LIANZA.” Available at: http://www.lianza.org.nz/career. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Wendy Walker Email: wendy@lianza.org.nz 98 U nt itl ed . 99 CASE STUDY 35 Ngā Kupu Ora: Recognising Excellence in Māori Publishing Submitted by Dr. Spencer Lilley, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in Te Uru Maraurau/Department of Māori & Multicultural Educationat Massey University. City, Region: Palmerston North, Manawatu-Wanganui Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Name of Library: Massey University Library/Te Putanga Ki Te Ao Mātauranga. Mission: In 2009, Māori services staff at Massey University Library decided to organise a new national book award event, the Ngā Kupu Ora Book Awards, which recognise the contribution of books on Māori subjects to the Aotearoa/New Zealand literary scene. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: All New Zealanders and international communities interested in Mātauranga Māori (Māori information and knowledge). Description of Service(s): One of the primary motivators for organising the awards was the realisation that, apart from the Kura Pounamu Award from the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) and Te Rōpū Whakahau (Māori in Libraries and Information Management), other major New Zealand book awards were not giving Māori books their due credit, with many highly worthy publications not making the shortlist of finalists for the Montana Book Awards (now the NZ Post Book Awards). The awards were organised to coincide with Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) which is held in the last week of July each year. Planning for the event starts at the beginning of June. The project managers for the Awards are the Library’s Māori Services Staff Members, initially Spencer Lilley and Sheeanda Field. At the first meeting a number of principles were determined. These were: • the book awards are for books aimed at the sophisticated reader (i.e. not children or young adults); • the awards are named ‘Ngā Kupu Ora Book Awards’15; 15 Ngā Kupu Ora, (the living words) is the name of Massey University Library’s collection of Māori resources. The name represents the fact that the words of tupuna (ancestors) continue to have meaning for present and future generations. 100 • all books published on Māori topics in the previous year and up until June of the current year are eligible; • Māori Services staff determine the shortlisted finalists but the winner of each category is determined by popular vote; and • books written by Māori and non-Māori are eligible. An environmental scan of the Māori publishing output for the previous and current year was undertaken. This resulted in a long list of items eligible for consideration for the awards: this list was used to determine five categories with a critical mass of books published in their subject areas. The five categories chosen were: (1) Art, Architecture and Design; (2) Biography; (3) History; (4) Sport and Recreation; and (5) Te reo Māori. In recognition of the quality of other items published in the years before the qualifying period, it was decided that a sixth category would be introduced, called the Book of the Decade. After the success of the 2009 awards, there was enthusiasm within Massey University and the publishing community for the awards to become an annual event. It was decided that the format of the awards would remain the same. Such traditions as a formal awards event and the selection of the final award winners by public vote are critical factors in developing a national and international profile for the awards. Another critical factor is the reliance on authors and publishers to produce quality books on Māori topics. The environmental scan for the 2010 awards commenced in late 2009 and continued through until June 2010. This longer period allowed for potential contenders to be read and assessed by Māori services staff. After the success of the 2010 awards, a firm commitment has been made to continue the awards on an annual basis. However, there are some critical factors that need to be assessed; these mainly relate to eligibility for the awards, the method of short-listing finalists, and how the winners are chosen. Impact of Service(s): The Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards have now been through three iterations. The response to the establishment of the awards has been encouraging and their future seems assured. As the awards are still in their infancy, it is important that their structure continues to be monitored and adjusted when necessary in order to ensure that they meet the needs of authors, publishers, and readers of Māori books. Relevant Website: “2010 Ngā Kupu Ora – Māori Book Awards – Massey University.” Available at: http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/maori/news-and- events/maori_book_awards/2010/2010.cfm. Accessed on May 23, 2013. 101 For More Information, Contact: Dr. Spencer Lilley Massey University Palmerston North Aotearoa/New Zealand Email: s.c.lilley@massey.ac.nz 102 CASE STUDY 36 Ngā Tūpuna o Te Whanganui-ā-Tara: Biographies of Māori who Resided in the Wellington Region from 1840 Submitted by Ann Reweti. City, Region: Wellington City, Wellington Region Country: New Zealand Names of Libraries: Wellington City Libraries, with one central and eleven branch libraries. Mission: To fill a gap in library resources and to clothe with kōrero (speech) names of Taranaki whānui tūpuna (ancestors of the region), showing their relationship to each other, and to the whenua (land) of Te Whanga-nui-ā-Tara (Wellington Harbour). Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Mana whenua (original people of the land); primary, secondary, and tertiary students; Māori customers; and anyone interested in the early Māori history of the rohe (region). Description of Service(s): In partnership with mana whenua, represented by the Wellington Tenths Trust, Wellington City Libraries produced the four volume Ngā Tūpuna o Te Whanganui-ā- Tara. These volumes contain around 100 biographies of Māori who resided in the Wellington region after 1840, the date when the first British colonials arrived. Recent historical land research for treaty claims was based on archived governmental records and published histories, but these seldom gave biographical details of individual people attached to the land. Māori oral records were closely guarded and handed down only to those worthy of receiving the information. This system began to crumble under the pressure of Western practices as living repositories began to disappear. The initiative used published records, often Land Court Minute Books, to create layers of kōrero to the names. The Court requires proof of the right to succession for Māori reserved land. Often whakapapa (genealogical) and whānau (family) stories were recorded in the minute books as proof of an individual or family’s ownership of the land. Published sources (e.g., niupepa, or Māori language newspapers distrubuted through such websites as Paperspast and the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, NZETC) and unpublished documents were also used to prove land ownership. The unpublished resources were indentifed through the TAPUHI database at the National Library of New Zealand/Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and also included photographs from whānau 103 members. Funding was based on the notion that information, like a building, was an asset, and that the construction of this asset was therefore worthy for the city as a whole, and thus qualifed for capital expenditure. Time was short, but the project team endeavoured to consult with wh!nau and iwi (tribes), and to recognise issues of intellectual and cultural property rights. Recently, the team has begun to extend profiles of individuals onto the library system’s website with biographies in English and te reo M!ori, accompanied by links to digitized documents and manuscripts, images, newspaper articles, web-links and a bibliography. Impact of Service(s): Through the consultation process, the projects forged closer links between the library and mana whenua, the original people of the land. An unintended benefit for mana whenua was that the books were sometimes used as a validation tool of iwi registration for the Port Nicholson Block Claim.16 Awareness of the city’s M!ori heritage has been brought to light, and Wellington City Libraries now have a more comprehensive procedure with which to answer heritage information queries. The launch of each volume provided a celebration and brought to the libraries wh!nau, who had previously seldom visited the libraries. The libraries have been delighted to receive emails from wh!nau in Australia and India as well as descendants of people written up in the books living within Aotearoa/New Zealand. 16 “Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust.” Available at: www.portnicholson.org.nz/2010/index.php. Accessed on May 28, 2012. “Sharing tupuna (ancestor) narratives during the book launch.” 2007. 104 Twenty profiles on the library system’s website have been translated into te reo Māori as a unique source for students at immersion schools, namely the Kura Kaupapa Māori and Kura Tuarua. Relevant Websites: • “See Honiana Te Puni.” Available at: http://www.wcl.govt.nz/maori/wellington/bio- tepuni-honiana.html. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • “Nga Tupuna o Te Whanganui-a-Tara.” Available at: http://www.wcl.govt.nz/maori/wellington/tupuna2007.html. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • National Library of New Zealand/Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. “Paperspast.” Available at: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • National Library of New Zealand/Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. “TAPUHI.” Available at: www.natlib.govt.nz/catalogues/tapuhi. Accessed on May 23, 2013. • Victoria University of Wellington Library. “New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC).” Available at: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Accessed on May 23, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Ann Reweti Email: ann.reweti@wcc.govt.nz 105 CASE STUDY 37 Ngā Ūpoko Tukuktuku/Māori Subject Headings and Iwi-Hapū Names Projects Submitted by Jacinta Paranihi, Māori Heritage Co-ordinator, Te Pouhere Taonga/NZ Historic Places Trust. Former Māori Subject Headings Librarian, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa/New Zealand. Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Name of Libraries: National Library of New Zealand/Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa in conjunction with Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) and Te Rōpū Whakahau (Māori in Libraries and Information Management). Mission: To provide subject access to materials in the Māori language and/or about Māori topics, using terms familiar to Māori and arranged in a hierarchy that reflects the Māori view of the world rather than a European one. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Aotearoa/New Zealand Māori. Description of Service(s): Launched in 2006, the Māori Subject Headings thesaurus is a freely accessible set of topical headings in the Māori language, provided with scope notes in both Māori and English, and designed under a specifically Māori framework. The Māori Subject Headings thesaurus covers a wide range of topics found in publications for and/or about Māori. The majority of cataloguing staff in Aotearoa/New Zealand are not fluent Māori speakers but the ability to reach this segment of the community is widely valued and this thesaurus provides a bridge between Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand European) cultures. New headings are constantly under development by a small group who are drawn from around Aotearoa/New Zealand either for their technical expertise in thesaurus construction or their understanding of the Māori language and culture. Topics to be worked on are derived from a list of requests made by cataloguers as new titles are published and older titles are retrospectively described. 106 The thesaurus has been recognised by MARBI, has a subject source code of “reo,” and can be used by any library around the world.17 The code reo was selected, as this is the Māori word used for “language.” In addition to the topical headings, a tribal name list has been made of the larger groups in Māori society, known as iwi (groups of related clans) and hapū (clans). As no authoritative list of all New Zealand iwi and hapū currently exists, this list is considered incomplete. As with many cultures, names are a culturally sensitive area for Māori people, and it is important to consult appropriately to identify the right names to use. Work is ongoing to establish relationships with tāngata whenua (people of the land, or indigenous Māori of Aotearoa/New Zealand) who can help those who work on the thesaurus ensure they use appropriate names as the list continues to be built. Impact of Service(s): There are now 1,400 usable subject headings in the Māori Subject Headings thesaurus and 1,329 available names in the Iwi-Hapū Names List that can be applied to catalogue records. Aotearoa/New Zealand libraries continue to utilise these headings, and there are now over 8,000 records on the National Union Catalogue containing Māori Subject Headings and/or iwi and hapū names.18 Similarly, various libraries have undertaken projects to retrospectively add these headings to titles in their collections, including work done at large public libraries, university libraries, and the National Library of New Zealand/Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.19 Anecdotally the headings are being well received by library users and demand is increasing for titles to have access points, but there has been no formal research on this project to date. Chris Szekely,20 John Garraway,21 and Tui MacDonald22 released critical research about the need to gain access to Māori library materials, specifically mentioning 17 MARBI (Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information) is an interdivisional committee of the American Library Association, and they write and manage the MARC encoding standard. 18 The New Zealand National Union Catalogue (NZNUC) is the largest bibliographic database in New Zealand aggregated from the collections held in New Zealand libraries. It is a descriptive list or index of all classified knowledge and taonga (cultural heritage) specific to New Zealand, and is maintained by the National Library of New Zealand with the latest information on music, books, art, and artefacts of national importance as these become available. 19 “Te Kakau, Nekenekeiterangi Paoraturoto.” (Accessibility and Availability of Māori Resources in Macmillian Brown Library). 2008. Kete a Rēhua Inaugural Māori Research Symposium Te Waipounamu, 4th-5th September 2008: Proceedings book. Christchurch: University of Canterbury. 350-354. 20 Szekely, C. 1997. Te Ara Tika: Guiding Voices: Māori Opinion on Libraries and Information Needs. Wellington: New Zealand Library & Information Association and Te Rōpū Whakahau. 21 Szekely, C., Garraway, J. 1994. Ka Mahi Tonu: Biculturalism in New Zealand Librarianship, 1992- 1994. Wellington: N Strategy Bicultural Actions Group in association with the New Zealand Library & Information Association. 22 MacDonald, T. 1993. Te Ara Tika: Māori and Libraries: A Research Report. Wellington: New Zealand Library & Information Association. 107 how the use of Māori language made the library experience more familiar for Māori customers (see Te Ara Tika, 1997). Research was also done by Sally Simpson23 who recommended that the Māori Subject Headings thesaurus not be limited in scope, but be used to describe all resources held by libraries. Relevant Websites: • “Māori Subject Headings.” Available at: http://mshupoko.natlib.govt.nz/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Iwi-Hapu Names List.” Available at: http://iwihapu.natlib.govt.nz/iwi-hapu/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Te Rōpū Whakahau Publications Page.” Available at: http://www.trw.org.nz/publications.php. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Māori Subject Headings Governance Group C/- National Library of New Zealand PO Box 1467 Wellington 6140 New Zealand Email: reo@dia.govt.nz 23 Simpson, S. 2005. Te Ara Tika: Ngā Ingoa Kaupapa Māori: Pūrongo tuatoru: Guiding words: Māori Subject Headings Project. Wellington: Te Rōpū Whakahau. Available at: http://www.trw.org.nz/publications/Te_Ara_Tika_Guiding_Words.pdf. Accssed on May 1, 2013. 108 CASE STUDY 38 Tumu Herenga/The University of Auckland Library Submitted by Anahera Morehu, Kaiwhakahaere Māori me Moananui-ā-Kiwa, Library Manager, Māori and Pasifika Services Team, The University of Auckland Library. City, Region: Auckland, Auckland Region Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Name of Libraries: Te Tumu Herenga/The University of Auckland Library, including fourteen libraries and Ururangi/the Kate Edger Information Commons. Libraries mentioned in this case study are Te Herenga Mātauranga Whānui/General Library, the largest library in the system which is located on the City Campus, and Te Herenga Whakaakoranga/Sylvia Ashton Warner Library which is located on the Epsom Campus. Mission: The University Library is committed to providing quality library and information services to support and enhance the teaching, research, scholarship, and creative work of university staff and students. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: The University of Auckland staff and students, specifically the Māori and Pacific community. Other audiences include tribal communities, affiliated research institutions, and individuals undertaking research with a Māori and Pacific focus. Description of Service(s): In 2001, the University of Auckland Library was the first university library in Aotearoa/New Zealand to establish a dedicated Māori Services team/Rōpū Ratonga Māori. The team’s philosophy and services were extended to the Pasifika University community in February 2005, when the first Pasifika Liaison Librarian of Pasifika heritage was appointed. Under the direction of the Library Manager of Māori and Pasifika Services, Māori and Pasifika Services is delivered by three main groups: • The Māori and Pasifika Information Services team; • Te Rōpū Kaimahi Māori (Māori Library Staff Group who are based in a range of different departments); and • Pasifika Library staff group (lead by the Pasifika Liaison Librarian), who are also based in a range of different departments. 109 Most of the services to the Māori and Pasifika university communities are delivered or co-ordinated through these groups. The Library Manager of Māori and Pasifika Services is responsible for the Mātauranga Māori Collection and collaborates with the Pasifika Liaison Librarian to develop the content of the New Zealand and Pacific Collection located in the General Library. The Library’s Pacific collection is the most comprehensive in Aotearoa/New Zealand and well regarded internationally. The team is located adjacent to the Mātauranga Māori and New Zealand & Pacific collections. This area contains Māori artwork and carvings specially commissioned for the library and creates a welcoming space for the Māori and Pasifika communities. The team provides information services, research, and learning support to Māori and Pacific students and staff, particularly those from the Department of Māori Studies and Centre for Pacific Studies. Indigenous research and scholarship at the University of Auckland, such as the Thematic Research Institute/Te Whare Kura: Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga is supported by the team as well. Information literacy teaching is unique as the team applies indigenous concepts and rituals of engagement with clients through the principles of mihi whakatau or pōwhiri (welcoming processes), manaakitanga/alofa (nurturing), whanaungatanga (relationship building), tautua (to serve), and ta’aloalo (respect). The team’s traditional indigenous knowledge and language capabilities underpin service delivery. Two key components of service delivery are raising awareness of the wide range of library services and creating a supportive environment for students in using these services. The team plays a leadership role in the university by providing workshops on the indigenous worldview to academic and general staff as part of the institution and library’s professional development programmes. Other services are based on the Epsom Campus. Te Puna Wānanga is the school in the Faculty of Education that provides the teacher education programme in te reo Māori (Māori language). A dedicated librarian, based in Te Herenga Whakaakoranga/Sylvia Ashton Warner Library, provides library support to the school, including the Te Reo Hāpai foundation programme. There is also a separate Māori collection at Epsom that supports language acquisition, tikanga (customs), and includes educational resources and reports on Māori and education. The commitment of the University of Auckland Library to its bicultural responsibilities is illustrated by the Mātauranga Māori collection in the General Library that: • demonstrates bicultural commitment by acknowledging the primacy of the culture of the tangata whenua, and promoting its importance within New Zealand and education; 110 • reflects the principles of partnership inherent in Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi; and • enhances access by promoting the existence of the resources. Te Pou Rāhui, headed by the Library Manager of Māori and Pasifika Services, draws its members from a wide range of units within the library system. The main aim of the group is to nurture and empower Māori students and staff in a whānau environment—an environment that is friendly to Māori cultural and personal values through the principles of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, wairuatanga, kaitiakitanga, kotahitanga, tino rangatiratanga, and ngākau māhaki. The group also acts as an advisory body (in consultation with the University Committee/Rūnanga) to the university librarian regarding Treaty of Waitangi issues that affect the university library's procedures and policies. In addition, the University of Auckland Library provides an annual scholarship for a Māori or Pacific staff member to undertake studies in librarianship. The University of Auckland Library has bilingual signage and Māori names for all its libraries. Impact of Service(s): Of a total of 32,655 full-time students in 2010, 7.4 percent were Māori and 8.5 percent were Pacific. Of the 4,725 (2,190 FTE) staff, 5.6 percent were Māori and 4.2 percent were Pacific in 2012. The services described above are welcomed, supported, and well used by Māori and Pacific communities in the university; additionally, they favourably impact the library's ability to attract Māori as library staff members. Toi Māori (Māori art) identifies the collections and provides a welcoming environment to all patrons. The Māori and Pasifika Services team collaborates with all subject librarians to develop and deliver information literacy workshops with Māori or Pacific content. Close to 1,000 students attended these workshops in 2010. The Department of Māori Studies and Centre for Pacific Studies’ uptake of information literacy workshops has increased by ten percent over the past year. There has also been an increase in attendance of five percent among members of other faculties and departments. The Pacific Research and Study Skills online tutorial was originally targeted at a single Year One course taught by the Centre for Pacific Studies in 2010. It is now used by all Centre for Pacific Studies courses to provide self-paced and flexible learning support to students. The Māori and Pasifika Services team and the Te Puna Wānanga subject librarian assist students in discovering important professional and cultural resources and in gaining a 111 functional understanding of library systems, which are often seen as an inaccessible part of the dominant culture. With the help of course-specific library support, students engage with resources surrounding Māori language, cultural awareness, and the Treaty of Waitangi. This support assists pre-service teachers in following the national curriculum guidelines developed by the Ministry of Education in 2009 and meeting the 2007 graduating teacher standards through the New Zealand Teachers Council. Relevant Websites and Documents: • “Māori and Pasifika Services Information.” Available at: http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subject-guides/Māori/mst_about.htm. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • McFall-McCaffery, J., Wolfgram, R. 2010. “Research & Study Skills Online: Pacific Studies.” Available at: http://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/pacific_information_online/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • New Zealand Teachers Council. Available at: http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Equity 2010 Statistics and Activities.” Available at: http://www.auckland.ac.nz/webdav/site/central/shared/Equity%20Statistics%20and% 20Activities%20Report%202010.pdf. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • Ministry of Education. 2009. "Te Aho Arataki Marau mō te Ako i Te Reo Māori – Kura Auraki: Curriculum Guidelines for Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori in English-medium Schools: Years 1-13.” Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand: Learning Media Limited. Available at: http://tereomaori.tki.org.nz/Curriculum- guidelines. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Māori and Pasifika Services Team The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142 New Zealand Anahera Morehu Phone: +64 9-373-7599 ext. 82881 Email: a.morehu@auckland.ac.nz 112 CASE STUDY 39 Te Whakatipu o Hauora: Growth for life Subitted by Ann Reweti. City, Region: Wellington City, Wellington Region Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Names of Libraries: Wellington City Libraries, with one central and eleven branch libraries. Mission: To apply the Te Whakatipu o Hauora (Growth for Life) paradigm to Wellington City Libraries’ services so that Māori families discover a sense of belonging at the libraries. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Māori children and their parents living within the city of Wellington. Description of Service(s): From 2007, Wellington City Council staff developed a paradigm to help make library facilities more attractive to Māori. By December 2008, “Te Whakatipu o Hauora: Growth for life” had been created. The following is a summary of the mission and vision statements: Vision/Mataponi (Eyes of Truth): Māori in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington are healthy and happy. Purpose: • To reflect on how well facilities and services work for Māori • To provide a pathway for facilites and serives • Suppprt facilities to take action to become more responsive • To celebrate this program’s success Guiding Principle: The libraries are committed to being bi-cultural in their mahi (work), processes and relationships. Pou/Supporting Pillars: • Our people – Tā tātou whanau • Our customers – Tā tātou kiritaki • Our services – Tautoko hauora 113 Model of Hauora/Well-being, based on Mason Durie’s hauora tapawha (healthy design) model: • Physical – Taha tinana • Mental/psychological – Taha hinengaro • Family – Taha whānau • Spiritual – Taha wairua24 In May/June 2008, library staff mapped population areas, identified community contacts, and tapped into Māori networks. The Hauora concept was presented to library staff and community. From information gathering hui (meetings), library staff decided to focus on the needs of Māori children and their families. Recommendations were delivered to the Library Leadership Team in December 2008. There were three important areas: • Effectiveness through policies and systems; • Effectiveness through staffing including training; and • Effectiveness through customer access (marketing and promotion, technology and online material, user education, signage, services, resources). The report recognised the need to tackle several actions in a balanced way and these ideas were followed through: • Advertise positions to Māori networks with aim of recruiting persons fluent in te reo Māori (at least once per cycle); • Revamp staff training programmes to assist staff in delivery of storytimes and waiata (song) in te reo; • Promote one refresher course of tikanga (customs) and mātauranga Māori (cultural values) per year to staff involved in children’s services; • Promote to customers, at every opportunity, relevant online resources; • Preschool storytimes in te reo Māori at four sites per month; and • At least two promotional events per year for Māori customers, including Waitangi Day Matariki (Māori New Year) and Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori language week). Impact of Service(s): This holistic approach to enhancing services to Māori gained much traction and laid a foundation for increased staff enthusiasm and involvement/participation. Preschool storytimes in te reo are now presented at four sites each month. This year, staff were 24 New Zealand Ministry of Health/Manatū Hauora. “Māori Health Models.” Available at: http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/maori-health-models. Accessed on May 23, 2013. 114 involved in a Tihei Matariki (long live New Year) promotion, storytimes, and activities for children on Waitangi Day. There has been additional staff training for pronunciation of te reo. Relevant Websites: • “Careers NZ: Te Whare Tapa Wha.” Available at: http://www2.careers.govt.nz/educators-practitioners/career-practice/career-theory- models/te-whare-tapa-wha/. Accessed on May 24, 2013. • “Ministry of Health.” Available at: http://www.maorihealth.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesma/196/$File/maori_health_model_te whare.pdf. Accessed on May 24, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Ann Reweti Email: ann.reweti@wcc.govt.nz 115 CASE STUDY 40 Tihei Matariki (Long Live New Year) Submitted by Ann Reweti. Region: Wellington Region Country: Aotearoa/New Zealand Names of Libraries: Ngā Mata o te Ika: Libraries of Kāpiti Coast District, Masterton, Hutt, Porirua, and Wellington City. Mission: To encourage the use of libraries for research and promote creativity, which reflect the season of Matariki (Māori New Year). To gather local stories to be used as resources for local libraries and schools. Targeted Audience/Tribal Community: Children aged ten to thirteen years. Description of Service(s): The programme is named Tihei Matariki (Everlasting Matariki or Long Live Matariki). The Matariki/Pleiades constellation appearing in the southern dawn sky around June each year signals the Māori new year and is becoming widely celebrated in Aotearoa/New Zealand and in the South Pacific. Matariki is a time of reflection and creativity. Students were encouraged to research, write and/or illustrate a story based on a local kaitiaki: maunga, taniwha, awa, or kaumatua (guardian, landmark, icon, or elder). Each regional library followed the same protocols but aligned them with the kawa (protocol) of their own community. • Sessions began with traditional Māori custom: pōwhiri (welcome), karanga (call to ancestors and Matariki), mihi (greeting), karakia (prayer) and shared kai (food). • Matariki was discussed in a current and historical context. • One theme focused on working together and learning Māori methods of gathering and conserving resources. • Students received research guides and had wide-ranging discussions. • Students sometimes worked in pairs, with one acting as author, one as illustrator. • Some students focused on rewriting legends or creating their own stories while incorporating the indigenous Māori language. • A3-size posters were produced, some as acrostic poems. • There were digital graphic and design presentations. 116 • Local Māori writers shared pūrākau (ancient legends) in te reo Māori and English languages and whakaari (performances) to highlight key components of the story. • The use of a traditional Māori stick game Tītī Tōrea enhanced some programmes. • Stories were written in English and te reo Māori. However, total immersion Māori language schools submitted their work only in te reo Māori, and their designs and drawings were reflective of Māori cultural influences. Impact of Service(s): • Around 800 students, ages eight to thirteen years, participated in the programme. • It strengthened relationships between schools, libraries, and the community. • There was quality of experience. For example, in a special session, college students tagged with “behavioural difficulties” were calmed by traditional indigenous customs. Their teacher enjoyed the positive behaviour of her students. • Sssions gained strength when framed with traditional Māori tikanga (custom). • Participation and production of resources were emphasized, rather than competition. • Three books of stories from one cluster of branch libraries have been published and included in the library collection The programme showcased: • Matariki, with its themes of reflecting on the past and honouring ancestors, celebrating the present, and planning for the future. • Methods of researching information in the library. • A creative activity programme built around indigenous customs and values. • Traditional Māori stories and practices. Relevant Websites and Documents: • “Matariki.” Available at: http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/maori/downloads/matariki/MatarikiBooklet.pdf. Accessed on May 1, 2013. • “Korero Māori.” Available at: http://www.korero.maori.nz/news/matariki/index.html. Accessed on May 1, 2013. For More Information, Contact: Kristie Parata Email: kristie.parata@kapiticoast.govt.nz Ann Reweti Email: ann.reweti@wcc.govt.nz Mali Tangatatai Secretary, Ngā Kaiwhakahau Email: mtangatatai@pcc.govt.nz 117 About the Editors Dr. Loriene Roy is Professor in the School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin. Her teaching areas are public librarianship, reference, library instruction, reader's advisory, and indigenous librarianship. In fall 2013 she will teach a new graduate course on Popular Music Digital Space Design. She is Founder and Director of "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything," a national reading club for Native children. Her current advisory board service includes WebJunction.org and HiPSTAS (High Performance Sound Technologies for Access and Scholarship); she recently served as an advisor for the Fetzer Institute's Information and Communications Advisory Council. She is the outgoing convener of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Indigenous Matters for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and is out-going Chair of the International Relations Round Table for the American Library Association. She has given over 500 formal presentations and has published widely. She served as the 2007-2008 President of the American Library Association and the 1997-1998 President of the American Indian Library Association. She is Anishinabe, enrolled on the White Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Antonia Frydman is a graduate of the School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin, and an artist with a background in Comparative Literature, Gender Studies, and Education. She has authored educational outreach resources for the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) and articles for the American Indian Library Association (AILA) Newsletter, documented her experience as an archivist at the Sequoyah Nation Research Center (SNRC), and published the essay, “LGBTQ Identity in Native America: Problems and Challenges Facing American Indian LGTBQ Peoples" for The American Mosaic, an ABC-CLIO digital resource. She was a recipient of the Library Student Award of the 2011 Southern Central Chapter Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA) annual meeting for her work on Outreach Connections: Native Health, a health literacy wiki. Overview (pp1-3) Essay (pp4-11) Cases Part 1 (pp 12-33).reduced Cases Part 2 (pp34-76).reduced Cases Part 3 (pp 77-117).reduced 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-6960	----	Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2018 Jan 10 Fobazi Ettarh /52 Comments Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves In Brief Vocational awe describes the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in notions that libraries as institutions are inherently good, sacred notions, and therefore beyond critique. I argue that the concept of vocational awe directly correlates to problems within librarianship like burnout and low salary. This article aims to describe the phenomenon and its effects on library philosophies and practices so that they may be recognized and deconstructed. by Fobazi Ettarh Author’s note: I use “librarians” here very broadly. I am not limiting the term to those who have the MLIS because vocational awe affects those who work in libraries at every level. I would argue that it often affects staff more than it does librarians due to the sociodemographics of people in staff level positions as well as the job precarity that many staff positions hold. Introduction On June 1st, Mike Newell wrote about Chera Kowalski and other librarians administering the anti-overdose drug Naloxone (more commonly known as Narcan) to patrons in and around McPherson Square Branch in Philadelphia.1 The article went viral and was shared sixteen thousand times. Since then, Kowalski has saved dozens more lives through the administration of Naloxone. More libraries have since followed Philadelphia’s lead in Narcan training. Representative Patrick Maloney of New York introduced the Life-saving Librarians Act2 giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to award grants for Naloxone rescue kits in public libraries. To Representative Maloney, and many librarians, training librarians to be literal life-savers makes sense because it serves the needs of patrons in our communities, and society as a whole. In addition to this core value of service, democracy is another value many believe libraries bring to society. Hillary Clinton, at the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, commended Kowalski’s work and also stated, “…You are guardians of the First Amendment and the freedom to read and to speak. The work you do is at the heart of an open, inclusive, diverse society [and] I believe that libraries and democracy go hand in hand.”3 On its face, it seems natural that libraries and librarians should celebrate these stories. Indeed, these librarians are working to save the democratic values of society as well as going above and beyond to serve the needs of their neighbors and communities. However, when the rhetoric surrounding librarianship borders on vocational and sacred language rather than acknowledging that librarianship is a profession or a discipline, and as an institution, historically and contemporarily flawed, we do ourselves a disservice. “Vocational awe” refers to the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique. In this article, I would like to dismantle the idea that librarianship is a sacred calling; thus requiring absolute obedience to a prescribed set of rules and behaviors, regardless of any negative effect on librarians’ own lives. I will do this by demonstrating the ways vocational awe manifests. First, I will describe the institutional mythologies surrounding libraries and librarians. Second, I will dismantle these mythologies by demonstrating the role libraries play in institutional oppression. Lastly, I will discuss how vocational awe disenfranchises librarians and librarianship. By deconstructing some of these assumptions and values so integrally woven into the field, librarianship can hopefully evolve into a field that supports and advocates for the people who work in libraries as much as it does for physical buildings and resources. Part One: The Mythos of Libraries and Librarianship Librarianship as Vocation The word “vocation” (from the Latin vocatio) is defined as “a call, summons,”4 and stemmed from early Christian tradition, where it was held that the calling required a monastic life under vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.5 Indeed, from its earliest biblical instantiations, a vocation refers to the way one lives in response to God’s call. Although the word has since become used in more secular contexts, my use of the word “vocation” to describe contemporary views of librarianship skews closer to its original religious context, especially concerning the emphasis on poverty and obedience. Many librarians refer to the field of librarianship as a calling.6 ,  7 Their narratives of receiving the “call” to librarianship often fall right in line with Martin Luther’s description of vocation as the ways a person serves God and his neighbour through his work in the world. The links between librarianship and religious service are not happenstance. Indeed, the first Western librarians were members of religious orders,8 serving the dual functions of copying and maintaining book collections. The Library as a Sacred Place The physical space of a library, like its work, has also been seen as a sacred space. One could argue that it is treated like a sanctuary, both in its original meaning (keeper of sacred things and people), and in its more contemporary meaning as a shelter or refuge. Again, the original libraries were actual monasteries, with small collections of books stuffed in choir lofts, niches, and roofs.9 The carrels still prevalent in many libraries today are direct descendants of these religious places. The word “carrel” originally meant “working niche or alcove” and referred to a monastery cloister area where monks would read and write. Reflecting their conjoined history, churches and libraries had similar architectural structures. These buildings were built to inspire awe or grandeur,10 ,  11 and their materials meant to be treated with care. Even now the stereotypical library is often portrayed as a grandiose and silent space where people can be guided to find answers. The Bodleian Library, one of the oldest and largest libraries in Europe, still requires those who wish to use the library to swear an oath to protect the library: “I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, or to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.” Although contemporary architectural designs of libraries may not evoke the same feelings of awe they once did, libraries continue to operate as sanctuaries in the extended definition as a place of safety. Many libraries open their spaces to the disadvantaged and displaced populations in the community such as the homeless or the mentally ill. In the protests and civil unrest following the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Ferguson Municipal Public Library (FMPL) became a makeshift school for children in the community. When the story went viral, there was an outpouring of books, supplies, and lunches for the children. The hashtag #whatlibrariesdo became a call to action and resulted in a huge spike in PayPal donations to FMPL. In addition, the sign on the library’s door stated, “During difficult times, the library is a quiet oasis where we can catch our breath, learn, and think about what to do next.” In this way, the library becomes a sanctuary threefold, a place where one can listen to the “still, small, voice,”12 a shelter for displaced populations, and a source of humanitarian aid. Since Ferguson, similar responses have occurred in libraries after major events in other areas such as Charlottesville, Virginia. And, in the current sociopolitical climate, much of the discourse surrounding these libraries center them as “safe spaces.” Librarians as Priests and Saviors If libraries are sacred spaces, then it stands to reason that its workers are priests. As detailed above, the earliest librarians were also priests and viewed their work as a service to God and their fellow man. Out of five hundred librarians surveyed, ninety-five percent said the service orientation of the profession motivated them to become librarians.13 Another study found that the satisfaction derived by serving people is what new librarians thrive on.14 Similarly, many Christians describe their religious faith as “serving God,” and to do so requires a life spent in service. Christians often reference Mark 10:45 to describe the gravity of a call to service: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Considering their conjoined history, it should come as no surprise that librarians, just like monks and priests, are often imagined as nobly impoverished as they work selflessly for the community and God’s sake. One study of seasoned librarians noted that, “surprisingly, for a profession as notoriously underpaid as librarianship, not a single respondent mentioned salary” as a negative feature of the profession.15 As with a spiritual “calling,” the rewards for such service cannot be monetary compensation, but instead spiritual absolution through doing good works for communities and society. If librarians are priests then their primary job duty is to educate and to save. Biven-Tatums notes that public libraries “began as instruments of enlightenment, hoping to spread knowledge and culture broadly to the people.”16 The assumption within librarianship is that libraries provide the essential function of creating an educated, enlightened populace, which in turn brings about a better society. Using that logic, librarians who do good work are those who provide culture and enlightenment to their communities. Saint Lawrence, the Catholic Church’s official saint of librarians and archivists, is revered for being dangled over a charcoal fire rather than surrender the Church archives. Today, librarians continue to venerate contemporary “saints” of librarianship. One example is the “Connecticut Four,” four librarians who fought a government gag order when FBI agents demanded library records under the Patriot Act.17 And now Kowalski joins the ranks as a library “saint” through the literal saving of lives with Naloxone. All of these librarians set the expectation that the fulfillment of job duties requires sacrifice (whether that sacrifice is government intimidation or hot coals), and only through such dramatic sacrifice can librarians accomplish something “bigger than themselves.” Part Two: Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression18 It is no accident that librarianship is dominated by white women.19 Not only were white woman assumed to have the innate characteristics necessary to be effective library workers due to their true womanhood,20 characteristics which include missionary-mindedness, servility, and altruism and spiritual superiority and piety, but libraries have continually been “complicit in the production and maintenance of white privilege.”21 These white women librarians in public libraries during the turn-of-the-century U.S. participated in selective immigrant assimilation and Americanization programs, projects “whose purpose was to inculcate European ethnics into whiteness”22 Librarianship, like the criminal justice system and the government, is an institution. And like other institutions, librarianship plays a role in creating and sustaining hegemonic values, as well as contributing to white supremacy culture. James and Okun define white supremacy culture as the ways that organizations and individuals normalize, enact, and reinforce white supremacy.23 Cultural representations of libraries as places of freedoms (like freedom of access and intellectual freedom), education, and other democratic values do not elide libraries’ white supremacy culture with its built-in disparity and oppression. In fact, each value on which librarianship prides itself is inequitably distributed amongst society. Freedom of access is arguably the most core value of librarianship. It runs throughout the entire Library Bill of Rights and is usually defined as the idea that all information resources provided by the library should be distributed equally, and be equitably accessible to all library users. There have been, however, vast exceptions to this ideal. Quantitatively, the most significant of these exceptions was the exclusion of millions of African Americans from public libraries in the American South during the years before the civil rights movement.24 White response to desegregation efforts in public libraries varied. While some libraries quietly and voluntarily integrated, other libraries enforced “stand-up integration,” removing all of the tables and chairs from the building to minimize the interaction of the races in reading areas, or shut down the branch entirely. The result of these segregationist practices in libraries was a massive form of censorship, and this history demonstrates that access to materials is often implicated in larger societal systems of (in)equality. This should then hold true for other library values as well. Protecting user privacy and confidentiality is necessary for intellectual freedom, and both are considered core values in librarianship.25 As mentioned earlier, when the Patriot Act passed in 2001, many librarians fought against handing over patron data, and there is a great deal of history of librarian activism around intellectual freedom. For example, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom coordinates the profession’s resistance efforts through the Freedom to Read Foundation. There are also multiple roundtables and committees focused on local, state, national,26 and international conflicts over intellectual freedom. However, similarly to freedom of access, there have been exceptions. And, as libraries grapple with justifying their existence, many have turned to gathering large amounts of patron data in order to demonstrate worth. Further, while often resisting government intrusions, libraries also commonly operate as an arm of the state. For example, Lexis-Nexis, a library vendor used in many libraries, is participating in a project to assist in building ICE’s Extreme Vetting surveillance system.27 This system would most likely gather data from public use computers and webpages in public, academic, and private libraries across the nation, and determine and evaluate one’s probability of becoming a positively contributing member of society, or whether they intend to commit criminal or terrorist acts after entering the United States. Although the erosion of privacy is not limited to libraries, other fields do not claim to hold the information needs and inquiries of their constituents quite as dearly. Part Three: Martyrdom is not a long-lasting career Up until this point, it might seem like I believe librarians should not take pride in their very important work. Or that librarians who love their work and have a passion for library values possess some inherent flaw. This is not my intent. Rather, I challenge the notion that many have taken as axiomatic that libraries are inherently good and democratic, and that librarians, by virtue of working in a library, are responsible for this “good” work. This sets up an expectation that any failure of libraries is largely the fault of individuals failing to live up to the ideals of the profession, rather than understanding that the library as an institution is fundamentally flawed. Below, I mention the primary ways vocational awe negatively impacts librarians. Awe We’ve now uncovered the roots of vocation within librarianship and its allusions to religiosity and the sacred. The vocational metaphor helps us understand cause. However, it is important not to forget awe, which represents the effect. Merriam-Webster defines awe as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred.”28 As mentioned earlier, libraries were created with the same architectural design as churches in order to elicit religious awe. Awe is not a comforting feeling, but a fearful and overwhelming one. One of its earliest uses was within the Hindu epic Mahabarata. The God Krishna inspired awe in the protagonist Arjuna and commanded him: “Do works for Me, make Me your highest goal, be loyal-in-love to Me, cut all [other] attachments…”29 A more modern, secular example of awe is the military doctrine “shock and awe,” which is characterized as rapid dominance that relies on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight. In both cases, awe is used as a method of eliciting obedience from people in the presence of something bigger than themselves. As part of vocational awe in libraries, awe manifests in response to the library as both a place and an institution. Because the sacred duties of freedom, information, and service are so momentous, the library worker is easily paralyzed. In the face of grand missions of literacy and freedom, advocating for your full lunch break feels petty. And tasked with the responsibility of sustaining democracy and intellectual freedom, taking a mental health day feels shameful. Awe is easily weaponized against the worker, allowing anyone to deploy a vocational purity test in which the worker can be accused of not being devout or passionate enough to serve without complaint. Burnout With the expansion of job duties, and expectation of “whole-self” librarianship, it is no surprise that burnout is a common phenomenon within libraries. Harwell defines burnout as the prolonged exposure to workplace stressors that often drain an employee’s vitality and enthusiasm, and often leads to less engagement and productivity.30 And being overworked is not the sole cause of burnout. In a study of academic librarians,31 study participants said they are forced to regulate their emotions in their work and that they often feel an incongruity between the emotions they have to show and what they really feel. Librarians who interact with the public on a regular basis must interact with uncooperative and unwilling patrons, patrons who want preferential treatment, and so on. In the memorable phrasing of Nancy Fried Foster, patrons often approach the reference desk looking for a “Mommy Librarian,” someone who can offer emotional support, reassurance, sociality, answers, and interventions at points of pain or need.”32 The gendered expectations of a library profession that is majority female can certainly exacerbate the gendered expectations placed upon interactions with patrons. Ironically, institutional response to burnout is the output of more “love and passion,” through the vocational impulses noted earlier and a championing of techniques like mindfulness and “whole-person” librarianship. Under-compensation “One doesn’t go into librarianship for the money” is a common refrain amongst library workers, and the lack of compensation for library work is not a recent phenomenon. A 1929 report summarized that “improvement in these conditions has not yet reached a point where librarianship may be said to receive proper recognition and compensation.” And in the 2017 Library Journal‘s Placements and Salaries survey, graduates overwhelmingly pointed to underemployment issues as a source of unhappiness, including low wages; lack of benefits; having to settle for part-time, temporary, or nonprofessional positions; or having to piece together two or three part-time positions to support themselves. Librarians’ salaries continue to remain lower than those for comparable jobs in professions requiring similar qualifications and skills. Statistics like these point to the very secular realities of librarians. Librarianship is a job, often paid hourly. It’s not even everyone’s primary job. It has sick time, and vacation–or should–and imagining these facts aren’t important because of the importance of the library’s mission only serves the institution itself. Through its enforcement of awe through the promotion of dramatic and heroic narratives, the institution gains free, or reduced price, labor. Through vocational mythologies that reinforce themes of sacrifice and struggle, librarianship sustains itself through the labor of librarians who only reap the immaterial benefits of having “done good work.” Job creep Job creep refers to the “slow and subtle expansion of job duties” which is not recognized by supervisors or the organization.33 As this article argues, librarians are often expected to place the profession and their job duties before their personal interests. And with such expectations, job creep can become a common phenomenon. The problem with job creep manifests in multiple ways. One, what employees originally did voluntarily is no longer considered “extra” but instead is simply viewed as in-role job performance, which leads to more and more responsibilities and less time in which to accomplish them. Employees who cannot do more than what is in the job description, perhaps for personal or health reasons, are consequently seen as not doing even the minimum, and management may come to believe that workers are not committed to the organization, or its mission, if they don’t do extra tasks. Returning to Chera Kowalski and all of the other librarians currently training to administer, and already administering, anti-overdose medication, this expectation has gone so far as to create a precedent for Representative Maloney to introduce the Life-saving Librarians Act. No longer are these trainings voluntary “extra” professional development; it will likely soon become part of the expected responsibilities of librarians across the country. Adding duties like life-or-death medical interventions to already overstrained job requirements is an extreme but very real example of job creep. And with the upholding of librarianship as purely service-oriented and self-sacrificing, what is a librarian to do who may not feel equipped to intervene as a first responder? Or a librarian who is dedicated to, say, a library value of children’s literacy or freedom of information, but because of past traumas, cannot cope with regular exposure to loss of life on the job? Librarianship as a religious calling would answer that such a librarian has failed in her duties and demonstrated a lack of purity required of the truly devout. And without the proper training and institutional support that first responders, social workers, and other clinicians have, librarians, through such job creep, are being asked to do increasingly dangerous emotional and physical labor without the tools and support provided to other professions traditionally tasked with these duties. As newspapers, Clinton, and librarians around the nation celebrate Kowlaski and others like her, we must ask if those voices will chime in to also demand the therapy and medical services typically needed for PTSD and other common ailments of those working in such severe conditions. Do we expect those benefits to manifest, or librarians to again quietly suffer the consequences of their holy calling, saving society at the expense of their own emotional well-being? Diversity By the very nature of librarianship being an institution, it privileges those who fall within the status quo. Therefore librarians who do exist outside librarianship’s center can often more clearly see the disparities between the espoused values and the reality of library work. But because vocational awe refuses to acknowledge the library as a flawed institution, when people of color and other marginalized librarians speak out, their accounts are often discounted or erased. Recently, Lesley Williams of Evanston, Illinois, made headlines for being fired from her library due to comments (on her personal social media accounts), illustrating the hypocritical actions of her library in regards to the lack of equitable access to information. Although she was advocating for the core library value of equitable access, similar to that of the “Connecticut Four,” her actions were regarded as unprofessional. As I mentioned earlier, vocational awe ties into the phenomena of job creep and undercompensation in librarianship due to the professional norms of service-oriented and self-sacrificing workplaces. But creating professional norms around self-sacrifice and underpay self-selects those who can become librarians. If the expectation built into entry-level library jobs includes experience, often voluntary, in a library, then there are class barriers built into the profession. Those who are unable to work for free due to financial instability are then forced to either take out loans to cover expenses accrued or switch careers entirely. Librarians with a lot of family responsibilities are unable to work long nights and weekends. Librarians with disabilities are unable to make librarianship a whole-self career. Conclusions Considering the conjoined history of librarianship and faith, it is not surprising that a lot of the discourse surrounding librarians and their job duties carries a lot of religious undertones. Through the language of vocational awe, libraries have been placed as a higher authority and the work in service of libraries as a sacred duty. Vocational awe has developed along with librarianship from Saint Lawrence to Chera Kowalski. It is so saturated within librarianship that people like Nancy Kalikow Maxwell can write a book, Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship, not only detailing connections between librarianship and faith, but concluding the book by advising librarians to nurture that religious image conferred upon them. The ideals of librarianship are not ignoble, and having an emotional attachment to the work one does is not negative in itself, and is often a valued goal in most careers. What I have tried to do with this article is illustrate that history and expose the problematic underpinnings. Because vocational awe is so endemic and connected to so many aspects of librarianship, the term gives the field a way to name and expose these things that are so amorphous that they can be explained or guilted away, much like microaggressions. And, through the power of naming, can hopefully provide a shield librarians can use to protect themselves. The problem with vocational awe is the efficacy of one’s work is directly tied to their amount of passion (or lack thereof), rather than fulfillment of core job duties. If the language around being a good librarian is directly tied to struggle, sacrifice, and obedience, then the more one struggles for their work, the “holier” that work (and institution) becomes. Thus, it will become less likely that people will feel empowered, or even able, to fight for a healthier workspace. A healthy workplace is one where working around the clock is not seen as a requirement, and where one is sufficiently compensated for the work done, not a workplace where “the worker [is] taken for granted as a cog in the machinery.”34 Libraries are just buildings. It is the people who do the work. And we need to treat these people well. You can’t eat on passion. You can’t pay rent on passion. Passion, devotion, and awe are not sustainable sources of income. The story of Saint Lawrence may be a noble one, but martyrdom is not a long-lasting career. And if all librarians follow in his footsteps, then librarianship will cease to exist. You might save a life when wandering outside for lunch, but you deserve the emotional support you’ll no doubt need as a result of that traumatic event. You may impress your supervisor by working late, but will that supervisor come to expect that you continually neglect your own family’s needs in the service of library patrons? The library’s purpose may be to serve, but is that purpose so holy when it fails to serve those who work within its walls every day? We need to continue asking these questions, demanding answers, and stop using vocational awe as the only way to be a librarian. Thanks and Acknowledgments I’m very much indebted to the amazing and knowledgeable editors at In the Library with the Lead Pipe, and in particular to Sofia Leung and nina de jesus for diligently removing all traces of footnote inconsistency, tense changes, and rogue commas, as well as helping me create the best possible version of this article. I would also like to thank Amy Koester for keeping us all on track when necessary, and also being incredibly flexible when life inevitably got in the way. Finally, I would like to thank my partner for providing copious support as she listened to me whine and provided a steady stress writing diet of Salt and Vinegar Pringles and Uncrustables. Any mistakes left in this document are most definitely my own. Works Cited “Core Values of Librarianship of the American Library Association.”Accessed December 4, 2017. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues Anonymous. “Who would be a librarian now? You know what, I’ll have a go.” The Guardian. March, 2016. Biddle, Sam and Woodman, Spencer. “These are the technology firms lining up to build Trump’s ”Extreme Vetting Program.'” The Intercept. August 7 2017. Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment. Library Juice Press, 2012. Clinton, Rodham Hilary. “Closing General Session” (speech, Chicago, Illinois, June 27, 2017), American Library Association Annual Conference, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/HRC-Transcript.pdf de jesus, nina. Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. September 24, 2014. Emmelhainz, Celia, Seale, Maura, and Erin Pappas. “Behavioral Expectations for the Mommy Librarian: The Successful Reference Transaction as Emotional Labor.” The Feminist Reference Desk: Concepts, Critiques and Conversations, edited by Maria T. Accardi, 27-45. Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2017. escholarship.org/uc/item/2mq851m0 Emmet, Dorothy. “Vocation.” Journal of Medical Ethics 4, no. 3:(1978): 146-147. Easwaran, Eknath. The Bhagavad Gita. Tomales: Nilgiri Press, 2009. Foster, Nancy Fried. “The Mommy Model of Service.” In Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester, edited by Nancy Fried Foster and Susan Gibbons, 72-78. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007. Frankenberg, R. White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Garrison, D. The tender technicians: The feminization of public librarianship, 1876– 1905. Journal of Social History, (1972). 6 no. 2, 131–159. Garrison, D. Apostles of culture: The public librarian and American society, 1876–1920. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979. Graham, Patterson Toby. A Right to Read : Segregation and Civil Rights in Alabama’s Public Libraries, 1900-1965. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002. Harwell, Kevin. “Burnout Strategies for Librarians.” Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship 13, no. 3 (2008): 379-90. Hildenbrand, S. Reclaiming the American library past: Writing the women in. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1996. Houdyshell, Mara, Patricia A. Robles, and Hua Yi. “What Were You Thinking: If You Could Choose Librarianship Again, Would You?” Information Outlook, July 3, 1999, 19– 23. Hunter, Gregory. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York: Neal Schuman, 1997. Inklebarger, Timothy. 2014. “Ferguson’s Safe Haven.” American Libraries 45, no. 11/12: 17-18. Jacobsen, Teresa L. “Class of 1988.” Library Journal, July 12, 2004, 38– 41. Jones, Kenneth, and Okun, Tema. Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, ChangeWork, 2001 http://www.cwsworkshop.org/PARC_site_B/dr-culture.html Julien, Heidi, and Shelagh Genuis. “Emotional Labour in Librarians’ Instructional Work.” Journal of Documentation 65, no. 6 (2009): 926-37. Kaser, David. The Evolution of the American Academic Library Building. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1997. Keltner, D, and Haidt, J. “Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion.” Cognition and Emotion 17, no. 2 (2003): 297–314. Linden, M., I. Salo, and A. Jansson. “Organizational Stressors and Burnout in Public Librarians.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2016. Maxwell, Nancy Kalikow. Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship. Chicago: American Library Association, 2006. Mukherjee, A. K. Librarianship: Its Philosophy and History. Asia Publishing House, 1966. Newell, Mike. “For these Philly librarians, drug tourists and overdose drills are part of the job” The Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA), June 1, 2017. Newhouse, Ria, and April Spisak. “Fixing the First Job.” Library Journal, Aug. 2004, 44– 46. Pawley, Christine, and Robbins, Louise S. Libraries and the Reading Public in Twentieth-Century America. Print Culture History in Modern America. Madison, WI: U of Wisconsin P, 2013. Peet, Lisa. “Ferguson Library: a community’s refuge: library hosts children, teachers during school closing.” Library Journal, January 1, 2015. Pevsner, Nikolaus. A History of Building Types. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976. Pitcavage, Mark. “With Hate in their Hearts: The State of White Supremacy in the United States” last modified July 2015. https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/state-of-white-supremacy Rosen, Ellen. Improving Public Sector Productivity: Concepts and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage Publications, 1993. Rubin, Richard E. Foundations of Library and Information Science. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 2010. Scholes, Jefferey. “Vocation.” Religion Compass, 4 (2010): 211–220. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00215.x Schlesselman-Tarango, Gina. “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library.” Library Trends, (2016) 667–86. Retrieved from: http://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/library-publications/34. Van Dyne, and Ellis, “Job creep: A reactance theory perspective on organizational citizenship behavior as overfulfillment of obligations,” in The employment relationship: examining psychological and contextual perspectives, edited by Phillip Appleman New York : Oxford University Press. Mike Newell. “For these Philly librarians, drug tourists and overdose drills are part of the job” The Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA), June 1, 2017. [↩] Life-saving Librarians Act, H.R.4259 (2017-2018). [↩] Hillary Rodham Clinton., “Closing General Session” (speech, Chicago, Illinois, June 27, 2017), American Library Association Annual Conference, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/HRC-Transcript.pdf [↩] Jeffrey Scholes. “Vocation.” Religion Compass, 4 (2010): 211–220. [↩] Dorothy Emmet. “Vocation.” Journal of Medical Ethics, 4, no. 3:(1978): 146-147. [↩] Anonymous. “Who would be a librarian now? You know what, I’ll have a go.” The Guardian. March, 2016. [↩] Jamie Baker. Librarianship As Calling. The Ginger (Law) Librarian. March, 6. [↩] Richard E. Rubin. Foundations of Library and Information Science. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. (2010) p. 36. [↩] A. K. Mukherjee. Librarianship: Its Philosophy and History. Asia Publishing House (1966) p. 88. [↩] Nikolaus Pevsner. A History of Building Types. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976) p. 98. [↩] David Kaser. The Evolution of the American Academic Library Building. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1997) p. 5-16, 47-60. [↩] 1 Kings 19:11-13, KJV. [↩] Mara, Houdyshell, Patricia A. Robles, and Hua Yi. “What Were You Thinking: If You Could Choose Librarianship Again, Would You?” Information Outlook, July 3, 1999, 19– 23. [↩] Ria Newhouse and April Spisak. “Fixing the First Job.” Library Journal, Aug. 2004, 44– 46. [↩] Teresa L. Jacobsen “Class of 1988.” Library Journal, July 12, 2004, 38–41. [↩] Wayne Bivens-Tatum. Libraries and the Enlightenment. Library Juice Press, 2012. [↩] Doe v. Gonzalez, 386 F. Supp. 2d 66 (D.Conn. 2005). [↩] nina de jesus. Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. September 24, 2014. [↩] Gina Schlesselman-Tarango. “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library.” Library Trends, (2016) 667–86. Retrieved from: http://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/library-publications/34. [↩] See Garrison, 1972, 1979; Hildenbrand, 1996. [↩] Todd Honma. Trippin’ over the color line: The invisibility of race in library and information studies. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, (2005)1 no.2, 1–26. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj0w1mp [↩] R. Frankenberg. White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minne- apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. [↩] Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun. Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups. ChangeWork, 2001 http://www.cwsworkshop.org/PARC_site_B/dr-culture.html [↩] Toby Patterson Graham. A Right to Read : Segregation and Civil Rights in Alabama’s Public Libraries, 1900-1965. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002). [↩] “Core Values of Librarianship of the American Library Association.”Accessed December 4, 2017. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues [↩] E.g. ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC),Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT), Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), etc. [↩] Sam Biddle and Spencer Woodman. “These are the technology firms lining up to build Trump’s ”Extreme Vetting Program.'”The Intercept. August 7 2017. [↩] Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003. Continually updated at https://www.merriam-webster.com/. [↩] Eknath Easwaran. The Bhagavad Gita. Tomales: Nilgiri Press, 2009. [↩] Kevin Harwell. “Burnout Strategies for Librarians.” Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship 13, no. 3 (2008): 379-90. [↩] Julien, Heidi, and Shelagh Genuis. “Emotional Labour in Librarians’ Instructional Work.” Journal of Documentation 65, no. 6 (2009): 926-37. [↩] Emmelhainz, Celia, Seale, Maura, and Erin Pappas. “Behavioral Expectations for the Mommy Librarian: The Successful Reference Transaction as Emotional Labor.” The Feminist Reference Desk: Concepts, Critiques and Conversations, edited by Maria T. Accardi, 27-45. Library Juice Press: Sacramento, CA, 2017. escholarship.org/uc/item/2mq851m0 [↩] Van Dyne, and Ellis, “Job creep: A reactance theory perspective on organizational citizenship behavior as overfulfillment of obligations,” in The employment relationship: examining psychological and contextual perspectives ed. Phillip Appleman (New York : Oxford University Press). [↩] Ellen Rosen. Improving Public Sector Productivity: Concepts and Practice, (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage Publications, 1993) p. 139. [↩] burnout, diversity, job creep, librarianship, under-compensation, vocational awe Bringing Student Voices into the University Archives: A Student Organization Documentation Initiative Case Study Spotlight on Digital Government Information Preservation: Examining the Context, Outcomes, Limitations, and Successes of the DataRefuge Movement 52 Responses Max Macias 2018–01–10 at 9:59 am Rad! Your writing is so smart and not all academically boring! Thank you! Pingback : My Vocational Awe Article is Out! – WTF is a Radical Librarian, Anyway? Lizzybell 2018–01–10 at 2:56 pm This is really what I needed to read today. Thank you for writing what I have struggled with mentally and emotionally for the last few months in particular. Correction 2018–01–11 at 1:41 pm Patrick Maloney of New York is not a Senator. Amy Koester 2018–01–16 at 10:57 am Thanks for this correction; the article has been updated. Meredith Farkas 2018–01–11 at 11:11 pm This is a terrific article! Thank you for it. Having previously come from social work which also has a lot of image-related baggage (you’re either a selfless martyr giving your whole life to others or you’re a soulless bureaucrat who takes people’s kids), I’ve seen how people can get trapped by that and experience burnout because they either don’t fit or are trying too hard to live up to an unrealistic image of their profession. I feel like we are in such a polarized society now that people immediately jump to the conclusion that if you critique something you’re a hater. If you recognize institutional racism and oppression in librarianship, you must think all white librarians are racists. That’s b.s. To me, seeing one’s work or profession through a critical lens is an act of love, and that is what you did here. I believe that we can care our work without deifying it. We can do good work without being martyrs and losing sight of own needs. I really enjoy my job, but, at the end of the day, it’s just a job — not a sacred mission. I teach LIS students and I’ve been really happy to see them in recent years talking more and more about labor issues in our profession whereas when I was in school 14 years ago, the idea of considering our needs was unthinkable. Hopefully we’re moving to a more critical and aware and less awe-struck vision of what we do. I think our profession will be better for it. Anon 2018–01–14 at 2:42 am ” If you recognize institutional racism and oppression in librarianship, you must think all white librarians are racists. That’s b.s.” Can you elaborate on this comment? Thank you. Meredith 2018–01–17 at 12:36 pm I think some people respond to critiques of whiteness in librarianship as if they are being accused specifically of being racists and shut down. Dialogue about these things can’t happen unless we let go of our personal sensitivity and recognize that we’re looking at institutional patterns of racism that, in many cases, are unrecognized and unintentional on the part of the librarians. We can’t have these conversations if white people always focus on themselves and not the big picture and how that big picture (whether intentionally or not) oppresses others. Too often, people respond to critiques of whiteness in American institutions by saying that the author must think all librarians are racists. They are missing the point. Robin Rader 2018–01–23 at 7:42 pm You might be interested in Roithmayr, R. (2014). Reproducing racism: How everyday choices lock in white advantage. New York, NY: New York University Press. Pingback : Vocational Awe and Professional Identity | ACRLog Alyn 2018–01–12 at 4:18 pm I was so happy when, post-LIS, I came across the phrase “vocational awe.” It perfectly captures a sense of disillusionment I experienced entering the field and discovering that the idealized vision of libraries I learned about just didn’t exist. While we did cover lots of issues surrounding equity and freedom of access (i.e. convos about digital divide, looking at library policies and who they protected/targeted), I’m pretty ashamed that we spent very little time talking about the history of segregation and libraries. I’ve never actually felt any inclination toward martyrdom. Part of it’s personality, and part of it’s growing up with a mom who’s a part-time librarian and full-time martyr. Even with that disinclination, I still feel the pressure to try to live up to that whole-self librarianship. I see librarians post about skipping lunch or using their days off to prep for programs, and I feel like I am somehow underperforming by not “going above and beyond” or “giving it my all.” This feeling is exacerbated somehow by my own sense of gender identity, particularly considering that I’m a children’s librarian. For the most part I’m a cis woman, though I occasionally experience some degree of disconnect with that identity (but not enough identify as nonbinary or trans*). For whatever reason, I’m pretty good at maintating work-life boundaries. But I know how many womyn struggle with that, which makes me feel both guilty and lacking somehow – as though my inability to put the needs of the children before my own, even during off-the-job time, makes me not nurturing/caring enough for either my profession or my gender. Pingback : An introduction! – Pursuing it with Eager Feet CJ 2018–01–16 at 3:22 pm Vocational awe. This is a new term to me, but it’s a great way to explain the perpetually (earnest & well-meaning but) patronizing “Oh, you’re a teacher! Thank you so much for all the work you do; I could never do that!” comments that I’ve always wanted to respond to with “Hmmm, yeah. want to really show your gratitude? Please pay me enough to pay my mortgage and my student loans.” Anon 2018–01–16 at 5:06 pm Very interesting article! I believe Lesley Williams’ name is misspelled, however. Amy Koester 2018–01–16 at 5:10 pm Thanks for this correction; the article has been updated. Ruth Tillman 2018–01–17 at 2:54 pm I wanted to say that I really appreciate this concept of vocational awe and I’ve been reflecting on how it applied to be as a librarian who worked at NASA, another place which is heavily tied to vocational awe. I was a brand new Librarian! I was at NASA! People always responded “NASA!” I had found so much of their work engaging and inspiring for so many years. And there were days that I could get fully caught up in the best of that awe. Other times, it was a job. And then… there were times it was really bad. Managing decisions by the contracting company I actually worked for which I considered harmful. Certain patrons’ behavior driving us to develop policies of secrecy to avoid…incidents. Harmful decisions by people in the admin over on the NASA side. Physical harm caused to a coworker which occurred because of some of those decisions and which caused me and others emotional harm because a) we cared for her and her injury was potentially life-threatening (she recovered fairly quickly, but it was scary at first) and b) we realized our own safety did not matter to the people in charge. I was a Librarian. I was at NASA. I realize now that part of what I was suffering from was my own vocational awe trying to navigate the world as a new librarian and part was other people’s as their expectations of what I was experiencing differed so greatly from my experience and… I remember the first time a librarian friend said “Hey pal, how’s it going at NASA?!” and I didn’t lie. I told him I threw up on my walk to work and I cried at night and I wanted to find a new job and… his face… I mean he was completely supportive. But it was like telling a kid Santa wasn’t real. The length of this comment has almost made me want to turn it into more of a blog post responding and reflecting but, see, here’s where the vocational awe thing comes in again. I feel the need to explore this and reflect, but I’m also afraid that if it becomes a standalone blogpost and not a comment on your article, especially with your article as context… more people will feel that same sadness my friend felt, that I’ll be perceived as disloyal to profession/mission, that people’s response to this image of a librarian at NASA will lead them to turn their disappointment into anger. These were all things I feared at the time and I guess…years later… I still do. Pingback : New(ish) year, new(ish) editor! | SNAP Section Kathy 2018–01–18 at 2:04 pm Not to be pedantic, but St. Lawrence is the patron saint of archivists, and St. Jerome (or St. Catherine) the patron saint(s) of librarians. Also, St. Lawrence was burned on the grill for not turning over the ‘treasure’ of the church. Secular authorities thought of gold and silver; St. Lawrence brought in the poor and destitute. Veronica 2019–01–08 at 9:32 pm I was looking around the Internet to see if Saint Lawrence really was the patron saint of librarians and archivists, and the only site that listed us as part of his patronage was Wikipedia. Other sites mentioned Saint Jerome and Catherine of Alexandria. I even used my library’s databases and encyclopedia, and I was becoming very confused on where she got this tidbit of information – which she references multiple times. Maybe there’s a piece of literature out there that I missed. Pingback : Application essays and congruence – Gavia Libraria Pingback : On the Mend: Falling Into and Out of Overwork | ACRLog Alex Falck 2018–01–20 at 5:02 pm Thank you for articulating this! There’s so much to talk about, for instance, the interplay of vocational awe and neoliberalism in shrinking library budgets. I hope you’ll consider writing more about this topic. Pingback : ShoutOut: Fobazi Ettarh, MLS – The Ink on the Page Matt Gullett 2018–01–23 at 12:47 pm Thank you for articulating a sometimes subtle, yet harmful element of our professional bias in the idea/ideal of vocational awe. To offer such a thoughtful critique gives space and pause to reflect and realize just how much a lack of critique can actually harm our professional stance. As an academic librarian and a practicing psychotherapist, I notice how our profession, as you have revealed as well, struggles greatly with boundaries, i.e., mission creep, and self-care, i.e., having a life outside of one’s work. Robin Rader 2018–01–23 at 8:21 pm Here’s another angle on the pitfalls inherent in vocational awe. “We must learn to honor excellence in every socially acceptable human activity, however humble the activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” Gardner, J. W. (1984). Excellence: Can we be equal and excellent too? (Rev. ed.). New York: Norton. Lincoln Cushing 2018–01–24 at 12:28 pm Thanks, it’s an important subject and I loved the naming of “vocational awe.” I expressed a similar analysis when I reviewed a 2002 book Vandals in the Stacks attacking an author – a non-librarian! – who dared critique some practices of the library and archive professions. karl 2018–01–24 at 12:52 pm I think this is an incredibly important piece, but I encourage taking it in a different direction. I work at perhaps the apex of vocational awe in librarianship: I am a theological librarian. That’s right, my religious identity is completely wrapped up with my professional role in all sorts of interesting ways. As a cis-hetero-white male, you might argue that I suffer less from that complex than others might. Yet despite my privileged status, I still struggle with very human realities and have experienced various work settings both inside and outside of libraries. In my experience, completely “owning” the vocational awe can actually be transformative. You describe vocational awe as the set of attitudes that “result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique.” I think the presumption that institutions that are good and sacred are beyond critique is where this article runs into problems. In my own religious tradition, Christianity, the goodness and sacredness of a group of people is precisely what allows it to come in for critique. In ancient Israel, God held God’s people to a higher standard because they were a chosen people. Jesus held his followers to an even higher standard of critique than what was common in his Jewish society. He called religious people “whitened sepulchres.” Because I work for a library at an institution that takes the Christian scriptures and Jesus seriously, we have a kind of built-in critical apparatus. We have to “do better” because we have a sacred calling. This includes issues of economics and work-life balance. I don’t make a ton of money at my job, but I am able to support my family, and my institution cares about making sure the spread between the highest-paid and lowest-paid workers is not that great. My institution also cares about breaks, sick and vacation time, time for family and church involvement and recreation, etc. These are not merely calculated approaches to retaining talent, but a kind of sacred obligation. I am very conscious of ways my organization continues to fall short. I do a lot of “job creep” (but on the flip side, folks whose job is not in the library care about it too and help me out). I too go home tired at the end of the day, and sometimes the bills feel impossible. Still, I would not trade my “sacred” theological library for a “secular” one where I need to be constantly available just to tread water and the top dog makes 10x as much as the lowest paid worker. I would encourage librarians in libraries of all sorts to fully embrace the awe connected to our vocation, and to make the logical connection that the sacredness of what we do requires valuing and protecting the lives of the people who do this work. This includes part-time workers and folks without a library degree. No true martyr ever seeks to be one; the martyr is not “guilty” of the outcome of their life. A martyr continues to express their sacred calling even in the face of oppression and ultimately death, exposing the violence of the system that does not recognize their value. I hope (and pray) for more recognition of the sacredness of library work and less martyrdom. dd 2018–02–03 at 10:54 am As a librarian, understanding the professional awe and expectations of the calling, I am dismayed when i see other librarians not upholding the values of privacy and who are judgemental of users’ info needs and who are divisive. I then understand that the awe is an individual bestowal, not one that I can apply to the profession as a whole. Also, it is not the individual librarian who make this vast amount of resources available. It is usually the taxpayer or generous donors who should be thought of in awe for their generosity. continental 2018–02–03 at 4:14 pm I really, really regret wasting my time and money on a useless MLIS degree. I should have taken a 2 year paramedic certification course at the Junior College. Then my services would be in demand! Janice Flahiff 2018–02–04 at 6:59 am Well said and summarized. Not only applicable to librarianship but many positions in the paid and unpaid sectors. Linked to this on my FB page. . Thank you! On another note, I learned more on the job than at library school (early 80’s). In many ways I feel I just went to finishing school instead of graduate school. It just wasn’t very rigorous and there was too emphasis on people skills rather than technical/computer skills. Wondering if times have changed? Rose 2018–02–08 at 12:59 pm I totally agree with you on this. At lot of what library school is theory and developing professional skills. While I have learned things and have applied them to my work, the vast majority of learning is going to be experience. I am lucky to be working in a library while going to grad school. I feel for anyone that is going to grad school with the hopes of getting their foot in the door. At the library I am working at, I applied to three different positions before I even got an interview. The longer I go to school, the angrier I get. I had a project where we had to act as vendors/publishers/subscription agents giving a presentation to librarians about their products. While I understand this is for us to know how these players work, it still pisses me off that we had to act like them. Maybe I am just burned out on school but school is not doing a lot for me. As far as I am concerned, I just got to get through this program. I have no idea where it will lead me. As long as I am able to pay my bills I am good. Pingback : Steering Share: Considering Labor Models in Archives Work – Issues & Advocacy Comment navigation Newer Comments → This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-7033	----	Normalize Negotiation! Learning to Negotiate Salaries and Improve Compensation Outcomes to Transform Library Culture – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2019 May 22 Aliqae Geraci and Shannon L. Farrell /1 Comment Normalize Negotiation! Learning to Negotiate Salaries and Improve Compensation Outcomes to Transform Library Culture In Brief This article explores academic librarians’ experiences with compensation negotiation, using a combination of survey and interview data. Specifically, we focus on where librarians learned how to negotiate, where they sought or found advice, where they wished they had received information, and what factors would help them negotiate and improve their outcomes in the future. We also discuss the impact of representation or membership in a labor union on negotiation behavior. We share this information to help facilitate a larger cultural shift in libraries: to normalize negotiation through more and better training, increased self-advocacy in the hiring and promotion process, and more transparency in the sharing of experiences and compensation information. by Aliqae Geraci and Shannon L. Farrell Introduction There is a widespread belief – communicated1 and in whispers, in professional venues and behind closed doors – that librarians do not need or want good wages and do not negotiate. We know otherwise. Salary negotiation in libraries has been a topic of interest of ours for close to a decade. As members and subsequent chairs of the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers, we organized educational and informational resources on library compensation topics and individual and collective negotiation trainings (Dorning et. al, 2014). Through this work, we identified an absence of Library and Information Science (LIS)-specific literature on negotiation and compensation, and spoke with hundreds of library workers about negotiating salary in libraries. In response, we designed a study in 2014 that would capture librarians’ perception of and experience with compensation negotiation in the library workplace, distributing a survey in 2015 and conducting interviews from 2016-2017. During this time, we also continued our ALA and ALA-APA work, and in 2019, were certified as American Association of University Women (AAUW) salary negotiation training facilitators2 . As our expertise and involvement grew, we spoke to more library workers at all levels of experience, authority, and across all library types about negotiating. We fielded questions and requests for help that touched upon a range of emotions related to negotiating in a library context: fear, frustration, resentment, and unsureness. In organizing and leading negotiation training sessions at ALA Annual conferences and in sponsored webinars, we observed high attendance and enthusiasm, coupled with participants’ urgent requests for privacy, based in their fear of being recorded and/or observed by supervisors. We also witnessed discouraging behavior from more experienced librarians and managers, telling interested participants to reduce expectations or not bother trying to negotiate. Luckily, we are in a moment of broader cultural change, led by workers and workers’ movements, that is carrying libraries and library workers along with it. After decades of trade union decline in the U.S., we are now experiencing a resurgence of strike action overall (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019), and in organizing and strikes in K-12 and higher education (French, 2019; Tolley, 2018; Herbert, van der Naald, & Cadambi Daniel, 2019). Coinciding with #metoo and a resurgence in interest and activity around the gender wage gap, private sector initiatives, mostly in tech, have been created by workers to disclose salaries, share experiences, and provide support and information to women in companies and industries (MacLellan, 2018). Similar efforts in LIS have emerged in social media discussions and through collaborative documentation of shared salary data (Kayt Emily, 2018; “Library Salaries Inequity- Resources,” 2018; Tewell, 2019). These concurrent and sometimes intersecting movements to improve wages and working conditions across industries, occupations, and worksites engage individual and collective negotiation as vehicles and strategies to improve wages and working conditions. Our overall goal in conducting this research and sharing this information is to normalize negotiation in librarianship, as one pathway to improving library worker compensation. We are interested in how people acquire the skill sets that produce and enhance successful negotiation, how negotiation impacts salary and compensation outcomes, and how industries and occupations can facilitate training in this area. Academic libraries are a rich site of inquiry, as they span public and private sectors, states, institutional sizes, and staff statuses within universities. We are heartened by the recent growth in interest in individual and collective negotiation in libraries, and seek to fill the gap in research about how librarians learn and acquire training to negotiate. It is not enough to encourage the act of negotiation; we must also understand what is at stake, what works best, and what can be won through strategic action, individually and collectively. Literature Review Bruce Patton (co-author of the seminal negotiation text Getting to Yes) defined negotiation as “back-and-forth communication designed to reach an agreement between two or more parties with some interests that are shared and others that may conflict or simply be different” (2005). Extensive research across disciplines has generated much insight into negotiation in the workplace. We know that negotiation generally results in better outcomes (Gerhart and Rynes, 1991; O’Shea and Bush, 2002; Marks and Harold, 2011), that employer offers and behavior during the negotiation process can alter the job’s perceived attractiveness (Porter et. al, 2004), and that gender differentials exist in negotiation behavior (Bowles et al., 2007; Dittrich et al., 2014) and role-associated outcomes (Dittrich et al., 2014). Much research assessing negotiation frequency, practices, or outcomes is simulation-based (Porter et. al, 2004; Stevens et. al, 1993; Bowles et. al, 2007, Dittrich et al, 2014), inhibiting direct comparison with survey-based studies3 . While pay secrecy/transparency is closely associated with salary negotiation, the research encompasses a broader organizational scope beyond the hiring or negotiation process. Bamberger and Belagolovsky (2010) captured pay secrecy’s negative impact on employee performance. Workers tend to assume salary inequities in the face of secrecy, underestimating management compensation and overestimating peer compensation (Collela et al., 2007), and worker perceptions of fair pay are closely associated with pay transparency (Day, 2012). In the absence of pay transparency, workers prefer that the mechanisms for determining compensation be clearly articulated (Hartmann & Slapnicar, 2012). Researchers have also identified best practices for teaching and learning negotiation. Nadler et. al’s (2003) review of negotiation training literature identified four main learning methods: didactic (learning about the theories), learning via “information revelation” (receiving additional information), analogical learning (reading case studies and comparing), and observational learning. In testing the methods in combination with experience, and comparing to a baseline of only experience, they found that analogic and observational learning methods resulted in better performance, as well as outcomes for both parties. However, the observational group were less able to articulate the methods or strategies they had applied to the process. Participants within the information revelation group demonstrated a very strong understanding of the bargaining interests and positions of the other party, but this did not result in significant improvement in their performance. Researchers concluded that experience alone was ineffective in helping a negotiator conceptualize the task or derive meaning from the experience, and that analogic training helps participants to better develop awareness of the process and improve outcomes. The adding of observational and information revelation methods enhanced negotiation performance and understanding, respectively. The nuanced value of analogic training methods in improving knowledge transfer and negotiation practices had been captured by Loewenstein et. al (1999), who observed that analogic training resulted in better strategic proposals, and that  those drawing an analogy from two negotiation scenarios were three times more likely to apply the strategy than those receiving cases separately. Movius (2008) concluded that negotiation training impacts real-world outcomes, that the learning process environment can impact comprehension and performance, that using multiple case studies during training is superior than a single case, that using case studies and observation produce better negotiation practices than just lecture and information revelation, and that negotiators who perceive greater agency or control over outcomes (self-efficacy) might benefit more with training4 . After observing gender disparities in negotiation outcomes following a training program, Stevens et. al (1993) successfully mitigated the difference by augmenting content training with goal-setting training. There has been minimal research conducted about salary negotiation and the field of librarianship. However, in recent years, there have been some studies conducted around academic librarians’ experiences with salary negotiation (Reed et al., 2015; Lo and Reed, 2016; Reed and Lo, 2016; Silva and Galbraith, 2018). Reed et al. (2015) interviewed and surveyed entry-level academic librarians on their job search experiences, while Lo and Reed (2016) surveyed a broader swath of academic librarians and discovered that almost half of their respondents were not comfortable negotiating, and that younger people were more likely to negotiate their first professional job offer. Reed and Lo (2016) investigated how library hiring managers perceived and acted in negotiations, finding that employers expect job seekers to negotiate. Silva and Galbraith (2018) reported on gender-based salary negotiation patterns among academic librarians employed by Association of Research Libraries member libraries, and discovered that women negotiated less frequently and were less successful when they did negotiate. However, higher frequencies of negotiation were discovered in managers/administrators and those with longer tenure in a position. In 2017, we published the results of a survey about general librarians’ experience with compensation negotiation in the library workplace (Farrell and Geraci, 2017). Over 1500 librarians participated in the survey, across numerous library types. This study illustrated that almost half of respondents (46%) negotiated in their most recent position. The majority of those who did negotiate (N=656) received positive outcomes, including salary increases (62%) or better compensation packages (36%). Negative outcomes were minimally reported (2%). This study also examined information that informed negotiation strategy, with the majority of respondents indicating prior work experience or education (58%) and previous salary (54%) as being important. Fewer respondents noted salary data (41%), advice from mentors/colleagues/supervisors (32%), or negotiation literature (30%). Only 7% stated that they drew upon prior negotiation training. Beyond these studies, the majority of negotiation articles in the library literature focus on providing advice about strategies to use to negotiate salary (Adelman, 2004; Baron, 2013; Dalby, 2006; Havens, 2013; Holcomb, 2007; Kessler, 2015; Kolb and Schaffner, 2001; Martin, 2004; Niemeier and Junghahn, 2011; Topper, 2004; Wilson, 2013), or what to expect during the negotiation process (Franks et al., 2017). Bell (2014) discusses how to avoid having an offer rescinded, while Zumalt (2007) focuses on finding salary data to build the best case. Most articles are written for general library workers, but some are geared toward managers or administrators (Cottrell, 2011; White, 1991). Many of these articles discuss librarianship as a predominantly female occupation, and urge women to negotiate to combat low salaries (Adelman, 2004; Galloway and Archuleta, 1978; Kolb and Schaffner, 2001), and decrease the gap between women and men who negotiate (Kessler, 2015). However, some articles discuss the need to keep expectations in check, noting small towns (Martin, 2004) or markets flooded with recent graduates (Adelman, 2004) may yield lower salaries. The common trope of librarians “not being in it for the money” appears in the literature with Dalby (2006) declaring “in the library world, salaries are generally low. Most of us are here for the job, not the salary,” and Kolb and Schaffner (2001) ascribing low salaries in librarianship to the fact it is a “service profession” and librarians do not prioritize “monetary compensation.” Research on the impact of collective negotiation on library worker compensation is limited, but potential frameworks for analyzing individual and collective outcomes could be drawn from Feld’s (2000) exploration of union representation’s impact on library pay and Mudge’s (1987) analysis of Canadian library collective bargaining agreements by outcomes that encompass compensation structures, benefits, and other work arrangements. Methods This article reports on part of a multiphase study investigating librarians’ experience with and perspective on compensation and benefits negotiation in the library workplace5 . We employed interviews with academic library participants to augment baseline survey findings with more detail, greater nuance and complexity, and to explore individual experiences and extended responses, than what could be derived from a survey instrument alone. In phase one of the study, we deployed a survey of 50 questions. We solicited participants with an invitation that sought to capture the experiences and perspectives of librarians on negotiating for compensation and benefits in the library hiring process. The terms “librarian” and “negotiation” were intentionally undefined, allowing participants to self-identify for participation. Respondents who did not indicate current or past employment in a library were routed out of the survey. Questions were a mix of open, closed, and multiple-choice, and focused on generating educational and employment information from participants: education level; years of experience working in libraries; current employment status; position type; type, status, and geographic location of library where they work; size of library community that they serve; representation by a labor union; negotiation experience (i.e. if they negotiated and with whom they negotiated); negotiation outcome; information used to negotiate; and demographics. We administered the survey via Qualtrics Survey Software, and distributed it across a range of library-themed listservs and social media channels in November 2015 – December 2015 (see Farrell and Geraci, 2017). The survey gathered over 1500 respondents and also solicited contact information from participants who would be willing to participate in subsequent interviews. We generated survey reports and cross-tabulations within Qualtrics, with select additional analysis completed within Excel. In phase two, we invited academic librarians to participate in interviews by randomly selecting phase one survey respondents with “.edu” email addresses. 29 people responded to the invite. We conducted interviews between December 2016 – March 2017. The interviews were semi-structured, including questions that encompassed broad themes regarding negotiation experience, training, perceived responses by negotiating employers, desired support, and factors that would facilitate or inhibit future negotiation. Audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed and imported into Atlas.ti. We individually read the transcripts to identify and agree on broad themes. Once themes were identified separately, we applied the codes collaboratively, discussing areas of disagreement and reaching consensus before applying final codes in Atlas.ti. We generated co-occurrence tables to capture top code frequencies within question responses, and ran code co-occurrence reports to identify coded text. Utilizing both the survey and interview data, this article focuses on academic librarians’ experiences with compensation negotiation, and where they learned how to negotiate, where they sought or found advice, where they wished they had received information, and what factors would help them negotiate and improve their outcomes in the future. We also explore the impact of representation or membership in a labor union on negotiation. Appendices include related questions from the survey (Appendix A), interviews (Appendix B), and codes generated by analyzing interviews (Appendix C). Results Survey results As reported in Farrell and Geraci (2017), 46% of 1,466 respondents reported negotiating salary or other compensation for their most recent library position6 . Academic library workers reported negotiating for their most recent position at a higher rate (53%) than those working in public or K-12 libraries (31% and 24%, respectively), and roughly equal to those working in special libraries (56%). 25% of survey respondents indicated membership or representation (see Figure 1) in a labor union7 , aligning with MacPherson and Hirsch’s (2018) most recent analysis of Current Population Survey data that estimates a 26.2% union membership rate amongst librarians. Figure 1. Number of survey respondents who indicated they were a member of or represented by a labor union (N = 1466).   We have observed and engaged in extensive conversations within formal and informal LIS circles regarding potential differences in negotiation strategies across union/non-union contexts, regardless of library type. Further analysis of study data demonstrated that union member respondents reported significantly lower negotiation rates overall, with 35% of 354 negotiating salary or compensation for current positions, compared to half of non-union respondents negotiating for most recent positions (see Table 1). Table 1. Survey respondent union status and reported negotiation for most recent position (N = 1466) Are you a member of, or represented by, a labor union? Yes % No % I don’t know or I’m not sure % Total Did you negotiate salary or compensation for your most recent position? Yes 124 35% 542 50% 8 35% 674 No 230 65% 547 50% 15 65% 792 Total 354 1089 23 146 However, in reviewing union member respondents by library type, those working in academic libraries once again reported negotiating for their most recent position at a significantly higher rate than the overall group, as well as greater rates than those working in public or K-12 libraries (see Table 2). Table 2. Survey respondent union representation, reported negotiation for most recent position, and library type (N = 354) What type of library do you work for? Public % Academic % School (K-12) % Special Other Total % Did you negotiate salary or compensation for your most recent position? Yes 25 19% 83 52% 9 22% 0 7 124 35% No 105 81% 76 48% 32 78% 8 9 230 65% Total 130 159 41 8 16 354 An initial analysis of survey data in Farrell and Geraci (2017) reported that the elements negotiated by all respondents revealed the top six (descending) as salary, professional development support, housing/relocation assistance, position step/rank, time off/leave, and scheduling. Respondents had the option of selecting all. Analyzing survey responses by respondents’ library type and union status revealed differences in what elements are most frequent in negotiation. All demonstrated greatest negotiation for salary. Union member responses revealed position step/rank as second, while academic respondents reported negotiating housing or relocation assistance second after salary. Academic union respondents, who are likely negotiating across an up-or-out academic rank system as well as a collectively negotiated compensation structure that ties pay to rank and seniority, aligned more closely with overall union responses, ranking position/step as second along with professional development funding (see Table 3). Table 3. Survey respondent union status, elements negotiated, and library type (N = 1223) Elements negotiated All (N = 1223) Academic, all (N = 767) Union, all (N = 240) Academic, union (N = 163) Salary 607 387 104 76 Professional development 156 101 31 25 Housing or relocation assistance 154 126 24 22 Position step or rank 135 82 47 25 Time off or leave 92 30 18 7 Scheduling 79 41 16 8 Respondents overall, within academic libraries, and across union statuses, identified prior salary/compensation, prior work experience/education, and publicly-available salary information as the top three information sources informing their negotiation strategy. Respondents were informed to lesser and different degrees by negotiation literature, and the advice of a mentor, colleague, or supervisor. Respondents that negotiated rarely reported formal negotiation training (see Table 4). Table 4. Survey respondent union status, information informing negotiation strategy, and library type (N = 1523) Information informing negotiation strategy All (N=1523) Academic, all (N=293) Union, all (N=280) Non-union, all (N=1198) Academic, union, all (N=206) Previous salary or compensation 367 81 65 290 45 Previous work experience or education 385 80 77 302 54 Consulted publicly-available salary data 284 43 47 221 36 Negotiation advice or literature 199 39 45 154 37 Negotiation training 48 5 8 40 7 Mentor, colleague, or supervisor 218 43 34 174 24 I’m not sure 22 2 4 17 3 In reporting negotiation outcomes, respondents most frequently secured an increase in salary beyond the initial offer, across all categories (see Table 5). Threats to rescind and rescinded offers occurred in low frequencies across all library types. Table 5. Survey respondent union status, outcome of negotiation, and library type (N = 776) Negotiation Outcome All (N=776) Academic, all (N=496) Union, all (N=139) Academic, union (N=97) Increase in initial salary offered 405 268 69 49 Increase or improvement in total package offered 238 150 38 30 No change in initial offer 122 73 28 17 Threat to rescind offer 10 5 4 1 Offer rescinded 1 — — — Interviews Interviews with academic librarians yielded rich data about how participants learned how to negotiate, where they sought or found advice about negotiation, what resources they wished they had access to, along with what they believe would have enabled them to negotiate more effectively.  Main themes associated with each topic are shared with illustrative quotes, edited for clarity. How Librarians Learned to Negotiate When asked how participants learned to negotiate, three main themes emerged: 1) utilizing negotiation literature; 2) talking to their peers; or 3) applying experience they had gained from their workplaces. Some noted that reading articles helped them figure out a negotiating strategy: There is so much stuff online everywhere about how important it is to negotiate … It was something that I should really think about and be prepared to do. So I read some various articles online about how best to do that and how to approach it. Others discussed learning about negotiation from reading articles about women in the workplace. These articles discussed gender differences in negotiation, and urged readers to negotiate for improved compensation and career success. I did a lot of online reading about women in the workplace and needing to be direct. … That’s where I learned that I should come prepared with the facts like degree, and experience, and responsibilities, and to frame it not as the institution doing me a favor. … What the reading did for me was remove the sense that it was the institution doing me a favor, and instead it was a response to a factual presentation. That these are the facts of the situation and this is how I’m asking you to respond to it. Many reported informally talking to peers (librarians and other academics) to solicit information about the negotiation process, including the nature of the offer, appropriate counter-offers, and best strategies. One participant noted: I did consult with one of my colleagues who is not a librarian .. but we had been on [negotiation] teams together and I bounced ideas off of him for what he thought my counter should be and the approach I should take … He might have looked at my email draft before I sent it in, that sort of thing. Another stated: I always try to talk to other people and ask, ‘What do you think about this? Is it reasonable?’ Some noted that their peers strongly encouraged them to negotiate, and the importance of addressing the gender gap with negotiation, stating it was their “feminist duty” to do so. Many discussed how other on-the-job experiences had prepared them to negotiate salary; such as advocating for staff within a managerial role; observing negotiations from the vantage point of search committees; or in negotiating with colleagues, clients, or vendors as part of their job. A former IT professional described the impact of past experience working with clients: They have … grand ideas and then there is what you can actually do. There are always negotiations that have to happen. Another described prior sales experience: I did door-to-door company sales and a lot of that was negotiating: ‘I like your product but I can only afford this much.” And mine would be “You can really afford this if you — this is how useful this product is” and we would just go back and forth about money. Another discussed their role in vendor negotiations: One of my primary responsibilities was to negotiate. I was trying to reinforce license agreements for the library. I got a lot of experience with the language of negotiation. It was a lot easier to negotiate on behalf of an organization than to negotiate on your own behalf. How Librarians Sought / Found Advice about Negotiation We observed similar emergent themes in asking participants where they sought/found advice about negotiation: 1) using literature about negotiation to prepare to negotiate; 2) relying on data to determine appropriate salary ranges or numbers; or 3) consulting their peers. Interviewees frequently reported relying on literature for negotiation advice, particularly for participants seeking scripts to use in the negotiation process. One person stated that reading about particular phrases to use was necessary due to how “nervous” they were. Another participant sought specific phrasing to avoid offending the employer: For the actual negotiation I really just did my homework, might have read a couple of articles on how to phrase things, because I wasn’t sure if librarian culture is different from the culture I came from. I have worked on sounding more librarianish. I didn’t want to offend anyone, but I wanted to ask because I knew that once I got hired,asking becomes much more difficult at that point. In discussing their use of articles for guidance, many observed the lack of library-specific literature on negotiation, instead relying on content largely oriented toward the private sector or corporate context. Some believed that this guidance was not at all relevant to their experience as a librarian: I see job advice columns in newspapers and magazines. I often don’t tend to regard those as very relevant to my situation. Maybe this is erroneous, but my impression is that compensation is not as flexible in academia as it is in the private sector.They are geared toward people who are involved in sales or things where they have really solid metrics that are in their control to a certain degree. Because they say something like, bring up how much revenue you’ve brought into the company or something like that, or how much business you’ve made. Librarians don’t quite think in those terms of generating business so to speak. We are trying to get people to use our services — but not in such a — when I get evaluated each year, they don’t ask me how many more hours of research time did you get from professors or something. Participants used data to augment literature, and discussed a range of data sources consulted, including online cost of living calculators, public salary data, salary surveys from various professional organizations (e.g., ALA-APA, AALL, AAHSL8), as well as salary numbers and ranges listed in current job postings. In one case, a participant noted that using this data caused them to withdraw their job application: I ended up withdrawing because I looked at other people’s salaries at a couple institutions and I was like there’s no way that I’m going to accept what these other people are making so I don’t even want to go through this process. Finding completely analogous situations was described as a kind of art, rather than a science, where participants shared their research strategies in arriving at appropriate salary ranges that correspond to their background and experience: I have to find somebody that’s sort of similar to me in terms of experience, right? So I do the really nitty-gritty looking at people’s individual profiles. I get, when did they graduate? What kind of experience do they have? Participants sought out peers to learn more about the negotiation process and what to expect, as well as soliciting feedback on whether the offers were reasonable. One participant discussed knowing the person who had previously held the job and how valuable that was: I knew the person in the previous position. He told me exactly how much money he made and he said that I would be silly to accept anything less and he even told me exactly what management would do. He said they’d walk away from the table, they’d wait a day, and then they’d give you what you wanted and that is exactly how it happened. Another talked about turning to a network of colleagues to identify a person who used to work at the institution they were applying to: I happened to have a pretty good network from grad school and one of my colleagues that used to work at the institution that I’m currently working at, I talked to her a little bit about what to expect. She said they pay generously. I had a little more confidence in asking for a bit more. Where Do Librarians Wish They Had Received Advice or Guidance on Negotiation Interviewees identified two main entities that they wished had provided negotiation advice during their careers: library schools and professional associations. Some noted they received career services support in preparing applications and attending job interviews in library school, but did not receive similar assistance around negotiation: I think it would have been useful in library school. We had a couple of sessions here and there about how to create a good resume, what the interview process is like; but nobody ever talked about the negotiation process, how to research salary, how to analyze the benefits package, how to talk about those things before you accept the job. Some thought that this kind of instruction would be appropriate for either an introductory class, or as part of a management class. I wish my library school had — in the management class we had, that would have been super helpful. When they’re teaching you management, you’re on both sides, so you can be on both sides of the equation. One participant stated they would have appreciated negotiation training in library school: I think that sometime during library school would be good, particularly because I think you feel very vulnerable as an entry level person. What you need does really seem to change the more experience you get or the more your career morphs. Participants also pointed to professional associations like the American Library Association as a logical place for salary negotiation training, as they already provide professional development programming. Suggestions ranged from conference or webinar programming, to one-on-one mentoring. Some discussed the importance of library associations providing library-specific negotiation training. As a law librarian stated: I think it would be great if AALL [American Association of Law Libraries] offered something like that. The reason the AALL Salary Survey is helpful is because it is so specific to our line of work. I would be more interested in some sort of either a workshop or seminar or some sort of educational opportunity targeted to law libraries. So, to the extent that they are more reputable but more authoritative coming from a group like AALL. In general, many participants believed that professional associations would be the best place to provide training and discussion opportunities, and facilitate a broader cultural change within LIS industry and occupational communities regarding salary negotiation. What Would Help Librarians Negotiate When asked what would help them negotiate in the future, participants pointed to greater access to data, an enhanced understanding the perspective of those on the other side of the “table”, and sharing information about negotiation among a community of librarians. The majority of participants stated that pay transparency in salaries would be extraordinarily helpful. While general access to average salaries (e.g., survey data) was good, it did not help all that much in crafting an ask9 or understanding what is appropriate on an institutional level. They wanted more specificity: I think having fairly granular data about salaries, with years of experience and responsibilities broken out in different kinds of library roles, and being able to compare apples to apples in terms of library roles. So if somebody is a library liaison for example, then what are other people at other universities and then cost of living, being able to factor that in also. Starting salaries would be good to know for different institutions around the country. One person discussed how having access to data is what made their negotiation successful: More data is always better. …having the information about people in similar situations is really helpful for me; my successful negotiation came from my ability to distinguish myself from the data. Related to this, some participants also requested more transparency in crafting salary expectations. For instance, having salary ranges listed on job postings. Many participants applauded that salary data is available from public institutions but wanted that same information from private institutions. Additionally, many participants sought more explicit signaling from human resources or administration that negotiation was expected and accepted, and what was up for discussion. They wanted assurance that if they opened a conversation about salary, that they would not insult anyone or lose the offer. I think it would be helpful if you have, just more information in general about what’s going on in that institution because how do you know if you’re being bold or not if you don’t know what other people in similar situations are making. Even more explicitly, one person stated they “would like a crystal ball to know exactly what I could say to get what I want.” Finally, some participants expressed that sharing information and experiences among librarians about salary negotiation would be incredibly helpful. Particularly, there were opinions that sharing more information would change the perspective that talking about money “is a dirty thing”. Further, talking more about experiences negotiating salary would aid people in seeing that there is, as one participant put it, “really nothing to lose and only something to gain from it.” What Would Help Librarians Receive Better Negotiation Outcomes When participants were asked what would help them achieve better outcomes from negotiating, they reiterated the need to have more transparency from administration and human resources, as well as understanding the process, or strategy, of negotiating better, and actually practicing negotiating. Participants once again wanted to know, at the beginning of the negotiation process, where the hiring organization would have “flexibility.” They wanted honesty about “what the possibilities are and what’s realistic” to ask for in a negotiation. They also wanted more information about their own personal leverage: Am I their first choice by a mile or am I just one in a pack of very qualified people and they just happen to like me a little bit more? Trying to read that would make a big difference in terms of what I would feel like doing. Some participants also discussed wanting more familiarity with the process of negotiating, i.e., understanding the back-and-forth dialogue that goes along with negotiating salary: Knowing they might say no, or they might say, ‘well, we’re not going to give you everything, but here’s our offer’. And just being comfortable with the — ‘okay, well I’ll take your offer and review this’ and just getting more experience and more comfortable with what’s a reasonable comeback for whatever they give you, at whatever stage you’re at. Related to this topic, participants stressed the need for practice to help them overcome anxiety that they feel about negotiating: Having an opportunity to do a role play, or have somebody help you work on casting that language, and how to respond to pushback. How to actually be in that moment and do the give and take of it. Several people specifically wanted to be able to role play with others who are very experienced in negotiating: Something like role playing, actually practicing things, having the conversation with somebody who does it all the time, and who’s trained to be like a little more on the pushy side about what they want. Labor unions Respondents that were members of or represented by labor unions discussed the intersection of the collective and individual negotiations experience, acknowledging that the presence of a collective bargaining contract provided a known formula to guide their expectations and asks. As one respondent said: They had already exceeded [the number I had in mind] and also it’s a union position. So I knew that they calculated that based on my experience and based on my education etc. I knew the formula that went into it. While understanding the terms and conditions baked into a contract can provide a known formula for prospective negotiators, they can only leverage them to their benefit if the formula or framework is known or shared: Specifically back to when I was hired for this job, there was information on the union website that would have been really good to have and I was not pointed towards that and I didn’t have enough knowledge about the union to look at it. So now when I am in a position, like I’m on a screening committee, I tell candidates to go look at it. That was great so far they’re informed about what the pay grades are and where they would be sitting on those pay grades so that they can advocate for themselves more effectively. Similarly, incoming employees may be unaware of how collectively negotiated terms and conditions are interpreted on the ground. A lack of awareness or misunderstanding of the full scope of parameters and possibilities within the contract can potentially inhibit allowable negotiation, leading to lower lifetime earnings: When I came to [university], they gave me a copy of the contract and in the contract it spells out for every level, and I accepted and went merrily along and was here probably for about five to seven years when I found out that, no actually that’s the minimum level. And that incoming faculty can negotiate to start at a higher level. I don’t know that I was really in that much of a position of strength that I would have wanted to push back too much, but in either case it’s kind of moot for me because I didn’t say anything except ‘great, where do I sign’. In the absence of insider information, incoming employees reported feeling like they still benefited from the presence of contract-provided minimums, and that they observed that subsequent steps or negotiated increases balanced their failure to negotiate incoming salary. My first [position] was when I was a brand new librarian and I did not negotiate at all. And so I had a terrible starting salary which only got better because I was at an institution that had a strong faculty union that I would be part of and basically I got bumped up to a new minimum that was reasonable as a result of that. Engaging in the collective bargaining process as a rank-and-file activist or elected representative can provide a fertile training ground for negotiation skills, building comfort and familiarity with the process, dynamics, and stakes at hand, that can translate to enhanced individual negotiation practice. When I moved to my second position I did negotiate and one of the reasons that I probably was more comfortable, well, first of all I was older, but one of the reasons that I was probably more comfortable is that during the time that I was at my first institution, I had become extremely engaged in the union and had been a chief negotiator multiple times for faculty contracts.To say where I learned to negotiate, I would say that it was because of that. Also that’s where it became, if it wasn’t already highly evident, but there was a difference between where you’d end up at the end of your career whether you negotiated or didn’t when you first accepted your position and the real understanding that everything hinges on that initial salary. By participating in the labor relations process, union member respondents acquired a broader perspective that demystifies and contextualizes the tensions and rituals of the back-and-forth: I was in union bargaining teams, so negotiating means a lot of different things, because that’s an official process where you put pressure on people generally but then you have a formalized process in a room. Discussion Our research investigated academic librarians’ experiences with compensation negotiation. Facets explored included where they learned how to negotiate, where they sought or found advice, where they wished they had received information, and what factors would help them negotiate and improve their outcomes in the future. We confirmed that many academic librarians negotiate10, and discovered that they are negotiating at higher rates than librarians in other settings. Around half of participants surveyed negotiated for salary or other elements of compensation for their most recent position. Further, those that negotiated their salaries, across the board, received increases. While that is good news, it also means that around half of librarians are not negotiating. We discovered that academic librarians rarely received formal negotiation training or engaged with library-specific guidance on how to negotiate, and craved access to data and support structures to assist them in negotiating more, with greater skill, and to achieve better outcomes. We also investigated how a collective bargaining agreement or union representation impacts negotiation perceptions or behavior. Despite misconceptions that you cannot negotiate salary in a union environment, our research indicated that librarians still did negotiate individually in addition to negotiating collectively. Participants indicated that unions can be a training ground for learning how to negotiate, that a contract impacts the parameters of what can be asked or obtained, and that the process may vary from those reported by non-represented librarians (potentially indicating a more formal process required). The differing structural aspects of positions covered by collective bargaining agreements and/or within academic libraries likely account for differing prioritization of various negotiation elements. While most librarians negotiated for salary, academics also prioritized housing and professional development support, while union members prioritized negotiating position/rank. Academic union respondents aligned more closely with the overall union responses in identifying prioritized negotiation elements11. The presence of a union or contract shifts the scope of librarian negotiations, elevating rank or position type as a more likely element of the ask, due to the financial implications of a higher rank or title. However, we also observed significantly lower rates of negotiation by union member respondents, potentially due to misconceptions as to whether individual negotiation is allowable within a collective bargaining context, or a lack of awareness of contract parameters to negotiate within and across. Those surveyed pointed to previous work experience or education and their previous salary as the information sources that they relied on in negotiation, with very few academic librarians (2%) indicating formal training as a source. Through interviews, we aimed to gain a fuller understanding of how librarians learn to negotiate, as opposed to what information sources were used during the process. While interviews confirmed a strong reliance on textual resources (unsurprising for librarians!), we also discovered that this overreliance compensated for a lack of formal negotiation training, insufficient information sharing across LIS communities, and rampant pay secrecy by library employers12. Regardless of union affiliation, the majority of librarians surveyed and interviewed stated that they did not receive formal, structured training. Most interviewees learned how to negotiate from either reading literature, talking to other people in their networks (peers, spouses), and from the repeated practice of negotiating on-the-job. As many of our interviewees pointed out, increased access to formal negotiation training could improve their confidence and skill in attempting to negotiate compensation, and thereby increase the frequency of negotiation in library workplaces, and improve outcomes. Training, however, is not a one-size-fits all solution, and pedagogical design impacts negotiation skill and outcomes. Our interviewees pointed to practice or coaching as a welcome assist, but we know that structured negotiation trainings should be carefully designed to align with evidence-based best practices to increase negotiation frequency and efficacy13. Practice alone does not make perfect. Interviewees repeatedly stated that improved access to institutional or position salary data would aid them in negotiation, but we know from the literature that having the data alone is insufficient for negotiation training and improvement purposes14. Receiving additional information during the process (“information revelation”) can enhance one’s understanding of the other party’s position, but the method does not impact overall strategy, performance, or outcomes. We fully support full compensation transparency for all positions and institutions in addition to evidence-based negotiation training opportunities. Our research indicated that negotiation skills acquisition for academic librarians is currently informal, self-initiated, and network-bound rather than formally present in LIS curriculum or professional development training, which interviewees expressed would be desired. This lack of formal training could mean that even if people are negotiating, they may be unaware of the scope of possible asks and/or effective tactics to deploy during the negotiation process, and are likely leaving money on the table. If the goal is to have more people negotiating to raise the compensation bar for everyone in the library, people will need to receive better training in order to negotiate. Although our survey was widely distributed across the LIS discipline and represents librarians from a variety of library types, interviews were limited to a small number of academic librarians and represent only their experiences. We hope to expand on this work by conducting more interviews with librarians in other library settings. Survey findings demonstrating differences across library types raises additional questions, such as: Why are academic librarians negotiating at higher levels than other librarians? How do aspects of library employment practices and workplaces impact negotiation practices? Do conditions of the library workplace mediate the effect of union membership on salary negotiation outcomes? Other variables that we did not address in detail here, but came up as themes in the interviews, such as gender, length of time in librarianship, supervisory status, size of institution, and institutional funding structure, could also impact these findings, and we aim to examine these topics at a later date. Recommendations For individuals: All library workers should negotiate on principle, and be open to sharing experiences and outcomes with peers. That means that librarians with racial, gender, socioeconomic and/or positional power should use their privilege to change institutional and occupational cultures around negotiation by negotiating themselves, sharing experiences and numbers openly, and creating and holding space for discussion and mutual aid. For managers (supervisors, hiring managers): Expect candidates and employees to negotiate. Managers can normalize negotiation by using their position to advocate for higher salaries in general and for prospective candidates when participating in the negotiation process as an employer representative. Those seeking to infuse social justice, feminism, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in their managerial and supervisory practices should consider how their approach to the negotiation process speaks to their commitment to economic justice. Those negotiating for themselves should be similarly receptive in a hiring context. For employers (libraries as institutions or as part of larger institutions): Share position salary ranges when posting jobs. Commit to salary transparency on an organizational level. Base offers on transparent salary schedules or scales, not a candidate’s past compensation. Perform regular pay equity audits. For academic libraries with institutional policies restricting pay transparency in the hiring process, advocate for change organizationally, and aim to share this information with candidates as soon as possible as the search progresses. For unions: Ensure that salary schedules and Collective Bargaining Agreements are publicly available to prospective and current employees. If not included on the employer website, place in a central location on the union website that is not walled off from non-members. For library schools: Incorporate formal salary negotiation training in career services support as well as into professional development curriculums. For library associations: Commit to negotiation training and sharing salary survey data as an individual member benefit. Articulate minimum salaries and best practices for wages. ALA’s commitment to hosting AAUW salary negotiation trainings for members is a great start. For all library workers and LIS stakeholders: Advocate for yourself, for your colleagues, not just the library and libraries. And when you do, share your experiences and strategies with colleagues. Championing a culture shift within libraries and librarianship around compensation requires individual and collective negotiation and action. When colleagues ask for your support, engage in solidarity actions like salary disclosure, attending rallies, and signing petitions. It is time to embrace economic justice as a core value of librarianship. If Democracy, Diversity, Intellectual Freedom, Professionalism, and Social Responsibility are “Core Values of Librarianship” (ALA Council, 2004), then surely we can incorporate the recognition that we work for pay and are entitled to dignity and the ability to support ourselves and our families. Conclusion When we began working on salary negotiation issues in LIS, we repeatedly encountered the sentiments “but I can’t negotiate”, “librarians don’t negotiate”, and “we don’t do this for the money”. Simultaneously, we heard about the difficulties that nascent, new, and experienced library workers face in supporting their families, paying off student loan debt from MLS programs, and in contemplating lifelong careers in modestly compensated positions. In recruiting new librarians and promoting librarianship and library work as a viable career path, those of us in the field now must work to ensure that this work is good work in an economic sense – that it is well compensated and can support families. Benchmarking library compensation levels by looking to librarian salaries alone is insufficient, as librarians may be one of the more well-compensated employee groups in the library. Raising salary thresholds for all workers in the library, especially the lowest-compensated occupations, is essential. Our overall goal in sharing this information is to normalize negotiation in librarianship, as one pathway to improving library worker compensation. Our research reveals that talking about money and sharing experiences about negotiation is still a “closed-door” topic among colleagues. It is time to throw open the doors and speak freely. Library workers should feel comfortable negotiating, have access to evidence-based training, and openly share strategies and experiences with others in the field without fear of retaliation or shaming. We hope that more and better training, increased transparency with the sharing of experiences and with compensation information, will facilitate greater frequency of negotiation and increased self-advocacy in the hiring and promotion process, in a manner that complements and augments the gains to be won through union organizing and collective bargaining. Ultimately, we hope this will facilitate a larger cultural shift in libraries that shatters the well-worn trope that library workers do not and should not care about getting paid, and replaces it with a shared vision of library workers with individual and collective agency that expect and ask for more. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the many survey and interview participants for sharing their experiences and feedback, Curtis Lyons and Claire Stewart for funding the transcription of interviews, Ian Beilin and Leo Lo for their thorough and thoughtful review, and Sofia Leung for guiding the article to completion. 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Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(2), 256–262. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.2.256 Hartmann, F., & Slapničar, S. (2012). Pay fairness and intrinsic motivation: the role of pay transparency. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(20), 4283–4300. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.664962 Havens, B. C. (2013). Salary Negotiations. Library Journal, 138(9), 16–16. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lii&AN=87531705&site=ehost-live Herbert, W. A., van der Naald, J., & Cadambi Daniel, M. (2019, April). Student worker unionization 2013-2018. Presented at the United Association for Labor Education Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA. Hirsch, B. T., & Macpherson, D. A. (2018). Union membership and earnings data book …: compilations from the Current population survey. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs. Holcomb, J. M. (2007). Perfecting negotiating techniques. Law Library Journal, 99(4), 851–855. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lii&AN=502580228&site=ehost-live Kayt Emily. (2018, November 28). Bureau of Labor stats… Retrieved April 10, 2019, from Library Think Tank – #ALATT website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ALAthinkTANK/permalink/2321845927888214/?comment_id=2322790544460419&reply_comment_id=2323047057768101&notif_id=1541429984716493&notif_t=group_comment Kessler, A. (2015). Salary negotiation: you owe it to yourself. Texas Library Journal, 91(2), 52–53. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lii&AN=113187329&site=ehost-live Kolb, D. M., & Schaffner, A. C. (2001). Negotiating what you’re worth. Library Journal, 126(17), 52–53. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lii&AN=502882271&site=ehost-live Library Salaries Inequity- Resources. (2018). Retrieved April 10, 2019, from Google Docs website: https://goo.gl/JCvyjY Lo, L., & Reed, J. (2016). “You’re Hired!” – An Analysis of the Perceptions and Behaviors of Library Job Candidates on Job Offer Negotiations. The Southeastern Librarian, 64(2). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/seln/vol64/iss2/2 Loewenstein, J., Thompson, L., & Gentner, D. (1999). Analogical encoding facilitates knowledge transfer in negotiation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 6(4), 586–597. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212967 MacLellan, L. (2018, February 1). Your colleagues are probably sharing a secret Google doc right now. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from Quartz at Work website: https://qz.com/work/1194628/your-colleagues-are-probably-sharing-a-secret-google-doc-right-now/ Marks, M., & Harold, C. (2011). Who asks and who receives in salary negotiation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(3), 371–394. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.671 Martin, C. (2004). Tips that may surprise you about salary negotiation. Library Worklife: HR E-News for Today’s Leaders, 1(12, December). Retrieved from http://ala-apa.org/newsletter/2004/12/17/tips-that-may-surprise-you-about-salary-negotiation/ Melzer, P., Reiser, A., & Schoop, M. (2012). Learning to negotiate–The Tactical Negotiation Trainer. Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2012: Tagungsband Der MKWI 2012/Hrsg.: Dirk Christian Mattfeld; Susanne Robra-Bissantz. Movius, H. (2008). The Effectiveness of Negotiation Training. Negotiation Journal, 24(4), 509–531. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2008.00201.x Mudge, C. R. (1987). Collective agreements: benefits and salaries compared. Canadian Library Journal, 44(6), 405–411. Murphy, E. F. (2005). Getting even: why women don’t get paid like men– and what to do about it. New York: Simon & Schuster. Nadler, J., Thompson, L., & Boven, L. V. (2003). Learning negotiation skills: Four models of knowledge creation and transfer. Management Science, 49(4), 529–540. Niemeier, C., & Junghahn, L. (2011). Everything (well, almost everything) is negotiable. AALL Spectrum, 15(9), 12–18. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lii&AN=503017413&site=ehost-live O’Shea, P., & Bush, D. (2002). Negotiation for starting salary: antecedents and outcomes among recent college graduates. Journal of Business and Psychology, 16(3), 365–382. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012868806617 Patton, B. (2005). Negotiation. In Moffitt, M. L., & Bordone, R. C. (Ed.), The handbook of dispute resolution. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (pp. 279-303). Porter, C. O. L. H., Conlon, D. E., & Barber, A. E. (2004). The dynamics of salary negotiations: effects on applicants’ justice perceptions and recruitment decisions. International Journal of Conflict Management, 15(3), 273–303. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=19364128&site=ehost-live Reed, J. B., Carroll, A. J., & Jahre, B. (2015). A cohort study of entry level librarians and the academic job search. Endnotes, 6(1), 1–22. Retrieved from https://dspace.lafayette.edu/handle/10385/2006 Reed, J., & Lo, L. (2016). An investigation of the perceptions, expectations and behaviors of library employers on job negotiations as both employers and as job seekers. Australian Library and Information Association National 2016 Conference. Retrieved from https://read.alia.org.au/investigation-perceptions-expectations-and-behaviors-library-employers-job-negotiations-both Silva, E., & Galbraith, Q. (2018). Salary Negotiation Patterns between Women and Men in Academic Libraries. College & Research Libraries, 79(3), 324. Stevens, C. K., Bavetta, A. G., & Gist, M. E. (1993). Gender differences in the acquisition of salary negotiation skills: the role of goals, self-efficacy, and perceived control. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(5), 723–735. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=12360329&site=ehost-live Tewell, E. (2019, January 9). If you’re asking for a raise (hello annual evaluation time) or negotiating salary, check out this Library Salaries Inequities Resource List. Either way, add your salary anonymously to share with other library workers: https://goo.gl/JCvyjY  via @teach_research [Tweet]. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from @EamonTewell website: https://twitter.com/EamonTewell/status/1083052312359260160 Tolley, K. (Ed.). (2018). Professors in the gig economy: unionizing adjunct faculty in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Topper, E. F. (2004). Salary negotiation 101. American Libraries, 35(2), 58–58. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lii&AN=502923291&site=ehost-live White, H. S. (1991). The tragic cost of being “reasonable.” Library Journal, 116(3), 166–167. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=9103043172&site=ehost-live Wilson, C. (2013). The Hardest Button to Button: Closing the Deal. Retrieved from INALJ website: http://inalj.com/?p=46710 Work Smart Aims to Train 10 Million in Salary Negotiation by 2022. (2018, December 18). Retrieved April 10, 2019, from AAUW.org website: https://www.aauw.org/article/work-smart-aims-to-train/ Zumalt, J. R. (2007). What Can I Expect to Earn: Information Sources for Library Salary Negotiations [Data set]. Retrieved from https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/3483 Appendices Appendix A. Selected Survey Questions Are you currently employed in a library? Yes, full-time (permanent) Yes, full-time (temporary or contract) Yes, part-time (permanent) Yes, part-time (temporary or contract) No What type of library do you work for? Public library Academic library (postsecondary) School library (K-12) Special library Other Are you a member of, or represented by, a labor union? Yes No I don’t know or I’m not sure Did you negotiate salary or compensation for your most recent position? Yes No What compensation elements did you negotiate for? (Check all that apply) Salary Step or rank Benefits for self or family (examples include medical/dental coverage, retirement contributions, disability or life insurance, flexible or health spending accounts) Housing or relocation assistance Scheduling (examples include flexible scheduling, a specific schedule, or telecommuting) Time off or leave (examples include vacation or family leave, or paid time off) Professional development (examples include time off or funding for conference attendance or classes/coursework, subsidy of professional memberships) I don’t remember Other   ________________________________________________ Outcome (check all that apply) Increase in initial salary offered Increase or improvement in total package offered No change in initial offer Threat to rescind offer Offer rescinded If you negotiated, what information informed your strategy? (check all that apply) Previous salary Previous work experience or education Consulted publicly-available salary data Negotiation advice or literature Negotiation training Mentor, colleague, or supervisor advice I’m not sure Other   ________________________________________________ Appendix B. Selected Interview Questions Tell me about your experiences negotiating salary or compensation in libraries. Where did you learn how to negotiate? Where did you seek/find advice? Is there a person or program that you wish had advised you on negotiation? What would help you to negotiate in the future? What would help you [be better, have better outcome, etc.]?   Appendix C. Interview Codes* Interview Codes Broad Theme Definition Data Includes all forms of data, such as institutional data, occupational data, cost of living data, salary data Disposition Attributing negotiation skill or talent as innate to one’s disposition, personality, or innate talent Don’t know Unsure Ed: LIS Library school or LIS program Information sharing Sharing data, information or experiences about positions, employers, or negotiations, between people or a community of practice Job market Discussion of the relative strength or weakness of the LIS market for employment, in relation to an individual’s leverage within negotiations Job postings Employment advertisements that may include position descriptions and salary information Leverage An individual negotiator’s strength or position within the negotiation process, in relation to their skillset, marketability, and the desirability of the employer’s offer Literature (books, articles, online) Books, articles, or online resources (LIS or non-LIS) Mentor or professor or supervisor (current or former) An experienced, non-peer advice provider within a field, workplace, or educational program. Not a friend or family member. Negotiation process Indicating an element or the dynamics of the back-and-forth process of negotiating salary in an individual employment context No/None No answer or response Ed:non-LIS Non-LIS training or educational program On the job experience Indicating experience derived in a former position (LIS and non-LIS), encompassing any element of negotiation as an employee, employer, or in representing the library in vendor relations Peer Friends or colleagues, of equal or similar status in the workplace or the field Practice Referring to repeated or cumulative experience in negotiation, as well as mock negotiation exercises Professional association Referring to a formal professional association, LIS or non-LIS Signal scope Verbal or non-verbal communication from the other party that indicates the allowable scope of negotiation Spouse/family Encompassing family or relatives Training Formal educational experience, outside or beyond a degree program Union Labor or trade union Question Codes Question Code Definition Learn Where learned to negotiate Seek/Find Where sought/found advice on negotiation Wish Person or organization they wished had advised them on negotiation HelpNeg What would help you negotiate HelpBet What would help you be better *Question codes were applied to interview text to uncover themes across question responses.   Examples in LIS literature include Dalby (2006) and Kolb and Schaffner (2001). We received multiple direct communications when recruiting for a survey of librarians on salary negotiation, insisting that librarians could not negotiate, and observed these sentiments repeatedly as individuals in the field and in leading related committees and programming within ALA. [↩] ALA has expanded programming, offering AAUW Start Smart trainings as part of the Placement Center. Through the Start Smart and Work Smart initiative, AAUW has committed to train ten million women to negotiate salaries by 2022, with the goal of closing the wage gap. (“Work Smart Aims to Train 10 Million in Salary Negotiation by 2022,” 2018 [↩] Studies relying on survey and interview methodologies often focus on communities of commonality, such as women university administrators (Compton and Bierlein Palmer, 2009) or school psychology staff (Crothers et al., 2010 a,b), MBA graduates (Curhan et al, 2009), newly hired employees (Marks and Harold, 2011), and recent college graduates (O’Shea and Bush, 2002). [↩] Most training literature evaluates the efficacy of various methods on in-person negotiation scenarios. In recognizing the challenges inherent to electronic negotiation (missing voice tone, body language or other nonverbal cues), researchers have developed automated training modules to augment traditional in-person negotiation training methods (Melzer, Reiser, & Schoop, 2012). However, further research is needed to determine the impact of this training delivery method on negotiation outcomes. [↩] In both phases of the research, measures were taken to ensure participants’ anonymity. These procedures were approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects in research on October 29, 2015 and the Cornell University Institutional Review Board for Human Participants on November 9, 2015. [↩] As reported in Farrell and Geraci 2017, we were contacted by multiple individuals during the data collection phase, claiming that it was impossible to negotiate in libraries. [↩] For the purpose of this article, we will use union membership and representation interchangeably, despite the difference in meaning. [↩] American Library Association-Allied Professional Association, American Association of Law Libraries, and Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries. [↩] “Ask” is a term commonly used in negotiation training and literature to describe the requests or demands of a party during the negotiation process. We intentionally use “ask” to describe a current or prospective employee’s requests or demands during the hiring process, as it allows us to consistently use a neutral descriptive term that sidesteps judgment or framing activities or affect that we have not actually observed. [↩] Study findings indicated a lower rate (53%) than Lo and Reed’s rate of 68%, but surveyed a larger population. [↩] We see overlap across the two groups in negotiating across an up-or-out academic rank system as well as a collectively negotiated compensation structure that ties pay to rank and seniority. [↩] Informally, we can say that through our organizational work and event facilitation experience, we have heard that library employers are reluctant to participate in formal salary surveys, that association job list administrators have difficulty requiring organizations to post salaries, that managers and supervisors would like to post jobs with salary ranges but that their institutions will not let them, but that alternately, that posting ranges reduces their “flexibility” in hiring. [↩] As per Nadler et. al (2003), practice is best accompanied by analogical and didactive elements, to provide a theoretical and comparative foundation to augment otherwise decontextualized role-playing or observation. [↩] As per Bamberger and Belogolovsky, 2010; Collela et al., 2007; Day, 2012, pay secrecy negatively impacts employee performance and perceptions of fairness and justice within an organization. [↩] compensation, negotiation, salary, training No results found: A review of biographical information about award-winning children’s book authors in subscription and free resources New Hampshire Public Library Services for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence 1 Response Pingback : Happenings – VREPS This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-7178	----	Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2015 Jun 03 Angela Galvan /42 Comments Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship Image by Flickr user tweng (CC BY-SA 2.0) In Brief: Despite the growing body of research on our professional demographics and multi-year diversity initiatives, librarianship in the United States remains overwhelmingly white. I suggest the interview process is a series of repetitive gestures designed to mimic and reinforce white middle class values, which ultimately influence the hiring decisions—and relative lack of diversity—of librarianship as a whole. I consider how the whiteness of librarianship may manifest long before the hiring process. By identifying and interrogating the body of white, middle class values inherent to both librarianship and professional job searching, I offer suggestions to encourage an authentically diverse pool of applicants. By Angela Galvan Defining Whiteness Whiteness is a shifting status bestowed by those in power, intertwined with class relationships and the production of structural inequalities. See the transformation of Italian, German, Irish, and Polish people from white ethnics to white over the 20th century in the United States. “The Italian comes in at the bottom, and in the generation that came over the sea he stays there. In the slums he is welcomed as a tenant who ‘makes less trouble’ than the contentious Irishman or the order-loving German.” (Riis, 1890) For the sake of brevity, whiteness in this essay means: white, heterosexual, capitalist, and middle class. Whiteness is “ideology based on beliefs, values behaviors, habits and attitudes, which result in the unequal distribution of power and privilege.” (http://www.ucalgary.ca/cared/whiteness) Beliefs, values behaviors, habits, and attitudes become gestures, enactments, and unconsciously repetitive acts which reinforce hegemony. Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias Librarianship is paralyzed by whiteness. This will continue unabated without interrogating structures that benefit white librarians, including the performative nature of recruitment and hiring. The interview and academic job talk conceal institutional bias under the guise of “organizational fit” or a candidate’s “acceptability”, while the act of recruiting presents an aspirational version of the library to candidates. The standing-room-only presentation at Association of College & Research Libraries 2015 on the experience of academic librarians of color suggests librarianship is at least aware of its demographics. Some libraries are attempting to recruit broader pools of applicants, with a few offering ever-popular diversity residencies and fellowships. The fellowship model is mutually beneficial and offers chances to experiment with otherwise risky initiatives. However, fellowships mask precarity under the illusion of faculty status and support, when librarians accepting these positions may have neither (Salo, 2013). While recruiting initiatives and fellowships are reasonable starting points, they become meaningless gestures for institutions which screen on performing whiteness. These actions are further undermined by framing diversity as a problem to be solved rather than engaging in reflective work to dismantle institutional bias. Framing diversity as the problem implicitly suggests a final outcome, locating responsibility and discomfort away from white librarians while marginalizing colleagues who do not perform whiteness to the satisfaction of gatekeepers. Finally, when librarians who are not white and middle class arrive, they are alienated as “the diversity hire”, erasing their skills, talents, and expertise (Sendula, 2015). Librarians with visible minority status are assigned more work, as many marginalized librarians are appointed to diversity and hiring committees by default. This strands non-white and middle class librarians in a “murky place between gratitude and anger” (Bennett, 2015) as their visibility changes to suit the needs of the organization. That librarianship remains overwhelmingly white suggests marginalized librarians are seen when the institution finds it convenient, but rarely heard during critical stages of the hiring process. The current librarian job market solicits performance and creates barriers to entry in three ways: cultural negotiation, conspicuous leisure, and access to wealth. Image by Flickr user wolframburner (CC BY-NC 2.0) Barriers to Entry Culture The whiteness of librarianship begins long before the job application process, as traditionally underrepresented students come to university systems with varying experiences in libraries. Conclusions on this subject vary: libraries can be a source of anxiety for marginalized students (Haras, Lopez & Ferry, 2008); the university library can feel overwhelming compared to underfunded or nonexistent K-12 libraries (Adkins and Hussey, 2006); or the library as a site of abundance and discovery. Nearly all scholarship on the subject agrees the library is a site where information seeking and cultural hegemony are negotiated (Long, 2011; Sadler and Bourg, 2015). For marginalized students, an academic library may be the largest they’ve ever encountered. “For students from a nondominant culture, knowing how to use library resources is not merely about finding information but also about navigating culture.” (Adkins and Hussey, 2006) White Savior narratives are found throughout librarianship, where white librarians are framed as benevolent actors toward people of color, who “lack the agency necessary to enact positive changes in their own lives. The underlying assumption is that people of color, on their own, fail to enact resilience,resistance, and success…Any achievements in these areas seem to result from the initiatives of the white savior.” (Cammarota, 2011) Rather than disarm the “structural, systemic, oppressive conditions disproportionately affecting the most economically disadvantaged people”(Groski, 2008) the middle class White Savior perpetuates myths about poverty. Marginalized patrons in libraries become the saved and lifted, without necessarily seeing themselves in the space of the library. Students not reflected in the culture of the library are unlikely to see librarianship as a possibility (Williams and Van Arnhem, 2015). Marginalized students employed outside the university system face additional barriers as their work typically does not cultivate the development of a white collar professional identity. The hospitality industry, food service work, call centers, and other low income employment offers prescriptive identities, removing most agency from the employee. Marginalized students in graduate programs arrive after enduring lifetimes of institutionalized oppression surrounding their origins, with a painful awareness the they of “professional language” refers to themselves (Overall, 1995; Johnson Black, 1995; Bennett, 2014). Moving from a prescriptive work environment to a professional one requires a certain amount of socialization into white culture. I don’t think of myself as an ex-hotel night clerk, but will always be a librarian even if my job title doesn’t reflect this. Librarianship is not simply what we do at work but a component of how we identify as people (Gonzalez-Smith, Swanson & Tanaka, 2014). This creates a dissonant sense of self and belonging in the profession, when our identity does not conform to professional expectations, “worldviews, or emotional orientations” (Costello, 2005). Librarians themselves manufacture the culture of whiteness, with its ever-shifting criteria and continuous trading in surfaces (Ewen, 1988). Our policies embrace the fiction of neutrality, while our spaces, practices, and culture are not neutral entities (Sadler and Bourg, 2015). The idea of library-as-neutral is seductive because of its usefulness and minimal intellectual effort required from white librarians: neutrality is the safest position for libraries because it situates whiteness not only as default, but rewards and promotes white cultural values. Whiteness-as-default allowed the conversation about 2015’s Banned Books Week poster to incorrectly assume no Muslim women were part of the image’s construction, effectively acknowledging librarianship’s tendency to reproduce inequalities and in many cases manufacture them in our systems and practices. From organizational structures and descriptions, to images and policy, librarians engage numerous fictions upholding cultural hegemony (Drabinski, 2013). “Libraries and professional organizations have put together documents and policies on information ethics and intellectual freedom in an attempt to broaden the professional perspective. While these are important policies and procedures, they still reinforce cultural hegemony as they are primarily written in the language of those in power. For example, statements on professional ethics are put together by professional organizations, the overwhelming majority of whose members are white. Intellectual freedom is influenced by the discursive formations of those who write and enforce these policies. It is those in power who decide what level of intellectual freedom the library will support.” (Adkins and Hussey, 2006) While librarians may fill social media with images of what librarians look like, our professional organizations and policy language articulate further what successful librarians look like: how they organize, what voices are heard, how they construct strategy, which crisis are acceptable to address and which should be suppressed under tone arguments or claims of unprofessional behavior. The fiction of neutrality became apparent to me as a circulation desk clerk in a large public library system. Over winter break I visited an affluent suburb of Cleveland, Ohio where my partner’s family lives. We toured the public library and I was impressed with the college and career prep resources available. At my home branch I asked if I could make a similar display. I was told “Our kids aren’t really the college type,” and reluctantly allowed to maintain a small collection in the young adult section. This same system employed several librarians who insisted on business wear for work in a casual dress environment, explaining “Children in this neighborhood need a model for what a professional is, because they don’t have contact with any.” Many public library systems continue to address poverty from a deficit theory framework, ignoring the connection between treating poor people as inherently flawed and the profession’s inability to recruit marginalized workers. A question posted to Librarian Wardrobe suggests one applicant’s struggle to be comfortable, yet professional during interviews. “I tend towards a ‘soft butch’ style and a very broke budget, but I have a major interview coming up. Any suggestions for an outfit that gets across my personal identity, my willingness to crawl around looking for a book, but also my professionalism?” This poster reveals their gender performance during an interview is necessary to maintain the comfort of others, not to present the ‘authentic self’ search committees claim to want. Their question, like so many others I found during my research, is about this maintenance. How can I be butch, but not too butch? Should I buy a plain band for my left hand if I am unmarried? Should I dye my hair or have it relaxed? How provocative is a suit that isn’t gray, black, or navy? Where can I buy a button down shirt that will not gape at my chest? Will not wearing makeup cost me a job? If transcripts are required, how will I explain a differently gendered name? Each question reflects problems about how to address the cultural expectations of whiteness in the context of othered bodies. Librarians who wear natural hair, whose shape/stature make it difficult to find professional dress, or librarians with disabilities have found their bodies as they exist to be deemed unprofessional. Rather than assign this failure to designers’ inability to account for variations in bodies, this is passed on to applicants. Few blame manufacturers for ill-fitting suits. We blame bodies for not conforming to them. Such anxieties are pervasive, even when acknowledged. In 2014, I sat on a panel discussing gender, agency, and resistance where one presenter–a scholar from India–expressed concern in the context of her research how wearing a sari during her talk would mean risking objectification and dismissal in a room full of feminist folklorists. The academic job talk is similarly concerning, as the growing tendency to record and make available such talks transforms the interview process into a mediated performance. An intellectual understanding of bias isn’t enough, it must be interrogated to dismantle the mechanisms which produce bias. Conspicuous Leisure and Wealth In flooded job markets, barriers to entry can include requiring prior library service for any library job. While MLIS students benefit from on the job experience, such screening policies would exclude promising applicants unable to enroll in face-to-face programs: rural students, students with nonstandard work schedules, students with family obligations, students transitioning careers, and other MLIS-holders outside the fictions of “ideal worker” (Davies, 2014). Hiring Librarians has documented responses from hiring managers claiming students in online programs cannot work in teams or learn effectively, when many students choose online programs for the exact opposite reasons. As with myths about poverty which overshadow the well-established resourcefulness of poor students, online MLIS students are dismissed as asocial and not “team players”. Bias against online MLIS students is especially harmful to rural and underfunded libraries, in light of the geography of MLIS-holders (Sin, 2011). The reality of post-MLIS education includes thousands of webinars, MOOCs, chats, listservs, virtual meetings, systems work, and other collaborative technologies. Suggesting online programs lack rigor or cannot result in “real” learning is harmful, technophobic, and helps maintain the whiteness of academic libraries. This attitude favors applicants with the wealth and time to enroll in face to face programs, even though very little of their development as librarians occurs in lecture style, classroom settings. “Candidates must prove that they want it enough, prove that they are ‘the best’, where ‘the best’ sometimes just means the most willing and able to work for free” (Hudson, 2014). Conspicuous leisure manifests in the time lost learning to perform whiteness and the wealth required to do so effectively. Unpack for a moment what the notion of being “put together” professionally involves: hairstyles, makeup, becoming comfortable in costuming which may or may not be designed for our bodies, voice coaching to eliminate accents and modify tone, time for exercise to appear “healthy”, orthopedics to address poor posture, orthodontics and teeth whitening, eye contacts if our lenses distort our appearance, concealing body modifications, and the countless ways marginalized librarians modify gesture, develop behavioral scripts, and otherwise conceal their authentic selves in the interest of survival. Favoring applications with access to time and wealth is a larger manifestation of problems in hiring for libraries: we choose people like us because it is easy, rather than advocating for different views by picking “unfamiliar” candidates who might interrogate the processes. This manifests in micro (but no less harmful) aggressions if librarians who aren’t white and middle class manage to get hired and do not perform to “model minority” standards or otherwise refuse to sit quietly. “Our reviews are full of words like ‘shrill’, ‘abrasive’, ‘hard to work with’, ‘not a team player’, and ‘difficult’. We’re encouraged to be nicer and less intimidating and more helpful. Action items and measurable metrics are nowhere to be found.” (tableflip.club) For marginalized librarians, the successful performance of whiteness may include integrating aspects of the self which allow White Saviors to feel good: I am resilient; I overcome; I have transcended my station. Such gestures convey applicants understand the rules of whiteness and hidden curriculum of the academy. Strategically revealed narratives of working nonstandard hours, surviving “bad” neighborhoods, single parents, holding multiple jobs while attending school, and similar stories can become currency in white culture (Cecire, 2015). White culture embraces stories of overcoming intense odds while learning to perform whiteness, in the same way it creates and consumes stories of poverty tourism and role play for self-promotion: food stamp challenges, homeless awareness “sleep outs”, and the ever-expanding White Savior industrial complex. Recently, these stories have migrated away from individual librarians to libraries as institutions: media coverage of uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore, and others center the library as a character in resiliency narratives. While the institution benefits in the short term from increased attention and support, this reinforces an ongoing messaging problem: libraries are most visible in the context of state sponsored violence. Libraries cannot simply possess inherent value, they must be framed as populist defenders or as sanctuary. Above all else they must struggle. By contrast, librarianship assumes access to wealth or tolerance for debt to afford tuition, professional membership, and service opportunities. If I activate my American Library Association membership for all divisions and sections applicable for my job, the annual fee would come to $223 USD. This does not include conference registration fees, travel costs, a safe place to rest, or food. Activity in local and regional groups varies in cost, depending on the organization’s philosophy. Competitiveness in the current job market requires at minimum a well-placed practicum experience conducting librarian level work, but only students with access to money can afford to take an unpaid internship. Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums throughout the United States continue exploiting unpaid labor, insuring the pool of well-qualified academic librarians skews white and middle class. In the application process, asking for salary history is careless and further privileges a particular kind of applicant. For marginalized hires, salary history is another instance in a lifetime of humiliating scrutiny and surveillance on behalf of the state: the Free Application For Student Aid (FAFSA), housing vouchers, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), charity organizations, free or reduced cost student lunches, and invasive discussions with intervention professionals. FAFSA and SNAP programs are specific to the United States, but surveillance apparatus can be found wherever the “dole” exists. Librarianship as a profession suffers when practitioners conflate sacrifice with worth, as though receiving comparatively lower salaries were justified due to our status as workers with a “calling”. Marginalized librarians–especially women–are taught to avoid negotiation and highlighting their accomplishments, to say nothing of diminished opportunities to build a livable salary history. This is culturally reinforced, as women pay measurable social costs for promoting themselves (Bowles, 2007). Marginalized librarians find themselves trapped in a rigged process: provide salary history and be underpaid, demand more and be rejected, all with the knowledge that salary will provide access to professional development opportunities. For marginalized librarians, functioning at work requires navigating white cultural norms, conforming to professional orientations potentially at odds with their identity, taking on the additional work of speaking for an entire group of people (Gonzalez-Smith, Swanson & Tanaka, 2014) and for women, engaging in emotional labor to “be nicer” rather than producing tangible results. Librarianship can claim to recruit a diverse workforce, but without interrogating whiteness, the only winning move for marginalized librarians is not to play. The responsibility of fostering an inclusive workforce must fall to white librarians in power.   Interrogating Whiteness How can we interrogate the process? As I watch other marginalized librarians go through their job searches, a few ideas come to mind: In the absence of paid internships, offer professional development: pay for a conference or workshop attendance fees. If this is not possible, integrate opportunities for networking and mimicking the gestures of professional socialization. Offer hands-on, project driven assignments, and create opportunities to showcase critical thinking and data-driven decision making to interns. Weeding books for three weeks and journaling the experience in a blog is not a solid project, yet I’ve seen this offered as one a half dozen times. Practicum requirements in library and information science graduate programs are meant to be process assignments; a conversation about meaningful, engaging work is part of that process. Offer flexible times for internships. Requiring specific availability is the prerogative of the library, but understand this limits the diversity of your applicant pool. Partial or fully virtual internships offer tremendous opportunities for the library to expand as a truly 24-hour entity. Update boilerplate job descriptions to remove salary history requirements. Given the profession’s reliance on unpaid labor and part-time work, salary history does not reflect individual worth or ability. Screen interview notes for biased language. “Doesn’t seem professional” as criticism without articulating why is a problem. When someone says “I just like them better,” find out why. If search committees consistently defer to one member, find out why. Decide what you are attempting to measure with interview questions. Open-ended questions have answers that feel correct–there’s nothing wrong with behavioral interviews but hiding bias in a “correct” answer or “gut feeling” is a problem. Avoid using White Savior narratives when dealing with communities and patrons in poverty. When seeking marginalized employees to serve on diversity, hiring, or outreach committees, consider if this is the only kind of service work they’re asked to do.  Consistently asking the same people to perform emotional labor causes burnout and suggests the organization is not listening to marginalized staff. Remember diversity is not always visible, and people should not have to disclose their lived experience to be heard by the organization. Provide anonymous options for employee feedback. Give people the power to do their jobs. Actionably curious librarians without basic agency required to explore reskilling and shifting responsibilities causes breathtaking harm to our profession. Research suggests a number of librarians are bypassing this conversation altogether to avoid paternal IT policy, hostile administration, and often both (Yelton, 2015). Librarians in environments with agency and trust consistently build wonderful things. Conclusions Librarianship in the United States lacks diversity because the existing workforce functions within oppressive structures, while the culture of whiteness in libraries maintains them. Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce is the responsibility of all librarians, but this process will move faster with individual voices in power interrogating bias in their practices. While these suggestions are not exhaustive nor universal in their application, I hope they can function as starting points for difficult but necessary discussions. Thanks to Cecily Walker, Jessica Olin, and Annie Pho for asking hard questions and wading through my rusty prose. Cecily in particular tolerated many stream-of-consciousness Twitter DMs. This essay would not exist without Stephanie Sendaula, Brit Bennett, and many other librarians and writers whose work shaped my thoughts. I am grateful for the library and information science job seekers who shared their anxieties, their victories, and infectious tenacity. Works Cited Adkins, D., & Hussey, L. (2006). The Library in the Lives of Latino College Students. The Library Quarterly, 76(4), 456-480. Bennett, Brit. (2014, December 17). I Don’t Know What To Do With Good White People. Jezebel. http://jezebel.com/i-dont-know-what-to-do-with-good-white-people-1671201391 (Accessed 12/20/2014) Bennett, Brit. [@britbennett]. (2015, April 3). As someone who has been in so many privileged spaces, I know that murky place between gratitude and anger all too well. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/britrbennett/status/584077605026029568 Bowles, H. R., Babcock, L., & Lai, L. (May 01, 2007). Social incentives for gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations: Sometimes it does hurt to ask. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103, 1, 84-103. Cammarota, J. (January 01, 2011). Blindsided by the Avatar: White Saviors and Allies out of Hollywood and in Education. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies,33, 3, 242-259. Cecire, Natalia. (2015, April 26) Resilience and Unbreakability. Works Cited  http://natalia.cecire.org/pop-culture/resilience-and-unbreakability/ (Accessed 04/27/2015) Costello, C. Y. (2005). Professional identity crisis: Race, class, gender, and success at professional schools. Nashville, Tenn: Vanderbilt University Press. Davies, A. (2014). The origins of the ideal worker: The separation of work and home in the United States from the market revolution to 1950. Work and Occupations, 41(1), 18 – 39. Dews, C. L. B., & Law, C. L. (1995). This fine place so far from home: Voices of academics from the working class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. See Carolyn Leste Law’s introduction and Laurel Johnson Black’s essay, “Stupid Rich Bastards”. Drabinski, E. (April 01, 2013). Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction. The Library Quarterly, 83, 2, 94-111. Ewen, S. (1988). All consuming images: The politics of style in contemporary culture. New York: Basic Books. Gonzalez-Smith, Swanson, & Tanaka (2014). Unpacking Identity: Racial, Ethnic, and Professional Identity and Academic Librarians of Color. In Pagowsky, N., & Rigby, M. E. (eds). The librarian stereotype: Deconstructing perceptions and presentations of information work. (149-173). Chicago, IL. Association of College & Research Libraries. Haras, C., Lopez, E. M., & Ferry, K. (September 01, 2008). (Generation 1.5) Latino Students and the Library: A Case Study. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34, 5, 425-433. Hudson, Cate. (November 18, 2014) We Hire The Best. Model View Culture, 18: Hiring. modelviewculture.com/pieces/we-hire-the-best (Accessed 2/10/2015). McMillan Cottom, Tresse. (2013, October 29) The Logic of Stupid Poor People. tressiemc http://tressiemc.com/2013/10/29/the-logic-of-stupid-poor-people/ (Accessed 03/25/2014) Riis, J. A. (1890). How the other half lives: Studies among the tenements of New York. (Making of America.) New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Sadler, B., Bourg, C. (2015). Feminism and the Future of Library Discovery. Code4Lib Journal, 28. http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/10425 (Accessed 4/15/2015) Salo, D. (August 15, 2013). How to Scuttle a Scholarly-Communication Initiative. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 1, 4.) Sendaula, Stephanie. [@sendulas]. (2015, March 26). LRT: Plus, it’s super awkward when colleagues and/or patrons ask if you’re the diversity hire. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/sendaulas/status/581152140955095040 Sin, S. C. J. (January 01, 2011). Neighborhood disparities in access to information resources: Measuring and mapping U.S. public libraries’ funding and service landscapes. Library and Information Science Research, 33, 1, 41-53. Williams III, J., Van Arnhem, J. (2015) But Then You Have to Make It Happen Code4Lib Journal, 28. http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/10487 (Accessed 4/15/2015) Yelton, A. (April, 2015). Political and Social Dimensions of Library Code. (Chapter 5) (Report). Library Technology Reports, 51, 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/ltr.51n3   diversity, job market, librarianship, organizational culture “I’m Just Really Comfortable:” Learning at Home, Learning in Libraries Revising Academic Library Governance Handbooks 42 Responses cuttingthecheez 2015–06–04 at 12:05 pm Great discussion and breakdown of this issue! Mary Anderson 2015–06–04 at 6:59 pm Sorry, but I didn’t get much past the first paragraph. I’m white. I’m heterosexual. I’ve been middle class for most of my life, and I’ve definitely benefited from capitalism. I came to librarianship at the age of fifty. This is the first full-time, permanent job I’ve ever had. It developed after I worked for two years as an intern. My internship was posted on the internship site of the library school at the multiculturally diverse university were I was earning my MLIS. My internship was at a multiculturally diverse university that’s on the cutting edge of diversity research and activism. Yet there were few (if any) other applicants, of any color or persuasion. I worked my butt off and was lucky enough to be hired full time so I could support myself after going through a nasty divorce, having major surgery, and finding myself in a newly emptied nest. Everyone’s different. We all have challenges to overcome, and we all have opportunities to make excuses or step up, but ultimately we’re all responsible for making our own paths. Just my two cent’s worth. Fiona Blackburn 2015–06–23 at 9:07 pm Hello Mary You’ve had a difficult time. There’s no question that the library industry is a tough nut to crack and it doesn’t give all that much return. Imagine how much harder it must be for people up against the inbuilt biases and obstacles that Angela describes. I’m an Australian librarian so I’m not familiar with a lot of the structures and processes that she mentions but I do know that as an Anglo middle aged female I benefit enormously from being white. I know for instance that I don’t have to wonder whether I didn’t get that job, or that tenancy, or was overlooked at the shop counter because I’m black or my English isn’t very good or I’m a migrant or refugee. Because I’m white and not black or a migrant or a refugee, I know I won’t get abused on public transport or singled out for contumely by my government. Further, I got my start in librarianship in a library that had a local Indigenous knowledge collection – and looking after it was my responsibility, a white woman from thousands of miles away, not a local Indigenous person. Yes we all make our own paths but we don’t all have the same start – some of us have much more difficult terrain to travel through. And some of us will be far more affected by reverses than others; and sometimes lack of resources and experience or different experience will be the factor that means we’re more affected by those reverses than others are. There is much more debate in United States librarianship about matters like this than in Australia – well done to those who have raised them; I acknowledge your strength and the persistence it takes to raise them and get their veracity accepted, even if only by some. Pingback : Latest Library Links 5th June 2015 | Latest Library Links Pingback : Librarian to be. . . Max Macias 2015–06–07 at 3:51 pm Thank you for your lucid breakdown of what is going on in librarianship when it comes to ethnic equity and inclusion. The explication by you explains why there is no progress when it comes to ethnic inclusion and equity in librarianship. This means that those people of color who do make it in libraries–tend to be beholden and reinforcers of the status quo. This is also a reason for a lack of innovative thought in this area. Thank you for this post! Andrew Finegan 2015–06–08 at 8:03 am Whilst I find your research and discussion fascinating and worthwhile, I have to admit that I’m extremely uncomfortable with the term “whiteness”. Just as I would be extremely uncomfortable with the term “person of colour” if somebody chose to describe me that way. Just as somebody of German / Irish / Italian / Polish descent might object to their cultural identity to be reduced to “white”. I would suggest that a more appropriate term would be “privilege” – as this is something that race, gender and class all contribute to, without evoking overly-simplified ideas of racial identity. Andrew Finegan 2015–06–08 at 3:20 pm But that aside, I pretty much agree that there’s a lack of diversity in libraries, and without it, libraries will struggle to truly represent the needs of its communities, whether it is in its collections, its services, or its capacity for advocacy as a community hub. shgmclicious 2015–06–25 at 1:16 pm One of the reasons we fail to move forward in this conversation and conversations about privilege in numerous other fields is because white people are afraid to own their whiteness. Whiteness is not an insult. But it is what you are. It’s of course not all you are, but it’s important to recognize that having the privilege to be a part of whiteness and to LOOK white is a major advantage in the world. Fiona Blackburn 2015–06–25 at 7:10 pm I don’t know that we’re afraid of acknowledging our whiteness as we don’t realise we’re white and we don’t realise what being white means. White is the ‘norm’, so ‘normal’ that it’s invisible to those who are white. That invisibility means that conversations about discrimination start with the focus on blackness, or colour, or other differences – which focus of course reinforces the norm of whiteness, and so it goes. Celia 2015–06–08 at 9:30 am Thank you for this article. In response to other commenters, I’d point towards Johnson’s ‘Privilege, Power, and Difference’ for more on why privilege sometimes gets tied in specifically with whiteness (even though not all white people get to *feel* the experience of social privilege). If you’re white (like I am!) please take the time to read more on whiteness; there are a range of educated perspectives. Pay attention to the stress, the worry, and the frustration that can come from reading about whiteness & diversity. I’m still learning, myself. So much going on in your article, Angela. Thanks so much. It’s good for librarians to be aware of the impact of our implicit culture on librarians from minority communities (extra workload), young librarians (unpaid, menial tasks), new older librarians (often undervalued or face age discrimination), librarians from poor communities (who put the most into their job and get the least back) and librarians who otherwise struggle to ‘fit in’ to the expectations we have for each other. Keep with it, whether you’re white or of color, male or female, whatever your origin, sexuality, religion, or class — we need all of us here and recreating librarianship as a space that welcomes all of us. Pingback : Library Values and the Alt-Ac Career | The Dumpling Cart Bob Schroeder 2015–06–08 at 11:30 am Thank you for this informative look at how the interview process looks though eyes different than mine. I was just at the CAPAL conference in Ottawa and one of the leitmotivs in the sessions was the need to hire more diverse librarians. But as we furthered this discussion over mealtime it became clear to me that this is only the beginning of the process. I think what many of us really want is someone “diverse” to come on board so we can check off that all important diversity check box; Someone that will easily, by the time their tenure vote rolls around, learn to be more like “us.” (I a white male). I think for diversity to really work we (who are in power in libraries) need to really WANT diversity, which means unexpected, and wonderful change. Not that we’re hiring diverse people TO change us, but knowing that we, and our institutions, will be changed in ways we don’t comprehend. We in power have to be open and ready for the struggles and ultimate benefits a diverse workforce will bring. Emily 2015–06–12 at 2:50 am Thank you for this work. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on how we can support new librarians (especially “diversity hires”) once they get into their jobs. As an early-career librarian, I moved to a new city to start a new job. I’m not the only POC in my office, but I will be soon. However, I don’t feel secure enough in my position to engage in hypercritical issues with my supervisors about race. I’m pretty good at navigating white cultural norms and I hate to be the token voice, but I’m also starting to feel very isolated. What I miss most about my university days are the POC-only spaces I could access. There has to be a way to create safer spaces (virtually or physically) for self-identified minority librarians (what is the right term?) to get together and support each other. And what if that means creating spaces where white folks aren’t allowed? Will there be a backlash? Will we make ourselves even more vulnerable? I’m afraid to find out. Seth Allen 2015–06–12 at 9:49 am Not to mention religious and technological biases – I worked for two small seminaries. People scoffed at theological librarians since they though we held dusty Bibles all day, but we do a variety of tasks. And getting a job at an impoverished library that lacks technology is not helpful when every job ad requires someone who knows how to use LibGuides, virtual chat, and other tools of affluence. Jumping from a job with little resources to a well-staffed library is hard. Veronica 2015–06–12 at 12:54 pm This is a fascinating article generating a much-needed conversation. I think a lot of your “interrogation” points really challenge us reflect on the way we approach diversity in libraries, particularly your point about diversity not always being visible, and your comments about questioning biases that are couched in language of a candidate’s “fit.” And can I just say, thank you for the call to end the “white savior” narrative. It is rampant in higher education (not just academic libraries and libraries generally) and it is completely marginalizing to the groups of students it claims to want to help. Department of Library and Information Science 2015–06–16 at 3:16 am Have just gone through the article and its quite good. Cheers Pingback : Are online MLIS degree-holders “less than?” | Information Wants To Be Free Abi Solanke 2015–06–23 at 2:54 pm One of the reasons for terminating my library appointment was “request to attend a wedding.” Of course, I am African-American in a white dominated library and university. Pingback : MLS Student Summer Reading - iSchool MLS shgmclicious 2015–06–25 at 1:11 pm The overwhelming whiteness and the microaggressions that come with being nonwhite and being young (can we talk about how white people always think people of color are younger than they are because they just don’t know how to look at people of color) are why I’m leaving the field two years after graduation. And why I never felt all that comfortable or welcome in libraries to begin with. “I don’t think of myself as an ex-hotel night clerk, but will always be a librarian even if my job title doesn’t reflect this. Librarianship is not simply what we do at work but a component of how we identify as people” This. I mean, not hotel clerk, but other jobs. I will have those tendencies, I know people will always ask me for booklists, I will always like to organize and standardize and control vocabulary…but I’m done with working in this area. Daisy 2015–06–29 at 11:40 am I appreciate the analysis and suggestions for practice. Nice work. However, I just read (Haras, Lopez & Ferry, 2008) and I can not find where this case-study states that “libraries can be a source of anxiety for marginalized students.” I do not disagree with this statement; I just do not see college-student stress or anxiety addressed in the case-study cited. Perhaps this citation was an error. galvan_as 2015–06–29 at 11:55 am Thank you for your comment. In this case no, that study does not ultimately _conclude_ academic libraries are a source of anxiety. My citation draws largely from the paragraph: “While most students expressed confidence that they were not “hopeless” when it comes to research, they also recounted experiences in which teachers did not adequately prepare them in the use of the library, of substandard school library collections, and of frustrated attempts at using the academic library. Barely three-quarters engaged in some form of research activity during high school. One in four students did not do any research until college. However, since information literacy skills are not mandated in California’s public schools, it is hard to make the case that academic library usage and library comfort are inevitable for any student.” (431) This suggested anxiety to me. Pingback : Hack Your Summer: Part One | hls IgNaySeeOh 2015–07–01 at 6:25 pm Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that people instinctively show bias toward individuals who are most similar to them in terms of appearance and behavior. And that certainly helps explain in part why the library profession has struggled to reflect the diversity of the United States as a whole. But I think this is more a matter of human psychology than the result of some imaginary “white structure” implemented to oppress all people of color. Not all white people are the same and not all people of color are the same. In fact, almost everyone and every family is an amalgam of different races and ethnicities. It is strange that an argument for diversity can fail to capture this essential truth and reduce humanity in such…forgive me…black and white terms. The author seems misguided by elements of critical race theory, which in turn cause her to make sweeping generalizations about categories of people without regard to differences relating to socio-political-economic class. Moreover, she has reduced American society to a Manichean dualism based on characteristics that she has arbitrarily determined as preeminent. That says more about her than it does about society. Seriously, why isn’t whiteness defined simply as the state of being white? (Incidentally, the author never clearly defines what “white” means either.) Why does a white person have to be straight, possess a savings account, and enjoy reading the Wall Street Journal? The author never answers these questions. Apparently, these are self-evident truths. Does that mean if you are Irish-American and gay or a blonde communist that you’re not white? And who gets to decide racial/ethnic membership? Is there a white tribal council that determines all of this? And does that mean conversely that if I’m a person of color who dresses professionally, speaks standard English, and aspires to be a successful businessman that I’ve somehow joined the dark side (or the white side depending on how you look at it) and betrayed my people? This is what happens when one mixes victimhood with interdisciplinary studies. I agree: the Library profession lacks diversity. But analyzing it from such a narrow, propagandist lens will do more harm than good. Race and ethnicity are complex concepts that require more sophisticated tools of analysis. I’m not saying that race and ethnicity don’t matter. But we can and should do better than this. Esther 2015–07–06 at 1:32 pm Hi, Ignacio, I see your point, but when I read the article, and re-read it now, I can’t say I agree. I feel like Ms. Galvan does explain who is part of the patriarchy at issue from the very beginning: “whiteness in this essay means: white, heterosexual, capitalist, and middle class.” The points Ms. Galvan makes are important, and they seem to be missed in your response. The points in the article don’t treat “mainstream professionalism” as invalid. Doe does point out how exclusive it can be, and that value can come from people that don’t fit that particular mold. She seems to ask a broader question. Can a library worker look and speak in a way that others consider “non-professionally,” as you put it? Someone with a lisp, someone who mispronounces “libary” for library, code-switches, dress differently (bright colors, “loud” accessories, ethnic jewelry, thrifty clothes, soft-butch style)? Just by asking the question, we are now able to bring to light the issues we face all the time: being hired, at staff meetings, when creating committees. We are limited, and continue to be limited. In my opinion, it doesn’t help to reduce the points made while also knowing that the full message of the article isn’t being addressed. I am so excited by Ms. Galvan’s article! We talk so little about diversity, and offer such few solutions. It was thrilling when School Library Journal had an issue devoted to diversity, and it would be wonderful if other library publications followed suit. We don’t have one single problem when it comes to diversity, but many, and it is really, really great to see all the comments/discussions going on thanks to this article being published. Alecto Greenslade 2015–07–06 at 10:23 pm Hi all I think it helps to think about these issues from a systemic perspective, rather than an individual one. Here is Australia, our frameworks are Western, ie white, although there is another set of cultures (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) that have existed here for much longer than European settlement. Nevertheless we live in a Westminster form of government, an English system of law, in an environment where Protestant and Catholic religions are dominant and where most migrants come from Britain (yes still!). Our politicians are disproportionately white. I worked in a prison library last yea; the custodial officers were predominantly white, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were disproportionately represented and other minority groups were also present in larger proportion than they are in the general population. Every migrant, and the Indigenous peoples, have to fit into those systems. Yes those systems have changed to accommodate some aspects of the cultures migrants from other parts of the world (thank goodness) but they are still recognisably English. It’s still not uncommon for migrants from parts of Asia, for instance, to choose an Anglicised name when they get here, to fit in more quickly, rather than use their own name; people with qualifications in their home country have to gain equivalent recognition before they can work in their profession (this can mean starting their qualification from scratch). From this perspective, we live in a white world, into which individuals in all their complexity and diversity fit themselves, where ‘white’ is the institutional norm so that, for instance, the problems that arise for Aboriginal people living here are labelled ‘Indigenous issues’ rather than problems of inbuilt disadvantage. Even though the workforce in the library service where I am employed is almost as diverse as the rest of the Australian population, library systems are unchanged by that or by the diversity of the population; there is one person, one, in management who is not white. I think it’s more useful to think about issues of whiteness this way, looking at structures first and the consequences for people second, rather than try and measure individuals’ whiteness. Cheers libraryleadpipe 2015–07–06 at 4:28 pm We’ve had to delete a couple of comments in this thread, so it seems like a good time to remind people of the In the Library with the Lead Pipe Comment Policy: “We appreciate and invite your comments and discussion about articles on In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Constructive criticism is one of our primary goals, and we applaud it in our readers. Comments that violate our Code of Conduct, disregard the article’s topic, or fail to add to the discussion will be deleted. We do not edit comments except by request of the poster.” 5lawslib 2015–07–11 at 7:19 pm In the Library with the Lead Pipe » Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness & Librarianship http://t.co/ncOFU69D43 Ramon Trane 2015–07–22 at 5:16 pm Great article. No doubt that libraries reinforce, like any other institution, this whiteness. No news. Pingback : In the Library with the Lead Pipe » Why Diversity Matters: A Roundtable Discussion on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Librarianship Pingback : Weekly Round-Up | hls Pingback : an if-I-was-going-to-SAA hypothetical schedule | library blerg Pingback : In the Library with the Lead Pipe » White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS Comment navigation Newer Comments → This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-7215	----	Working at Learning: Developing an Integrated Approach to Student Staff Development – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2014 Apr 09 Jeremy McGinniss /2 Comments Working at Learning: Developing an Integrated Approach to Student Staff Development In Brief: In recent years, student staff have become essential to the success of library operations, particularly within higher education. Student library employment offers a unique opportunity for students to integrate library-specific knowledge and skills with their academic and personal development. This article will discuss the importance of developing an integrated student staff development approach. by Jeremy McGinniss Introduction There is an old Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy derisively comments on Linus’s desire to become a doctor, focusing particularly on the fact that Linus could never be a doctor because he doesn’t love mankind. In the last panel, Linus yells in protest, “I love mankind, it’s just the people I can’t stand.” In April 2012, a colleague and I attended a local consortia meeting. During a post-lunch panel of various academic librarians, the discussion turned to student staff. A particular librarian commented negatively on the abilities of their library’s student staff, indicating that only the librarians were doing real library work. This feeling seemed to be shared, to some degree, by other librarians in the room. While this did not sit right with my colleague or me, to our own failing neither of us responded. On the drive home we began to flesh out what exactly bothered us about the comment as well as our own lack of response. We concluded that if librarians are not happy with the performance of their student staff, then the fault lies with the librarians. This conversation drove us to re-work our entire student staff approach. It is quite easy to take Linus’s response and tweak it to fit attitudes that we as librarians can hold: “I love mankind, it’s just the patrons, or this patron, I can’t stand.” “I love mankind, it’s just the volunteer staff I can’t stand.” “I love mankind, it’s just the student staff I can’t stand.” Whether these sentiments are stated aloud in a consortia meeting or kept locked in one’s thoughts, they are going to impact the ways in which we as library staff relate to student staff. The foundational impact of student staff on the day-to-day functioning of the library can not be underestimated.  “Without the student workers the library could not remain open as long; costs for staffing the circulation desk would increase; document delivery and interlibrary loan services would take too long; materials would not be re-shelved in a timely manner; and processing new books would be slowed.”1 Recognizing these tasks are essential for library success is to also recognize reliance on student staff performing those tasks. Recognizing the Role of Student Staff Reliance on student staff has significantly increased in recent years. Consider that in the 1950s, professional librarians comprised 50 to 90 percent of the staff in college and university libraries. By the late 1980s, student staff members outnumbered librarians by a ratio of two to one.2  During the 1990s, libraries passed the point where students were viewed merely as a “…labor reserve for the monotonous and repetitive tasks that are necessary for successful library operation.”3 This is particularly true in higher education, where the library is often perceived as a desirable place to work. The increased number of student staff in conjunction with the learning environment engendered by a collegiate atmosphere provides a unique opportunity; namely, “…library employment would seem to provide students with the opportunity to apply what they learn on the job to their academic studies.”4 The library as an employer is uniquely poised to help student staff synthesize a variety of skills due to the eclectic skill set that library work can require. “It is professional staff members’ responsibility to provide student employees with an opportunity for involvement that is both meaningful and educational while assisting them in becoming successful members of an increasingly global society.”5 What does it mean to provide involvement that is meaningful and educational? For student staff, working in the library should not be disconnected from other areas of life and study. Library employment is another avenue to support students as they work to integrate academic, professional and personal skill sets. In order to support this integration, the library must create developmental and assessment processes that will deliberately engage the student staff members recognizing “…work that is more firmly linked to academically purposeful behaviors and conditions would presumably have greater positive effects for the students.”6 In order to hire and train student staff effectively, libraries need to establish comprehensive and structured hiring and training processes. The specifics of these processes are outside of this article’s focus. However, there are many resources in library scholarship and trade publications which can provide assistance in developing robust hiring and training procedures.7 As college and universities work to develop successful and well-rounded students, there is particular focus on deliberately linking the student’s learning in the classroom with their experience outside of it. One of the areas highlighted to help students realize success is that of on-campus employment. If  the academic library should be leading higher education change, academic librarians should be working to develop processes that incorporate student development as part of the broader learning experience. To an extent, libraries and librarians are already doing this. I have had two opportunities over the last year to teach an online Continuing Education Unit on student staff development. In those units I have interacted with librarians across the country who are actively thinking, working, and wrestling with the development and assessment of their student staff. The mutual benefit of these interactions came through the discussions and exchanges of meaningful and educational ways to improve how we are working with our student staff. As a profession we must be more deliberately active in our approach to these areas of student staff development and assessment. This article will argue for an integrated approach to student staff training that works to tie student staff development to other areas of students’ growth and development during their time as undergraduates. Examples from the library literature and my own library will be examined. In the conclusion I will provide what I think are some good beginning steps to this process of integration. Development Many of the articles or books dealing with supervising student staff deal with development in one of two categories: professional staff development or developing student staff skills as related to library positions.8 Focus on both of these areas is essential and should continue. Typically “development training usually refers to long-term growth: training to improve performance…For student employees development training is usually limited to preparing them for supervisory duties within the department…”9 There’s nothing wrong with this. It is part of our job as professional librarians to improve our libraries. But to view development solely in this light impoverishes the library’s potential  to challenge and grow its student staff. Developmental training should be intentionally designed with particular opportunities and planned tasks that allow student staff to practice and work on their own problem-solving, evaluatory, and critical thinking skills. Several examples of how I’ve tried to realize this in my library will be discussed below. Assessment An essential part of development is regular assessment. “A library that recognizes the need for and benefits of assessment of performance and service presents rewarding opportunities for staff to become more engaged in their work and to identify more strongly with the library’s mission and goals.”10 The goal of assessment is simple: holding student staff accountable to the work they are supposed to be doing, with the expectation of a particular level of quality. In order for assessment to succeed, clearly communicated expectations and requirements must be in place to communicate what successful work in the library looks like. Much of the assessment writing on libraries focuses on how the library is performing within the institution. This focus does not necessarily include how specific subsets of the library staff are helping the library meet institutional goals.  “Student employment is an important service provided by libraries and it should be included in library assessment plans.”11  Some practical examples of assessment of student staff will be provided later in this article. Development Requires Care Practically speaking, how does the library become a place that provides space for students to exercise their skills in their roles in the library? As librarians we need to care about all of our staff, student or otherwise. Linus reaches an important truth in his response as it is much easier to care for mankind in the abstract then the messy day-to-day negotiations of human relationships. It is impossible to develop your student staff if you don’t care about them. Wendell Berry sums this up nicely, “I think that the ideal of loving your neighbor has to take on the possibility that he may be somebody you’re going to have great difficulty loving or liking or even tolerating.”12 This is not to say that there are not consequences for mistakes or that students should not ever be fired or released from library employment. Rather the library’s approach to its student staff should recognize that students are in process of maturation and growth. By employing them, the library has the opportunity to positively participate in those processes. Students in general are a pretty fascinating bunch. Cultivating care for your staff gives you the opportunity to get to know them at an individual level. Getting to know your staff requires spending consistent amounts of time with them, using that time (staff meetings, periodic evaluations, interactions during shifts) to learn more about their strengths and how students might bring those strengths to bear on their staff roles. For example, this past fall my library implemented LibGuides and was in the process of trying to figure out ways of highlighting the library’s curriculum manipulatives.13 The morning shift supervisor at the time was a graduate student who had some experience with photography. We had talked about her various photo shoots and efforts to start a website, so her interest in photography was something we chatted about semi-regularly. I do not exactly remember how the idea came up, but through our conversation about how to best use LibGuides we came up with the idea of holding a photo-shoot for the curriculum manipulatives.  We improvised a backdrop and she artistically arranged the different elements of the manipulatives to highlight their usage. She then uploaded the images to the LibGuide, along with the item’s description, to allow library users to see exactly what the manipulatives look like. She and I had to work through some issues of communication and expectation together, but the end product turned out well. This type of project is meaningful and provided a significant contribution to the library. Caring about student staff is the first step to planning and allowing for meaningful work that contributes to the library’s ability to provide information resources to the campus community. Development Requires Flexibility and Time In addition to caring, flexibility and time are needed to avoid a Linus-like response to disliking people due to spending time with them. For example, I have found it to be extremely helpful to view student staff training as ongoing and not as a one-time or first semester approach. Training is an iterative process that may have to occur in the middle of whatever work that I’m doing requiring me to be flexible and responsive to student staff needs. “Training does not end with instructions. It must include the supervisor’s setting an example of the work ethic encouraged by the library culture, and of the sense of fair play, encompassing both positive and negative feedback, that each library promotes for its employees.”14  Without time to invest there will be no student staff development. There needs to be time to plan, time to prepare, and time to spend with your student staff as well as time to show that you care. This needs to be planned into your schedule. Otherwise, unplanned expenditures of time with your student staff are going to seem like interruptions and hassles. There should also be time given, within reason, for student staff to develop into their roles. Students are not sea monkeys where they hit the water and start swimming and growing. My library currently has student staff in their second or third year of library employment who had rough beginnings but are now some of the library’s most valued employees. A particular senior student, early in her library employment, often missed meetings, was flustered easily by patron questions, and lacked confidence in her library role. She was given time to develop in her library position and has taken on leadership roles within the library. I can confidently assign her complex tasks with basic instructions, being sure that she will proceed as far as she is able, attempt some problem-solving, and contact me with any questions. As she is majoring in communications, she took ownership of updating the student staff handbook, allowing her to utilize skills and knowledge gleaned from her major to benefit her library role. Practically Applying Assessment The library staff responsible for supervising students need to communicate a shared standard of what a successful staff member looks like. Assessment is an integral part of this communication process. There are two levels on which assessment should occur. Assessment serves to examine quality of the job performed as well as the individual performing it. One of the articles that was particularly helpful to the overhaul of my library’s student staff development process was the article Gone Fishing by Carol Anne Chouteau and Mary Heinzman, in which they narrate the process by which they wanted to motivate as well as assess student shelving.15 The authors used paper fish to help motivate, train, and track student staff as they shelved books. We derived our own approach from this article. Instead of fish, we use approximately 250 8” tall die-cut owls, cut out of bright yellow paper and laminated. These owls reside in a box at the circulation desk. When books are returned, the student staff member writes their initials on an owl with a dry erase marker and after shelving the book places an owl to the left of that book. I (or the library’s part-time staff member) will, throughout the day, review the stacks to pull the owls. We keep track of the total number of owls shelved as well as mistakes. As a result, the precision of student staff shelving has improved. This process also highlights any consistent shelving issues and allows us to meet directly with the student to address them. The student staff member and I can walk back to the shelf, examine the issue, and they can fix it. This provides direct evaluation and ownership of the shelving process and gives opportunity for praise and recognition of students who are doing exemplary work. Assessment should also focus on the individual. If working in the library is to contribute to student development, then individual assessment is necessary to communicate that how a student can grow in character areas as well as in skills areas. In my library we have adopted a rubric-based approach taken from Linda Lemery’s article “Student Assistant Management: Using an Evaluation Rubric”.16 The hardest aspect I’ve found in the rubric-based approach is to present it to the student staff in a way that they can retain the categories and expectations without causing the rubric to be perceived as onerous. The rubric is used to clearly state what is expected from the student staff and staff supervisors.17 In order to set a baseline of expectations, I meet with each student at the beginning of the year to set goals for the year. We discuss the strengths that they bring to the library and some areas of growth that they can focus on for the upcoming year. We also meet at the end of the year to review their progress. At that point the possibility of continued library employment is also considered. We also conduct regular staff meetings, typically occurring once a month throughout the semester. This helps to keep staff on the same page and offers an opportunity to address any questions or staff-wide trainings that need to be accomplished. Student schedules can pose some difficulty. I will follow up directly with students who miss the meetings, using Doodle to help in the scheduling process. In our staff meetings, because not all of the students work together, we play a modified version of Cranium, breaking up the students into teams. Having students hum, draw, or act while trying to beat the clock or the other teams has been one of the most helpful aspects of establishing the feeling of a team and sense of cohesion and unity. That being said, a recent reduction in my library from two professional librarians to one has added a layer of difficulty. There is less time to spend with student staff, the extent of training has suffered, and team meetings have been sporadically scheduled. Example 1: Building Stacks What does the application of integrated student development look like in real life? I have two examples that illustrate ways of helping student staff connect their learning outside of the library with the successful completion of library tasks. We recently updated the layout of our curriculum lab which required book shifting and stack adjustment. There are two particular staff who share two evening shifts during the week. I took this opportunity to hand the specific project of adjusting the stacks to these two student staff individuals. Before the stacks could be built, the shelves had to be emptied of books and removed. The two students did a good job of removing the books in such a way as to allow them to still be largely usable while they completed the stack adjustment project. Granted, they missed a few things in the shelf re-building process that we had to go back and fix together. I might have been able to bypass this but I wanted to give them an opportunity to practice some of the mechanical and problem-solving skills I had observed. I had a fair amount of confidence in their abilities but wanted to confirm that they could work together, problem-solve effectively, and inform me of any issues. Library employment should offer students the opportunity to experiment with solutions to various issues. The development process is not clear-cut or a step-by-step program to success. Evaluating and assessing are not in place just to tell the student staff whether or not they hitting the mark, but to also highlight accomplished work so that the value of that work can be recognized. “Student success is promoted by setting and holding students to standards that stretch them to perform at high levels, inside and outside the classroom.”18 Example Two: Video Project A second example of how a library can work to develop its student staff can be found in projects that are not explicitly related to library employment. This semester a student staff member and I are working together on a series of short videos featuring professors from around the school talking about books they enjoy. The video series was the student’s idea. We tossed the idea back and forth, developed a loose script, emailed a handful of professors and dove into the project. As the project continues, I contact the professors, the student staff member oversees the shooting and editing, and we collaborate together on the other details of the project. This takes time. Time I could be spending doing other library work. However, a project like this not only benefits the library but also gives this student a chance to hone his interests, abilities, and skills as a filmmaker to craft some great short videos. He is also working with our campus videographer in regards to light, graphics, and layout, so there is a level of interdepartmental interaction and support. I deliberately try to make sure I’m not taking over the project. As questions about direction, shot angles, time limits, etc. come up, I consciously make the effort to push those questions back to him so that he is responsible for the final decision. The idea for this video series developed because this student works in the library. If he had not been hired, we would not have crossed paths. While the planning, shooting and editing of the videos are outside of his regular library employment, the library has provided a platform from which he can grow this particular skill set. Additionally, these videos will serve as helpful marketing tools for the library. Creating the videos has also been very fun. It has provided interaction with professors on another level, helping them to remember the value of the library for students in their classes and their particular discipline. Transition One of the hardest parts of student staff development, in my mind, is transition. Student staff are eventually going to leave. They graduate, transfer, or find other employment. There needs to be mental preparation for this because, whether you realize it or not, you most likely have an expectation for the work that was done and now need to communicate that expectation to the individual who is going to fill the departed student’s staff shoes. For example, this fall my library had to hire for a maintenance position. This student staff member is responsible for emptying trash, filling the printers, changing light bulbs, etc. The student in that position and I work together to address the physical plant issues in the library. The previous student was fantastic. I relied on his responsibility and initiative. He was extremely consistent and followed through with each task. He graduated and thus a replacement needed to be hired. About two weeks into the semester there were tasks going unfinished and I realized that I had communicated the requirements of the job but not the expectations. I sat down with the new hire and he and I worked out a schedule and set expectations for how and when he was going to get his work done. It is very easy to expect new workers to simply be clones of previous excellent workers. Instead, student staff need to be held to an objective set of requirements that is clearly presented to them. This is why using a rubric-based approach is especially helpful, so that students are aware of our expectations. Conclusion I am not writing this article because I believe my library has the best student staff development approach. If you ever visited you would find a competent and effective staff but we are not without issues. Student staff development is not about creating a perfect student staff but rather helping students to develop an integrated, holistic view of their work and education, so that they are better equipped for whatever they end up doing post-college. However “…while the vision and potential of collaborative learning are enticing, the reality of implementation is much more challenging.”19 Realizing student staff development as collaborating with student learning is hard work and there is no silver bullet to ensure success. However, I do believe that “supervising student staff is an amazing, exhausting and exhilarating experience.”20 I strive to operate with the assumption that my student staff are fantastic and I try to demonstrate that through my interactions with them, the tasks that are given, and the way that the hiring, training, developing and assessment processes are conducted. This article is not meant to be merely illustrative of what one library is doing. As a profession we need to add the topic of student staff development to the conversations we are already having about the library’s future role in academia and public life. We need to recognize the value that student staff bring to their library positions. Recognizing that value will change how we talk about our student staff and how we talk with them. What are your student staff majoring in? What are they good at? What do they enjoy doing? How does what makes your student staff members interesting and unique contribute to the library’s impact on campus?  Let’s collectively evaluate our current student staff development processes to determine the level of integration with students’ learning outside of library employment.  If a library does not have concrete and evaluatory processes for student staff in place, those need to be established. We need to consider student staff development as something that not only improves our libraries but is significant in the holistic development of the library’s student staff. By making the effort to take these steps, we will realize the value of our student staff, the value of the work they do, and, ultimately, the value of the library. Some of these conversations and discussion are already happening but on a limited scale. I understand that this can be a sensitive area for a librarian to discuss. In sharing what you are doing with your student staff you may feel as though you are stating “I have arrived and my student staff are flawless!” We should not wait for our student staff to reach perfection before we start sharing our processes and ideas with each other. The comment section of this article is a great place to start. I look forward to the discussion.  My deep and sincere thanks to the eminently capable Lead Pipe editors-Erin, Ellie, Emily and Hugh-who gave copious insight and detailed feedback to direct and guide this article. My thanks as well to Josh Michael as external editor for his erudite input and our time together as colleagues. Further Reading Choutea, Carol Anne; Mary Heinzman. “Gone Fishing; Using the FISH! Business Model to Motivate Student Workers”. Technical Services Quarterly Vol. No. 3 2007. Pp. 41-49. Jacobson, Heather A., Shuyler, Kristen S. “Student perceptions of academic and social effects of working in a university library”. Reference Services Review Vol. 41 No. 3, 2013. Kuh, George D., Jillian Kinzie, et al. Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. 2005. Lemery, Linda D. “Student Assistant Management: Using an Evaluation Rubric”. College & Undergraduate Libaries, Vol. 15 (4), 2008. Pp. 451-462. Perozzi, Brett. Enhancing Student Learning Through College Employment Dog Ear Publishing. Bloomington, IN, 2009. Slagell, Jeff; Langendorfer, Jeanne M. “Don’t Tread on Me: The Art of Supervising Student Assistants” The Serials Librarian Vol. 44, Nos 3-4, 2003. Pp. 279-284. P. 148. Maxey-Harris, Charlene;  Cross, Jeanne; McFarland, Thomas. “Student Workers: The Untapped Resource for Library Professions.” Library Trends 59, Nos. 1-2, 2010. [↩] P. 635 Stanfield, Andrea G. and Russell L. Palmer, “Peer-ing into the information commons: Making the most of student assistants in new library spaces.” Reference Services Review Vol. 38, No. 4, 2011. [↩] P. 87 Clark, Charlene K. “Motivating and Rewarding Student Workers” Journal of Library Administration  21, no. 3/4 1995. [↩] P. 547. Jacobson, Heather A., Shuyler, Kristen S. “Student perceptions of academic and social effects of working in a university library.” Reference Services Review 41, no. 3 2013. [↩] P. 199. Scrogham, Eve; McGuire, Sara Punksy. “Orientation Training and Development” in Perozzi, Brian (Ed.) Enhancing Student Learning Through College Employment. Dog Ear Publishing.  Bloomington, IN. 2009. [↩] P. 549.  Jacobson, Heather A., Shuyler, Kristen S. “Student perceptions of academic and social effects of working in a university library.” Reference Services Review 41, no. 3, 2013. [↩] For a brief list please see Richard McKay’s “Inspired Hiring: Tools for Success in Interviewing and Hiring Student Staff.” Library Administration & Management 20, no. 3, 2006: 128-134. See also the beginning of Nora Murphy’s “When the Resources Are Human:Managing Staff, Students, and Ourselves.” Journal of Archival Organization 7, no. 1-2, 66-73. See also David Baldwin, and Daniel Barkley’s Supervisors of Student Employees in Today’s Academic Libraries. Libraries Unlimited, 2007. [↩] For professional staff development see as example Elaine Z. Jennerich’s “The long-term view of library staff development.” College and Research Library News  67, no. 10. 2006: 612-614. [↩] P. 170 Baldwin, David; Barkley, Daniel . Supervisors of Student Employees in Today’s Academic Libraries. Libraries Unlimited, 2007. [↩] P. 156. Oltmanns, Gail V. “Organization and Staff Renewal using Assessment.” Library Trends 53, No. 1, Summer 2004. [↩] P. 560  Jacobson, Heather A., Shuyler, Kristen S. “Student perceptions of academic and social effects of working in a university library.” Reference Services Review 41, No. 3, 2013 [↩] P.10 Williamson, Bruce. The Plowboy Interview” in Grubbs, Morris Allen (Ed.) Conversations with Wendell Berry. University Press of Mississippi. 2007. [↩] Curriculum manipulatives are hands-on items that are focused on kindergarten through elementary age students to teach particular concepts. For example if you were teaching a class on currency or mathematics  you could check out out a bunch of cardboard coins. If you were teaching a class on counting, proportions or weight, you could check out brass weights, several different kinds of scales, etc. [↩] P. 83. Burrows, Janice H. “Training Student Workers in Academic Libraries: How and Why.” Journal of Library Administration 21, No.3/4, 1995. [↩] See Carol Anne Choutea; Mary Heinzman. “Gone Fishing; Using the FISH! Business Model to Motivate Student Workers”. Technical Services Quarterly 24, No. 3, 2007. Pp. 41-49. [↩] See Linda D. Lemery’s “Student Assistant Management: Using an Evaluation Rubric”. College & Undergraduate Libaries 15, No. 4, 2008. Pp. 451-462. [↩] For a particularly helpful article on rubric use and writing see Megan Oakleaf’s “Using Rubrics to Collect Evidence for Decision-Making: What do Librarians Need to Learn?” Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2, No. 3, 2007. Pp. 27-42. [↩] P. 269 Kuh, George D., Jillian Kinzie, et al. Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. 2005. [↩] P. 101. Arum, Richard; Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 2011. [↩] P. 218. Scrogham, Eve; McGuire, Sara Punksy. “Orientation Training and Development” in Perozzi, Brian (Ed.) Enhancing Student Learning Through College Employment. Dog Ear Publishing. Bloomington, IN. 2009. [↩] Books Behind Bars: A Volunteer-run Prison Library Service in Winnipeg, Manitoba Librarian, Heal Thyself: A Scholarly Communication Analysis of LIS Journals 2 Responses Pingback : Nothing to do with Theology | Outside My Door Hannah Chapman 2014–04–15 at 6:16 pm This is a fantastic and thought provoking article. Having the experience of working at the campus library during my undergraduate career and now working in the access services department of another academic library, I can see the value in holding students to a higher standard. I am very grateful for my formative experiences during my undergraduate employment. How can we seek provide those meaningful experiences for student workers at large institutions, or to change the culture associated with being a student worker at a particular library? This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-7394	----	A Critical Take on OER Practices: Interrogating Commercialization, Colonialism, and Content – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2015 Oct 21 Sarah Crissinger /8 Comments A Critical Take on OER Practices: Interrogating Commercialization, Colonialism, and Content Photo by Flickr user arbyreed (CC BY NC 2.0) In Brief Both Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA) are becoming more central to many librarians’ work and the core mission of librarianship, in part because of the perceived relationship between openness and social justice. However, in our excitement about the new opportunities afforded by open movements, we might overlook structural inequalities present within these movements. In this article, I utilize some of the useful critiques OA has generated to inform the discussion of OER creation and practice. I then hone in on the conversation around OER specifically to suggest starting points for how librarians and other LIS professionals can construct more thoughtful OER practices. By Sarah Crissinger Introduction This spring, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) held their 2015 biennial conference in Portland. While I attended multiple sessions and poster presentations on Open Access (OA) and Open Educational Resources (OER), Heather Joseph’s invited paper session, “Open Expansion: Connecting the Open Access, Open Data and OER Dots,” left the most lasting impression on me. Joseph’s presentation focused on the different embodiments of openness and how collaboration between the efforts could be transformative. While explaining the Open Data front, Joseph’s presentation stopped on a photo of an oil rig. A few slides later, she summarized politicians’ take on open data, explaining that while President Obama had called data a “valuable national commodity,” Dutch politician Neelie Kroes had gone a step further and named data “the new oil for the digital age” (Joseph, 2015; Kroes, 2012). Joseph (2015) went on to explain that Kroes’ assertion was that “national economies and national destinies [were] going to rise and fall on understanding how to get the most value from data.” Right before I listened to Kroes’ words, which seemed so profoundly nationalistic and exploitative to me in that moment, I saw the photo of the rig and thought about western conquest and our pursuit of other nations’ natural resources. This sparked a deep realization within me. I found that all of the discussions I had engaged in about openness—including Joseph’s presentation—were about shared goals or shared politics. The shared risks were often left unaddressed. I started to consider how openness, when disconnected from its political underpinnings, could become as exploitative as the traditional system it had replaced. I began to reflect on the ways in which I had used, or experienced others’ use of, openness as a solution for poverty or development—often in a way that was disconnected from an understanding of systemic inequality. This article, which is an intentional critique of OER praxis, has given me the space to explore these questions. OER are digital learning objects that are shared under “an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.” Under this definition, learning objects can mean almost anything used as educational material, including tutorials, videos, guides, lesson plans, and syllabi. The Open Education movement is different than the OA movement, which is focused on the free and unrestricted use of research materials and literature. However, like Open Education, OA works to enable deeper unrestricted analysis so that scholars can read articles but also “crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose” (Chan, et. al, 2015, para 3). This article uses a critique of OER creation and practice as a proxy for the open movement in LIS generally. Thus, it utilizes some of the useful critiques OA has engendered to inform the discussion of OER, which is less developed. While the intention is not to conflate OA or critiques of OA with OER, it is worth noting that both evoke a similar rhetoric of openness and, as such, share similarities that enable us to apply lessons learned in one domain into the other. The first section will explore critiques of OER and openness in relation to commercialization, colonialism, and content. While not exhaustive, these critiques address issues of labor, the corporatization of higher education, oppressive learning formats, imperialism, and technocratic discourse around development and the information poor. This broad overview will provide a useful framework for understanding how openness generally—and Open Education specifically—can be improved. I will then offer tangible suggestions for how librarians and other LIS professionals can construct more thoughtful OER practices. These include thinking critically about the language we use when engaging stakeholders; moving beyond cost and marketing for our institutions and focusing on open pedagogy and student-centered learning; using OER creation as an opportunity to talk to students about labor and knowledge production; and challenging whose knowledge matters globally. These are not meant to be “solutions” but instead starting points. I do not provide a suggestion for every critique but instead advocate for the use of open, critical pedagogy as a method for engaging with several of the critiques mentioned, as it can make our practices more deliberate and authentically engage students in issues of openness. I believe that OER have value. I believe that equitable access to research and the data that accompanies that research is imperative and a goal our profession should continue working toward. But I also believe that it is worth our time to be intentional, to be cognizant of our position within increasingly corporatized institutions and consider how we might be furthering the goals of those institutions, to think seriously about how we can be actively dismantling power structures instead of perpetuating them, and to remind ourselves why we think open is worth fighting for in the first place. In explaining the difference between critique and criticism, author and screenwriter Balogun Ojetade (2012) writes, “Critique is not in service of a single ‘truth’…Critique opens questioning and makes single-truths unstable so as to be more inclusive of difference” (para 5). Our professional conversation around openness risks being in service of a single truth. My hope is that nuanced critique can help us move these conversations forward in a thoughtful way. Critiques of OER & Openness Labor & the Commercialization of Higher Education Academic labor is currently structured around tenure. In other words, tenure-track faculty members do not have to rely solely on dividends from their research output because their institution compensates them for doing research. However, as higher education increasingly relies on adjunct labor, this model is compromised. In order to offer more classes for less money, adjuncts are compensated by the number of courses they teach instead of their research output. As money is taken away from educators, how is the relationship between openness and labor changed (Drabinski, et. al, 2015)? Or, in more pointed terms, how does openness exasperate labor issues? Do institutions expect adjuncts to continue to create the same level of output a faculty member would, including OER creation? One of the major critiques OA has received is that it can make labor become more invisible (Roh, Drabinski, & Inefuku, 2015). The invisibility of the labor required to do the actual work behind making a publication OA is often “distant” from the rhetoric behind why OA is important, creating a disconnect between values and practice (Drabinski, et. al, 2015). Further, less “academic” work that is fundamental to maintaining OA publications (metadata creation, for example) becomes devalued (Roh, Drabinski, & Inefuku, 2015). Matthew Cheney (2015) argues that we do open systems, including OER, a great disservice if we do not talk about the labor and technology structures needed to make them possible. Thus, there are two important labor issues related to OER creation. The first is that OER creation is not rewarded in the current tenure system. Faculty members are often granted tenure because of their research impact, which might relate to OA but not OER. Further, beyond compensation, tenure provides (or has historically provided) some level of protection to take professional risks. As the concept of tenure becomes compromised and the number of positions having tenure-level protection decreases in the United States, the incentive for faculty to devote time to exploring OER creation is also compromised. The second is that adjuncts might be expected to create learning objects and even deposit them as OER but the current system does not reward them monetarily for the extra labor involved in doing so. If both parties continue to create OER, their labor might become unrecognized and devalued. The way in which this academic labor is applied at an institutional level is also worth discussing. OA advocates have started to realize that OA, separated from its political underpinnings, can quickly become a governmental and commercial source of revenue (Lawson, 2015; Watters, 2014). In the case of OER creation specifically, openness can also become a source of branding and marketing for universities (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008). Librarians should continually question who benefits from supporting openness. We should then recognize that any open movement that happens within a neoliberal institution might further politics or initiatives that do not align with our values.   Roxanne Shirazi (2015) recently wrote about librarians’ relationships with their employers, particularly as boosters of their university’s brand. While her post is focused on scholarly communication, labor, and copyright more broadly, Shirazi asserts that institutions are often more than willing to promote prestigious or interesting projects but “when it comes to financially and structurally supporting the sustained work of the individuals behind them” it is a different story (para 4). This applies to OER creation and application. Institutions might be willing to publicize lower costs for their students but what steps are they taking to rectify the labor issues described above for adjuncts? OER projects also obviously require labor beyond the creation of the actual learning object. OER repositories have to be maintained and updated. OER have to be organized and assigned metadata for discovery to be effective. We must also continue to think about how this labor is funded. One funding model is a for-profit company to pursue this work. One example is Lumen, which has worked closely with several colleges and universities to implement OER. Another funding model is for a repository or institution to find donor support. MIT is a leader in OER creation and the pioneer of OpenCourseWare (OCW) production. d’Oliveira and Lerman found that MIT received $1,836,000 in philanthropic funding and donations to support the OCW initiative in 2009 alone, which covered about 51 percent of that year’s annual operating costs (as cited in Winn, 2012, p. 142). We should consider what it means for donors to underwrite the sustainability of our institutions’ projects (Winn, 2012) and how making more sustainable change might be compromised by this funding model (Kanwar, Kodhandaraman, and Umar, 2010). In short, we must recognize that the changing labor system and the continued commercialization of higher education are not disconnected from our work with OER. Joss Winn (2012) challenges open advocates to apply the Marxist view of social wealth to openness, stressing that being open does not offer an alternative to “the capitalist form of social domination” (p. 134). He contends that OER, under capitalism, ensure that “employees are as productive as possible within the limits of time and space” by creating an object that can defy these constraints to create continuous institutional value and promotion (p. 141). We must think critically about whether our open work is doing the social justice, political work we envision it doing. If we fail to ask these questions, we risk endorsing programs that align more with profit than with access. Colonialism & Imperialistic Practices In “Beyond the ‘Information Rich and Poor’: Future Understandings of Inequality in Globalising Informational Economies,” Ingrid Burkett (2000) identifies five assumptions that have been historically made about the role of information in international development: Give the poor a computer and they will move from being information poor to information rich. Information inequality is a North/South issue. Access to more information enriches people’s lives. The ‘information society’ will be more democratic and participatory. Given enough information we can solve all the world’s problems. (p. 680) Burkett (2000) asserts that these five assumptions egregiously simplify both economic and social global inequality. Every librarian should consider how any of these myths might be embodied in their current language around the need for openness. For example, in trying to explain why OA is important to stakeholders, I have sometimes defaulted to talking about the need to share information with developing nations. Yet, understanding inequality through the lens of these narrow “truths” should give us pause. A dichotomy of superior/inferior ways of knowing has been established within these discourses and the assumptions that were made to employ this rhetoric. The first assumption is that the Global South will remain ignorant and underdeveloped until it has access to the West’s knowledge, which is an idea that is historically grounded in presidential conceptions of development (Haider & Bawden, 2006). The second assumption is that the West should focus on the spread of its information instead of facilitating a true knowledge exchange, which illustrates what type of information is valued. Burkett (2000) finds that even asserting that some are “information poor” overlooks the types of information that might be important to a specific community. She states, “people may be ‘poor’ in terms of the information they can retrieve from the Internet but be rich in ways which could never be calculated in the Western scientific paradigm—in terms of sustainability, social relationships, community and cultural traditions” (p. 690). The assumption that is most relevant to the discussion of OER here is that access to more information—which is different than access to knowledge (Burkett, 2000)—will alter exploitative colonialist histories and deeply rooted structural oppression. We see these assumptions being made in conversations surrounding the digital divide (Watters, 2015) and in the implementation of programs like One Laptop Per Child1 where access to technology—often technology that is not sustainable or integrated into the lives of the people supposed to be using it in a meaningful way (Burkett, 2000)—is seen as a viable opportunity for development and progress, often in a manner that is blind to an understanding of structural issues. Unfortunately, some research has found that these beliefs are well represented in LIS literature. In 2006, Haider and Bawden conducted an interpretive analysis of 35 English articles published between 1995 and 2005 in Library and Information Science journals, found by searching “information poverty OR poor.” They find that the “‘information poor’ are positioned as the legitimate target of professional practice” in LIS (p. 373). Many of the close readings they did identified language that connected a country or region’s educational inequality with a lack of professional librarians in that area, creating rhetoric that ignores the complexities of why inequality exists and positioning the librarian as savior (Haider & Bawden, 2006). OER has also been connected to development and is often cited in conversations about global rights, specifically the right to education.2 Western universities sometimes use the need for global access to educational materials as an explanation for their commitment to OER creation.3 These explanations, while possibly well meaning, are destructive. They overestimate what OER can reasonably accomplish and use OER as a legitimate “solution” for larger inequalities. OER are only one piece of the solution and are not a substitute for an adequately funded and staffed education system (Bates, 2015). When we consider who leads the Open Education movement, it is clear that these assumptions are in some ways also actively practiced within the movement. Right now, many OER aggregators function as somewhere to “dump” content or lessons already created in the hope that someone somewhere will be able to use it (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008). This is a problem because context is what makes an OER transferrable (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008). It is also a problem because “content creation (including educational content) on the Web is currently heavily dominated by the developed and English-speaking world” (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008, para 9). For example, Wiki Educator’s “Exemplary Collection of Open eLearning Content Repositories,” which has been cited as an important list of repositories (Atenas, 2012; Watters, 2012), is composed of primarily American and European-based repositories. Javiera Atenas’ list, which includes data from OER Research Hub, contains more global OER initiatives; still, over half of the repositories listed are Western. The creation of OER by Western institutions is not in itself a bad thing. However, it becomes troubling when these institutions promise that their OER will be useful or applicable to all learners globally for educational purposes. It is also disconcerting when access to content is touted as the educational solution when in reality affordable, sustainable “access to programs leading to credentials” is the real barrier (Bates, 2011, para 27). Kim Christen (2012), an anthropologist at Washington State University, researches openness—specifically the openness of cultural heritage objects—and its connection to colonialism. She asserts that the “collecting history of Western nations is comfortably forgotten in the celebration of freedom and openness” (p. 2876). Her work rejects the argument that “information wants to be free” and instead asserts that information wants to be contextualized (Christen, 2012). She has done important work to provide that context to cultural heritage objects by creating licenses and a CMS that give power and autonomy back to indigenous communities. By using these tools, the community is able to decide if objects should be open, closed to the community, or open to a specific community or during a particular time based on the historical sharing of objects by season, status, or gender. I believe that her assertions create a valuable framework for understanding OER advocacy. A learning object with relevant context, an application that is not culture-specific, and the capacity to be truly localized and understood is more important than a learning object that is simply free. In addition, while moving beyond a North-South information flow and developing a mechanism for reciprocal sharing is the goal, librarians should be cognizant of what risks other nations face in sharing their educational materials. We might find that having a conversation about these risks and contexts is more important than complete openness. Content, Format, & Audience In addition to how OER are used and discussed, the form of the OER itself has been critiqued. Open Educational Resources (OER) can sometimes be used synonymously with textbooks or traditional learning objects like worksheets and lesson plans. However, OER, when defined broadly, can also include wikis, LibGuides, tutorials, syllabi, apps, and websites. This divide between what OER usually refer to and what it can include illustrates an important underlying assumption made about OER. We often think that OER are created in the academy for the academy. Because OER are often presented as a response to the price of educational resources increasing exponentially, their potential use is sometimes stunted. OER can also be used outside of traditional academic settings for self-learning purposes. How, then, do OER continue to reproduce the academy, even if they are used for other purposes, both in format and in content? Many scholars have critiqued textbooks as a stagnant, oppressive format. Shaffer (2014) defines the traditional textbook as a “physically and legally fixed expression of ideas from a scholar outside [the class] learning community” (para 3). Wiggins & McTighe (2005), the authors of Understanding by Design, state that textbooks “can easily hide from students (and teachers) the true nature of the subject and the world of scholarship. Like an encyclopedia, few textbooks help students understand the inquiries, arguments, and judgments behind the summaries” (p. 230). Drabinski, et al. (2015) find textbooks “historically contingent” and the reproduction of them unrevolutionary. Why, then, are open textbooks often used as an example (if not the example) of OER? Why are there such extensive efforts to create more open textbooks?4 Further, how do textbooks, as the primary form of OER shared, limit self-learners outside of the academy? For example, when the goal is to present historically linear “truths” about a subject, more iterative and active forms of self-learning might be hindered. This applies to content as well as format. If self-learners or even other instructors are going to use content meaningfully, OER have to move past the content “dump” (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008) toward context and an understanding of how and why the OER was made. Audrey Watters (2015) contends that ed-tech is coded with “[p]rivileges, ideologies, expectations, [and] values” (para 46). The same is true of OER. When learning objects are stripped of their environment, learning from them becomes more challenging (Bates, 2011).  Localization—going beyond simply translating an object and instead truly situating it in culture, values, and educational need (Pullin, Hassin, & Mora, 2007)—is vital, particularly as a large amount of Western OER continue to be created. Librarians can start by teaching others the importance of metadata and documentation in order to make OER more localizable. Suggestions for OER Praxis The following section builds upon the previous critiques of openness to provide starting points for more thoughtful, intentional OER practices within librarianship. Use Realistic Language After Haider (2007) performed a close reading of international OA documents, including mission statements and declarations like the Budapest Open Access Initiative, she found that OA was discussed alongside concepts “such as humanity, poverty, cultural heritage, or equity, which are all highly charged notions entangled with strong connotations and related to various agendas” (p. 454). Like OA, Open Education can sometimes be discussed in highly-charged terms. It is also often presented as a solution, not only for the rising costs of textbooks and other learning materials, but also for fixing education globally (see footnote ii). First and foremost, librarians need to be honest with stakeholders about what OER can accomplish. While sharing educational materials with other nations can foster learning, it is not that simple. OER should not be presented as the answer to structural inequality or used to disregard or replace serious funding issues in other nations’ higher education systems. Librarians can situate OER within historical, economic, and cultural practices that make their capacity more clear. In other words, when we talk to stakeholders we can complicate access instead of simplifying it. We should continually stress that OERs are “important in helping to widen access to learning opportunities, but ultimately…are enhancements rather than a replacement for a well-funded public education system, which remains the core foundation for enabling equal access to educational opportunities” (Bates, 2015, key takeaway 6). Interrogate Whose Knowledge Matters Globally When talking to stakeholders, librarians might also move beyond the rhetoric of access to discuss reciprocal sharing. Even if it is free for “developing” nations to read papers (or access OER), it may still be too expensive for some scholars to publish these objects, further limiting the amount of reciprocal sharing happening and making research from other nations less visible (Bonaccorso, et al., 2014; Czerniewicz, 2013). Librarians can use language that problematizes access as a value, making the idea of true “access” more complex than simply giving other nations the ability to view Western content. Move Past Dumping Toward Possible Localization (Or, Do Outreach Beyond the Learning Object) Librarians should assert that the paywall is just one obstacle of many that learners in other nations face when utilizing an OER. Technology, language, and applicability are also important factors. What does it take for an OER to not just be translated but truly localized, truly applicable to others’ educational needs and prior understanding? We can start by focusing on teaching instructors and OER creators how to design OER that are “easily adaptable to local needs” and can be easily translated, situated, and expanded upon (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008). Thus, our outreach to faculty about OER creation is shortsighted if it only discusses the actual learning object. We should be proactive about teaching faculty how to create documentation and supply metadata that gives meaning to their OER and makes it more discoverable. We should also teach instructors about technical standards and technological infrastructure required for accessing OER, especially videos and other objects that require a high bandwidth to view, and how this might exclude specific audiences (Pullin, Hassin, & Mora, 2007). Move Beyond Cost Librarians must acknowledge that while their institutions might be concerned with global education at some level, the marketization of OER might play a role in how OER work is funded, sustained, and prioritized. Quite simply, OER and OCW create “potentially beneficial marketing opportunities for universities and, by extension, a potential supply of future fee-paying students” (Huijser, Bedford, & Bull, 2008). This is not just a distraction but also a conflict of interest. The price of textbooks has increased 812 percent between 1978 and 2012 (Moxley, 2013) and this phenomenon affects students’ ability to engage in class in very real ways. Increasing access to educational materials, especially to students of lower socioeconomic status, is important work. Still, David Wiley (2013) has found that there are “much bigger victories to be won with openness” than cost (para 1). This is because we, as educators, can utilize OER in ways that are more meaningful than just making content free. Robin DeRosa (2015) argues that there are a lot of ways that institutions could potentially save students money, including changing class sizes and closing facilities. She calls educators to advocate for OER use not because of “the health of the institution” but instead for “the empowerment of the learner” (DeRosa, 2015). When librarians advocate for OER creation and use, they should go beyond using rhetoric about cost or access and also explain how OER can be used to improve pedagogy. Librarians should also continually consider their role in furthering the goals of their institution and if they could have a role in shaping their institution’s future goals. Use Open Pedagogy Giroux (2002) writes that higher education cannot be viewed “merely as [a site] of commercial investment” because it is a public good where students gain a public voice and come to terms with their own power and agency (p. 432). The previous section challenged librarians to think beyond OER’s value in saving students’ money and instead apply OER to student learning. There are at least two ways that this can happen. The first is by incorporating the tenets of open pedagogy into library instruction sessions. The second is by using student OER creation as a springboard for important conversations about knowledge production. Librarians can also be active in helping other instructors, including faculty, learn how to do this in their classroom. David Wiley (2015) has claimed that there is “nothing about OER adoption that forces innovative teaching practices on educators” (para 13). OER use becomes more meaningful in the classroom when it is combined with critical pedagogy, which fosters student agency and nurtures reflection and growth (Stommel, 2014). Robin DeRosa (2015) defines open pedagogy as instruction that: Prioritizes community and collaboration instead of content Connects the academy with the wider public Is skeptical of end-points, final products, gatekeeping, and experts Librarians can start by working toward instructional practices that embody these values. But it is naïve not to recognize that librarians face obstacles in doing so, particularly in having autonomy and power over what their instruction sessions will cover because of faculty members’ limited understanding of our work (Accardi, 2015; Wallis, 2015). Thus, if faculty on campus are not integrating open pedagogy into their classroom, it can be difficult for librarians to do so as well. I would challenge us to think about our impact more broadly. While we might not have control over whether a class’ final research assignment is open or collaborative, we can start these conversations on campus. If we do outreach about openness or OER, it should cover the mechanics (like repositories and licensing) as well as how OER might be integrated into the classroom through open pedagogy. Librarians that do instruction can also use these tenets in their sessions or for-credit classes. We can spark interest by presenting research as a continuous community endeavor for students. If there is an opportunity to teach a for-credit course, we should explore how students might become producers of OER and other open content. As an example, my institution is currently discussing how faculty might move away from assigning the traditional research paper and instead craft research assignments that empower students to create. Any consultation my team has with instructors about their research assignments should not only discuss the potential use of OER but also OER creation as an option for giving students agency over their learning. These conversations should continue to define OER broadly to include public-facing, hackable, iterative learning objects like wikis and blogs, instead of focusing solely on just textbooks.   Teach Critical Openness & Labor As students engage with OER, how can librarians help them understand knowledge production, intellectual property, and the privacy issues inherent in their project? Further, how can librarians leverage students’ experience creating OER as an opportunity to teach issues of labor as a response to the corporatization of higher education? As students develop understanding in an area and are asked to create an open research project, they should also develop an understanding of how complex information creation is. The goal is for them to grasp that information is a social, public process instead of a final product (Lawson, Sanders, and Smith, 2015). First and foremost, students should be asked to reflect on this process. Librarians should advocate for continued reflection so that students can meaningfully consider the challenges inherent in creating instead of merely focusing on what was created. One of the most important conversations librarians might have about knowledge production is about unseen labor. This conversation about labor can spark larger conversations about funding cuts, the adjunctification of higher education, and faculty reward systems. Cheney (2015) recommends being transparent with students about how funding in the higher education system works so that OER can be created. He proposes that instructors explain how tuition dollars fund faculty salaries, which support faculty research and instructional activities (Cheney, 2015). These funds, in addition to endowments or donations, enable faculty to create OER at no charge because they do not depend on revenue from OER for income. I would propose that we also push students by asking, “but what if the tenure track model is eliminated and faculty are suddenly supported by a wage that directly corresponds only with the number of classes they teach?” As students consider how much time it takes to complete their project and create an OER, librarians can facilitate these conversations. As a disclaimer, while asking students to create OER in order to explore these issues firsthand is a great first step, this practice can become coercive or uncomfortable for students. If we ask them to create OER we cannot do so in order to take advantage of free labor to create more useful learning objects. We must also remember that some open practices might be based on behaviors that students are not comfortable with (Weller, 2014), including publishing their work in open, online venues. David Wiley (2013) proposes that educators build a place of trust with students when adopting open pedagogy. This happens by being transparent about why each activity is useful for learning and giving tangible examples of what a successful open project might look like (Wiley, 2013). This might also include asking students to think critically about whether or not they would like their project to be open, instead of requiring it to be. The conversation around why they might consider openness is much more valuable than simply making it a requirement. Conclusion To borrow language from Audrey Watters (2015), I believe that OER do not “magically flatten hierarchies” (slide 9). They are produced, used, and shaped by important historical and cultural contexts. Free and unrestricted access to OER is just one step in improving education, not the primary solution. Librarians are apt to do the integral work of reframing and complicating the OER movement. Our extensive understanding of copyright, instructional design, and discovery, combined with our interest in social justice, makes us natural leaders for helping others understand why Open Education matters. However, entertaining uncritical conceptions of development, the “information poor,” and the marketization of OER actually compromises our ability to do the work that we claim to value. The politics of our campuses or leadership can (and do) limit how loudly our voices carry within our institutions (Accardi, 2015; Wallis, 2015). Still, our critical perspective is needed now more than ever.  Acknowledgements Many thanks to the In the Library with the Lead Pipe team for guiding me through my first peer-review publication process! I’d like to specifically thank my internal reviewer, Erin Dorney, and my publishing editor, Hugh Rundle, for their guidance and support throughout this journey. A huge thank you to my external editor, Robin DeRosa, who gave me the inspiration, confidence, and footing to write this article. Thanks for making both my writing and my ideas stronger. Thanks also to Kyle Shockey, Heidi Johnson, Mattias Darrow, and Cara Evanson for their valuable insights on earlier drafts of this article. I couldn’t have done it without you! Thanks to Sveta Stoytcheva for convincing me that this idea was worth submitting and pushing me to stick with and trust this process. I so appreciate that even over 4,000 miles away, you’re still empowering me to be the best librarian I can be. Finally, thanks to everyone who supported me during this project, either professionally or personally. References & Further Reading Accardi, M. (2015, May 14). I do not think that the Framework is our oxygen mask. Retrieved from https://libraryinstructionburnout.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/i-do-not-think-that-the-framework-is-our-oxygen-mask/ Anjiah, L. (2006). Open access: Is it a futile option for developing countries? Proceedings from the Coady International Institute: The Open Access Movement and Information for Development. Retrieved from http://www.coady.stfx.ca/work/coady-publications/openaccess/ Atenas, J. (2012, Oct 22). Directory of OER repositories. Retrieved from https://oerqualityproject.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/directory-of-oer-repositories/ Bates, T. (2015). The implications of ‘open’ for course and program design: Towards a paradigm shift? Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/10-10-the-implications-of-open-for-course-and-program-design/ Bates, T. (2011, Feb 6). OERs: The good, the bad and the ugly. Retrieved from http://www.tonybates.ca/2011/02/06/oers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Bonaccorso, E., et al. (2014). Bottlenecks in the open-access system: Voices from around the globe. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 2(2): eP1126. http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1126 Burkett, I. (2000). Beyond the ‘information rich and poor’: Future understandings of inequality in globalizing informational economies. Futures, 32(7), 679-694. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0016-3287(00)00016-1 Chan, L. & Costa, S. (2005). Participation in the global knowledge commons: Challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries. New Library World, 106(3/4), 141 – 163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03074800510587354 Chan, et al. (2002). Budapest Open Access initiative. Retrieved from http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read Cheney, M. (2015, July 10). Gratis or libre, or, who pays for your bandwidth? Retrieved from http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/2015/07/gratis-libre-or-who-pays-for-your.html Christen, K. (2012). Does information really want to be free? Indigenous knowledge systems and the question of openness. International Journal of Communication, 6, 2870-2893. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1618 Czerniewicz, L. (2013, April 29). Inequitable power dynamics of global knowledge production and exchange must be confronted head on. Retrieved from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/04/29/redrawing-the-map-from-access-to-participation/ d’Oliveira, C. & Lerman, S. (2009). OpenCourseWare: Working through financial challenges. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/fnl/volume/221/d’oliveira_lerman.html DeRosa, R. (2015). Beyond the buck: An expanded vision for Open Access. Talk presented at the University System of New Hampshire’s 2015 Open Educational Resources Unconference. Retrieved from http://robinderosa.net/uncategorized/beyond-the-buck-an-expanded-vision-for-open-access-text-version/ DeRosa, R. (2015, May 28). The open syllabus: A practical guide to open pedagogy in your course. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/orbitdog1/the-open-syllabus-a-practical-guide-to-open-pedagogy-in-your-course Drabinski, E., et al. (2015, Mar 25). Notes from open access, labor, and knowledge production. Retrieved from https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/B-Hoffman Giroux, H. (2002). 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Invited Talk presented at the meeting of the Academic and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference, Portland, OR. Retrieved from http://acrl.learningtimesevents.org/invited-paper-open-expansion-connecting-the-open-access-open-data-and-oer-dots-2/ Kansa, E. (2014, Jan 27). It’s the Neoliberalism, stupid: Why instrumentalist arguments for Open Access, Open Data, and Open Science are not enough. Retrieved from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/01/27/its-the-neoliberalism-stupid-kansa/ Kanwar, A., Kodhandaraman, B. &, Umar, A. (2010). Toward sustainable open education resources: A perspective from the global south. American Journal of Distance Education, 24(2), 65-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08923641003696588 Kember, S. (2014). Opening out from open access: Writing and publishing in response to neoliberalism. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.7264/N31C1V51 Kraft, T. (2015). On labor, learning conditions, and affordable education. Hybrid Pedagogy. http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/on-labor-learning-conditions-and-affordable-education/ Kroes, N. (2012). Digital agenda and open data. Retrieved from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-12-149_en.htm Lawson, S. (2015, June 15). Financial transparency and the political influence of commercial publishing. Retrieved from  http://dx.doi.org/10.15200/winn.143435.54519 Lawson, S. (2015, Oct 21). The politics of open access. Retrieved from http://theinformed.org.uk/2013/10/the-politics-of-open-access/ Lawson, S. (2015): The politics of open access. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1494587 Lawson, S., Sanders, K., & Smith, L. (2015). Commodification of the information profession: A critique of higher education under neoliberalism. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 3(1), eP1182. http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309 Moxley, J. (2013). Open textbook publishing. Retrieved from http://www.aaup.org/article/open-textbook-publishing#.VbfY8vlVhBc Oblinger, D., & Lombardi, M. (2008). Common knowledge: Openness in higher Education. In T. Iiyoshi and M.S. Vijay Kumar (Eds.), Opening Up Education The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge, pp. 389–400. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ojetade, B. (2012, March 6). A critic critiques criticism critically. Retrieved from http://chroniclesofharriet.com/2012/03/06/a-critic-critiques-criticism-critically/ Powell, A. (2015, May 21). Availability does not equal access. Scholarly Kitchen. Retrieved from http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/05/21/guest-post-inasps-anne-powell-on-availability-does-not-equal-access/ Pullin, A., Hassin, K. & Mora, M. (2007, Nov). Conference report: Open Education 2007. Retrieved from http://timreview.ca/article/59 Roh, C., Drabinski, E., & Inefuku, H. (2015). Scholarly communication as a tool for social justice and diversity. Paper presented at the meeting of the Academic and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference, Portland, OR. Retrieved from http://acrl.learningtimesevents.org/scholarly-communication-as-a-tool-for-social-justice-and-diversity-2/ Reich, J. (2011). Open educational resources expand educational inequalities. Retrieved from http://edutechdebate.org/oer-and-digital-divide/open-educational-resources-expand-educational-inequalities/ Rosen, J., & Smale, M. (2015). Open digital pedagogy=Critical pedagogy. Hybrid Pedagogy. http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/open-digital-pedagogy-critical-pedagogy/ Salaita, S. (2015, Oct 6). Why I was fired. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from shar.es/17NQg3 Shaffer, K. (2014). The critical textbook. Hybrid Pedagogy. http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/critical-textbook/ Shirazi, R. (2015, August 11). Work for hire: Library publishing, scholarly communication, and academic freedom. Retrieved from http://roxanneshirazi.com/2015/08/11/work-for-hire-library-publishing-scholarly-communication-and-academic-freedom/ Stommel, J. (2014). Critical digital pedagogy: A definition. Hybrid Pedagogy. http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/critical-digital-pedagogy-definition/ Vandegrift, M. (2014, June 2). The miseducation of scholarly communication: Beyond binaries and toward a transparent, information-rich publishing system. Retrieved from https://micahvandegrift.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/ssptalk/ Wallis, L. (2015, May 12). Smash all the gates, part 2: Professional silenc*. Retrieved from https://laurenwallis.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/smash-all-the-gates-part-2-professional-silenc/ Watters, A. (2012, Aug 22). OER repositories & directories. Retrieved from http://hackeducation.com/2012/08/22/oer-repositories/ Watters, A. (2014, Nov 16). From “open” to justice #OpenCon2014. Retrieved from http://hackeducation.com/2014/11/16/from-open-to-justice/ Watters, A. (2015, April 8). Ed-tech’s inequalities. Retrieved from http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/08/inequalities/ Weller, M. (2014). The battle for open: How openness won and why it doesn’t feel like a victory. London, UK: Ubiquity Press. Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Wiley, D. (2015, Jan 31). Open pedagogy: The importance of getting in the air. Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3761 Wiley, D. (2013, Oct 21). What is open pedagogy? Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 Winn, J. (2012). Open education: From the freedom of things to the freedom of people. In L. Bell, H. Stevenson, & M. Neary (Eds.), Towards teaching in public: Reshaping the modern university (133-183). New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group.   While Burkett alludes to how technology can exasperate inequalities (p. 684), there are more tangible examples of how this discourse is specifically used with One Laptop per Child. In 2012, Audrey Watters summarized the failures of OLPC initiative. Within her summary, she maintains that Nicholas Negropont, the head of foundation, truly believes that “children can learn (and teach each other) on their own. Children are naturally inquisitive; they are ingenious. Access to an Internet-enabled computing device is sufficient” (para 13). Another example is a Guardian article from 2005 were Negropont states “Poverty can only be eliminated through education” (para 6). This rhetoric, combined with inadequate teacher training and the failure of the program, illustrates how dropping technology into a community, without context or purpose, is not meaningful. [↩] The twenty-sixth article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to education” and that education “shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among nations” (article 26). These ideas are often cited and developed in conversations around OER. One example is the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, which states, “[OER] constitute a wise investment in teaching and learning for the 21st century… They will help teachers excel in their work and provide new opportunities for visibility and global impact. They will accelerate innovation in teaching. They will give more control over learning to the learners themselves. These are strategies that make sense for everyone” (para 10) and “we have an opportunity to dramatically improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world through freely available, high-quality, locally relevant educational and learning opportunities” (para 11). Another document that employs this language is the 2012 Paris OER Declaration, which was created by UNESCO. It is important to note that the language that situates OER as a solution stems from rhetoric used about education as a solution more generally. One example includes remarks from US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan: “[e]ducation is still the key to eliminating gender inequities, to reducing poverty, to creating a sustainable planet, and to fostering peace. And in a knowledge economy, education is the new currency by which nations maintain economic competitiveness and global prosperity…Closing the achievement gap and closing the opportunity gap is the civil rights issue of our generation” (as cited in Watters, 2015, para 2). [↩] This language is usually present on the institution’s repository or webpage. Examples include MIT’s OCW site, which states “educators improve courses and curricula, making their schools more effective; students find additional resources to help them succeed; and independent learners enrich their lives and use the content to tackle some of our world’s most difficult challenges, including sustainable development, climate change, and cancer eradication” (para 2) and Open Michigan’s site, which notes that the initiative will “dramatically [expand] the University’s global impact and influence and strengthening it as a point of reference for learning and teaching materials for educators and learners worldwide” (para 2). [↩] Some current examples include the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library, Kansas State University’s Open/ Alternative Textbook Initiative, and Portland State University’s Open Access Textbook Initiative. These are not necessarily examples of linear or oppressive learning objects but instead examples of how we continue to replicate textbooks in an open environment. [↩] colonization, inequality, learning objects, librarianship, open access, open educational resources, pedagogy White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS Gendered Expectations for Leadership in Libraries 8 Responses Pingback : POST: A Critical Take on OER Practices: Interrogating Commercialization, Colonialism, and Content ← dh+lib Pingback : Latest Library Links, 23rd October 2015 | Latest Library Links Pingback : November 2015 faculty and student scholarship, awards, service activities, news, and updates for Academic Affairs offices and departments | Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs - Plymouth State University Pingback : The Content Paradox | Rolin Moe Pingback : OER | Pingback : Open But Not Equal: Open Scholarship for Social Justice | At The Intersection Pingback : OER Outreach for Newbies, Part I: What I Would Do Differently | ACRLog Pingback : OER Outreach for Newbies, Part II: Moving Forward | ACRLog This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. 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www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-8550	----	When Does Burnout Begin? The Relationship Between Graduate School Employment and Burnout Amongst Librarians – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2019 Oct 16 Jade Geary and Brittany Hickey /3 Comments When Does Burnout Begin? The Relationship Between Graduate School Employment and Burnout Amongst Librarians In Brief Burnout issues are of increasing concern for many service professionals, including Library and Information Science (LIS) workers; however, the majority of articles addressing burnout in the LIS field describe methods of coping with burnout, but do not ascertain trends and preventable factors. The purpose of this study was to identify the percentage of LIS workers (current and former) and students who have experienced burnout. Additionally, this study focused on the correlation between those who work while obtaining their LIS degree and whether or not they later experience burnout. These objectives aim to answer the question: what percentage of future librarians are more susceptible to burnout once they enter the profession because they are currently working while enrolled in classes? The LIS field is competitive, and students are encouraged to gain experience in libraries while pursuing their LIS degree. By identifying the prevalence of burnout within the LIS profession and attempting to identify the earliest causes, we hope to spark a conversation between hiring managers and current or future library professionals about the effects of our profession’s expectations and the high risk of burnout. By Jade Geary and Brittany Hickey Introduction Burnout is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in our society. According to a general population survey from Statista, 21% of females and 17% of males age 18 and older in the U.S. suffer from exhaustion related to burnout (2017). Librarianship is not immune to the increase in burnout. In fact, helping professions are particularly vulnerable to burnout (Swanson 1992), and librarianship is a helping profession. It is essential to investigate the causes of burnout and how to prevent burnout. By looking at causes and prevention techniques, Library and Information Science (LIS) educators can help students prepare for the potential of burnout in their future careers and managers can become better informed on how to aid employees. The findings of our study indicate that there is a high connection between those that work while in library school and experiencing burnout. Thus it is imperative that burnout prevention techniques are discussed with LIS graduate students. This discussion includes both how to prevent burnout for themselves as well as how to aid others in burnout prevention.The latter is essential as it important for future managers to be able to assist those they work with in preventing and coping with burnout in librarianship. Literature Review The idea of work-related burnout first appeared in psychological literature in the 1970s (Schaufeli, Leiter & Maslach, 2008). While burnout did not appear in the LIS literature until more recently, there is still an abundance of information available. The LIS dialogue on burnout ranges from coping resources (Bosque & Skarl, 2016; Martin, 2009), webinars (Rogers-Whitehead, 2018; Singer, & Griffith, 2011; Westwood, 2017), panels (Block, Clasper, Courtney, Hermann, Houghton, & Zulida, 2019), and scholarly literature (Adebayo, Segun-Adeniran, Fagbohun, & Osayande, 2018) on this topic. Burnout is not the sole domain of only one particular library type; it is pervasive in every type of library from special libraries to public libraries (Mangus, Salo, & Jansson, 2018; Salyers, et al., 2019; Swanson, 1992). In fact, it is common for the literature to focus on particular job functions associated with librarian burnout (Affleck, 1996; Nardine, 2019). Unfortunately, even with the growing popularity of burnout research, there is limited literature focusing on the root causes of burnout. This literature review will focus on the literature currently available on the topic while our data will help fill a gap in the literature of when burnout begins. Defining burnout To begin, it is important to explore how burnout is defined and what the symptoms of burnout are. There are numerous definitions of burnout, but this study focuses on the definition provided by Christina Maslach, a leading authority on occupational burnout and the creator of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Maslach (1982) defines burnout as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do ‘people work’ of some kind” (p. 3). The primary factors leading to burnout are an unsustainable workload, role conflict and a lack of personal control at work, insufficient recognition or compensation, lack of social support, a sense of unfairness, and personal values that are at odds with the organization’s values (Maslach & Leiter, 2008). There are three overarching components of burnout: “overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment” (Maslach & Leiter, 2016, p. 103). Maslach & Lieter (2016) describe the physical symptoms of burnout as the following: “headaches, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal disorders, muscle tension, hypertension, cold/flu episodes, and sleep disturbances” (p. 106). Methods to Prevent In the literature, many articles offer tips on how to prevent burnout. Christian (2015) argues that proactive solutions are needed to “reverse the symptoms of a passion deficit” (p. 8). One solution offered by Christian (2015) is for LIS faculty to do a better job of preparing students for the “emotional labor” aspect of librarianship, including the negative side effects. This route takes a preventive approach; unfortunately, for those currently working in the field, precautionary methods do little to alleviate existing problems. In turn, there needs to be more literature on how to reduce burnout within the working profession for everyone from top-level administrators to part-time paraprofessionals. Most articles on preventing burnout focus on steps that individuals can take. DelGuidice (2011), for instance, offers a list of ways for school librarians to avoid burnout after the appearance of symptoms: attend conferences, take your lunch break or “prep” hour, take a sick day, let your aides do more, partner with the public library, or reach out for help. Campbell (2008) has many of the same suggestions, but also adds personalizing your workspace, engaging in meditation, and finding a hobby. Farrell, Alabi, Whaley, and Jenda (2017) suggest library mentoring— not as a method of prevention, but one of mitigation. They propose that mentors who are aware of the causes of burnout, including racial microaggressions and imposter syndrome, and symptoms of burnout are more likely to offer compassion and empathy. However, mentors who are unfamiliar with burnout may fan the flames of burnout by encouraging their mentees to work harder to prove themselves. Scholarship on burnout in LIS Much of the scholarship surrounding burnout in libraries focuses solely on academic library settings. Adebayo, Segun-Adeniran, Fagbhohun, and Osayande (2018) investigated “perceived causes” of burnout amongst all levels of library staff at academic libraries in Nigeria by asking participants if they felt certain factors caused them to personally experience burnout. The causes included factors such as funding, support, and work environment. Nardine (2019) focused specifically on academic liaison librarians in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Kaetrena Davis Kendrick (2017) studied the low-morale of academic librarians and identified burnout, along with bullying and workplace toxicity, as being a contributing factor to issues with morale. Although the literature is focused heavily on academic libraries, public libraries and librarians are not completely left out of the scholarship on burnout. Lindén, Salo, and Jansson (2018) investigated burnout in public libraries in Sweden. They studied organizational factors that lead to burnout and found that “the most frequently occurring stressors encountered in the library organization was the workload stressor ‘overload’, the job-control stressors ‘technostress’ and ‘patrons’, the reward stressor ‘poor feedback from management’ and the community stressor ‘isolation’” (p. 203). Salyers et al. (2019) note the lack of literature available on burnout in public libraries. Their study gathered data from 171 public librarians about the issue of burnout. Salyers et al. (2019) found, several job and recovery-related factors to be associated with increased emotional exhaustion and cynicism and decreased professional efficacy. Important job-related variables appear to be work pressure (associated with greater emotional exhaustion) and protective factors of autonomy, role clarity, and coworker support (for emotional exhaustion and to a lesser extent cynicism). (p. 981) Swanson (1992) focus on burnout in youth librarians both in public libraries and school libraries. Swanson (1992) emphasises how burnout is common within the helping professions and focuses on physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, and psychological exhaustion. Swanson (1992) found that her pool of participants did not experience a significantly high rate of burnout and exhaustion. The literature on burnout and school media specialists or special librarians is primarily limited to those articles which offer methods of prevention (DelGuidice, 2011; Anzalone, 2015) rather than in-depth research into the prevalence of or specific factors leading to burnout. Graduate students are virtually forgotten when it comes to scholarship on burnout within Library and Information Science. Multiple database searches failed to reveal any relevant articles. Although research on this topic is limited within the LIS field, burnout among students in other professions, such as Social Work and Psychology, is being investigated. Han, Lee, and Lee (2012) found that incoming Social Work graduate students are more susceptible to the three overarching characteristics of burnout identified by Maslach if their emotions are frequently influenced by the emotions of those around them. Wardle and Mayorga (2016) found that only 14.28% of counseling graduate students were not on the verge of, or already suffering from, burnout. Research Question The focus of our study was to answer the following research question: Are library school students who work through graduate school more likely to leave librarianship due to burnout than their peers who did not work while obtaining an MLS/MLIS degree? Methods To gather our data, we created a branching survey that adjusted each participant’s questions based on their provided answers (Appendix A). The survey is not an adaptation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory because we were not measuring the degree to which librarians experience burnout. Instead, librarians were asked to determine if they believe they have experienced burnout. Other questions were designed to attempt to identify common experiences of librarians who have or have not experienced burnout. Prior to completing the survey, participants were provided with an informed consent statement and an explanation of the purpose of our research. Before completing the survey, our respondents were provided with a definition of burnout, which was adapted from Maslach’s aforementioned definition. Our research focus limited our pool of LIS professionals. To be best aligned with our research question, the survey was targeted to MLS/MLIS students, current librarians, and former librarians. This was noted prior to beginning the survey with the following statement: “the survey is open to MLS/MLIS students, current librarians, and former librarians. We are not seeking responses from paraprofessionals at this time”. After approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at both of our institutions, we distributed our survey on October 1, 2018. This was done via Facebook groups, Library Think Tank – #ALATT and the Library Employee Support Network, as well as our own personal accounts. The survey was also shared via Twitter, professional listservs, and via our home libraries. We posted our call for participation on social media twice, listservs twice, and our home libraries once. The survey remained open on Google Forms for one month. Once the survey closed, all results were extracted from Google Forms via Google Sheets. An original copy of the data was kept and has remained untouched. The data was then cleaned. Anyone who did not meet the criteria was removed, codes were set for the responses, and the data was moved into StatCrunch for statistical analysis. Results We received responses from 612 people who met the survey requirements (i.e. participants who completed library school or are currently LIS students). The responses encompassed a wide range of library types: public (n=333), academic (n=216), school (n=74), archives (n=39), government (n=3), special (n=40), law (n=2), law firm (n=1), medical (n=2), hospital (n=1), subscription/membership (n=1), military (n=3), state (n=2), and high-density offsite storage (n=1). Participants were able to indicate all of the types of libraries in which they worked, allowing our research to reflect a wide array of library experiences. Current Librarians There were 612 total respondents, of which 76.64% are current librarians. Of the current librarians (n=469), 79.10% responded that they have experienced burnout based on the definition of burnout provided at the beginning of the survey. Additionally, 47.33% of current librarians responded that they have considered leaving the profession due to burnout. An overwhelming majority of current librarians, 94.24%, were employed while they were enrolled in LIS courses. Current librarians who took an average of three credit hours per semester worked an average of 34.13 hours per week. Those enrolled in more than twelve credit hours per semester worked an average of 18.22 hours per week. Closer inspection reveals that 78.89% of current librarians had a job in a library while taking library school classes. Overall, 74.84% of current librarians worked while enrolled in classes and experienced burnout, 10.87% worked but did not experience burnout, 4.26% did not work but still experienced burnout, and 0.85% neither worked while enrolled in classes nor experienced burnout later in their careers (Fig. 1). Figure 1. The relationship between working while enrolled in school and experiencing burnout for current and former librarians. Alternate version of this bar chart as a table. Former Librarians Of the total respondents (n=612), 5.23% are former librarians. Of the former librarians (n=32), 71.86% responded that they have experienced burnout based on the definition of burnout provided at the beginning of the survey. Burnout was the primary reason that 18.75% of former librarians left the profession and an additional 40.63% reported that burnout was a contributing factor in their decision to leave the profession. Of the former librarians who experienced burnout, 86.96% worked while in library school. Of those, 39.13% worked 31 or more hours per week. Interestingly, 100% of former librarians who never experienced burnout worked in a library while in library school. Overall, 62.50% of former librarians worked while enrolled in classes and experienced burnout, 21.88% worked but did not experience burnout, 9.38% did not work but still experienced burnout, and 0% neither worked while enrolled in classes nor experienced burnout later in their careers (Fig. 1). LIS Students LIS students comprised of 18.14% of our total participant pool. Of the students who responded (n=111), 96.40% are employed. Of today’s LIS students, 61.26% work 31 or more hours per week in addition to taking classes. Further inquiry reveals that 77.47% of student respondents work in a library, including 15.31% who have multiple jobs, at least one of which is in a library. Furthermore, 53.15% of LIS students take six credit hours a semester on average. The majority of those students, 59.32%, work 31-40 hours per week in addition to their class responsibilities (Fig. 2). Figure 2. The percent distribution of the hours LIS students worked by the average number of credit hours they were enrolled in. Alternate version of this bar chart as a table. Discussion The results of our study highlight the pervasiveness of burnout in the LIS field. Out of the sample (n= 612), 81.86% of librarians reported that they have experienced burnout. With over three-fourths of respondents indicating they have experienced burnout, these results indicate that this topic demands further study within the profession. Additionally, since we are investigating the link between burnout and working while enrolled in graduate courses, the percentage of students working while pursuing their masters must be taken into account. The discussion section will take a closer look at these numbers to help provide a more comprehensive picture of factors that influence burnout. Generally speaking, it appears more graduate students are working than before. We do not have a breakdown by decade, but we do know that 96.40% of current students are employed while taking classes, compared to 94.03% of current librarians, and 84.38% of former librarians (Fig. 3). Figure 3. The percentage of LIS students, current librarians, and former librarians who are working or worked while enrolled in graduate courses. Alternate version of these pie charts as a table. Not only does it appear that more of today’s students are working, but they are also working more hours on average than current or former librarians did as students (Fig. 4). As expected, the average hours students spent at their jobs decreased as their average credit hours increased. The only exception was with retired librarians; however, only one retired librarian took an average of three credit hours and they worked an average of 15 hours which skewed the results. Figure 4. Average hours spent working while enrolled. Full description of this line graph as a table. Our survey only asked students if they were working for income, experience, or a combination of the two. As depicted in Figure 5, the majority of students work for income and to gain experience. Out of the 111 current LIS students that responded to this question, 69.37% work while enrolled for both income and experience. One student commented that they are working specifically so they can receive benefits, such as insurance. This begs the question: will more students work full-time in the future to ensure they have health insurance and how will this increase their susceptibility to burnout? Figure 5. Why current LIS students work Alternate version of this bar chart as a list. Contradictory to our predictions, as discussed in the results section, 100% of former librarians who never experienced burnout worked in a library while in library school. This data is varied from our current librarians that shows 74.84% of current librarians worked while enrolled in classes and experienced burnout. It would be impossible to draw conclusions from this data without talking more in depth with the former librarians that we surveyed. One possible explanation is the changing landscape of both librarianship and graduate work. Even though the changing landscape possibly contributes to burnout, it does not mean that this is the reason that former librarians did not experience burnout. There are many additional factors like the number of working hours, credit hours taken, the rigor of programs, and the type of work schedule they had to maintain both as a student and a professional. Limitations This study consisted of a variety of limitations. First, for roughly an hour when the survey was opened, there was an error with the branching in Google Forms. This caused four participants to receive the wrong screen via Google Forms that provided them with additional, irrelevant, questions. Only a small number of participants were affected by the issue, and since we were quickly alerted, we were able to fix this issue without it affecting our results. To adjust for this error, we removed the “extra” information that was provided to us via the branching mishap. The second limitation would be our pool of participants themselves. Selection bias is a possible concern. It is possible that LIS professionals who have experienced burnout were most likely to complete the survey. Additionally, it is difficult to connect with former librarians. Most are no longer on traditional listservs and or social media. Thus we had a relatively small pool of former librarians. The last limitation is the definition of “librarian”. According to the Department for Professional Employees (2019), “in 2018, 53.5 percent of librarians held a master’s degree or higher” (p. 3). So, nearly half of those with a title of librarian do not have a master’s degree. We were specifically exploring the relationship between working while in library school and its impact on susceptibility to burnout later in life. Therefore, for the purpose of our research, we limited our data only to library workers who attended and completed library school. We found that some participants took the survey even though they did not meet this requirement. Consequently, they were removed from the pool. We recognize that burnout is an issue for all library employees, regardless of education or title; however, the scope of our study was limited to those who completed library school in order to determine if there is a correlation between burnout and work levels in library school. Lastly, we intended to investigate the relationship between burnout and race and/or gender, but we did not receive enough data to dive into such a complex issue. Conclusions Burnout is a complex issue. An overwhelming percentage of librarians experience burnout. The vast majority of librarians work while taking graduate classes. However, based on the relative lack of data from former librarians and librarians who have not experienced burnout, we cannot definitively say that working while in graduate school is a source of causation. Burnout is an invasive issue within librarianship. Although this is something that we were aware of before we began the study, the data revealed how pervasive this issue truly is. We, as a profession, are suffering and it is clear that more research, training, and professional development needs to be done on this topic. We have only skimmed the surface of burnout research. There is much more room for analysis surrounding the degree to which people experience burnout within librarianship, rather than the prevalence of burnout in the profession. Feedback from our participants, and on social media, revealed that there is definitely a need to focus on all library workers regardless of education or position. Thus it is essential that more inclusive research is performed on this matter. Further, exploring the potentially additional stressors of paraprofessional library work is a topic that needs to be investigated more in-depth. Finally, it is important to note that our study was not limited to one type of library setting. Many articles that are written about librarian burnout focus on just academic librarians or just school media specialists; however, our study shows that burnout is a risk no matter the library setting. It is our hope that this article can serve as a call for action for librarians, managers, and LIS educators. Hopefully, this can aid in a culture change for librarians and create greater support for burnout. Librarians need to be able to openly discuss burnout and know that they are not alone in dealing with it. We hope that this article will act as a catalyst for such discussions. Perhaps our survey will persuade hiring managers to take another look at the experience requirements for “entry-level” positions. If entry-level positions were truly “entry-level” and didn’t have such lofty experience requirements, then graduate students may not feel so compelled to exhaust themselves while in graduate school, thus possibly reducing the number of people who experience burnout. Even with the overwhelming number of librarians who have experienced burnout, it is not a topic we heard mentioned in lectures or assigned readings in library school. As our findings indicate, our profession is rife with burnout. It is our hope that LIS schools and educators will put more of an emphasis on preparing students to prevent burnout in their lives and the lives of others. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Megan Fratta, our external reviewer, Bethany Radcliffe, our internal reviewer, and Ian Beilin, our publishing editor for all of their insight, suggestions, and guidance. We would also like to thank Jesika Brooks for proofreading early drafts. Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who took the time to complete our survey. References Adebayo, O., Segun-Adeniran, C. D., Fagbohun, M. O., & Osayande, O. (2018). Investigating occupational burnout in library personnel. Library Philosophy & Practice, 1–15. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lih&AN=133873688&site=ehost-live Affleck, M. A. (1996). Burnout among bibliographic instruction librarians. Library & Information Science Research 18, 165–83. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ528004&site=ehost-live Block, C., Clasper, E., Courtney, K., K., Hermann, J., Houghton, S., Zulida, D., F., (2019, July). Self care Is not selfish: Preventing burnout, American Library Association Annual Conference. American Library Association, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/begood2you Bosque, D., & Skarl, S. (2016). Keeping workplace burnout at bay: Online coping and prevention resources. College & Research Libraries News, 77(7), 349-355. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.77.7.9525 Campbell, K. (2008). The Wonder Woman syndrome: Burnout in libraries. Tennessee Libraries, 58(2). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lih&AN=34697487&site=ehost-live Christian, L. (2015). A passion deficit: Occupational burnout and the new librarian: A recommendation report. Southeastern Librarian, 62(4), 2–11. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/seln/vol62/iss4/1 DelGuidice, M. (2011). Avoiding school librarian burnout: Simple steps to ensure your personal best. Library Media Connection, 29(4), 22–23. Retrieved from https://columbiacollege.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lih&AN=57756765&site=ehost-live&scope=site Department for Professional Employees. (2019). Library professionals: Facts & figures. Retrieved August 23, 2019, from https://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-sheets/library-workers-facts-figures/ Farrell, B., Alabi, J., Whaley, P., & Jenda, C. (2017). Addressing psychosocial factors with library mentoring. Libraries and the Academy, 17(1), 51-69. Han, M., Lee, S. E., & Lee, P. A. (2012). Burnout among entering MSW students: Exploring the role of personal attributes. Journal of Social Work Education, 48(3), 439–457. https://doi.org/10.5175/JSWE.2011.201000053 Kendrick, K. D. (2017) The low morale experience of academic librarians: A phenomenological study. Journal of Library Administration, 57(8), 846-878. Lindén, M., Salo, I., & Jansson, A. (2018). Organizational stressors and burnout in public librarians. Journal of Librarianship & Information Science, 50(2), 199-204. Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: The cost of caring. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Maslach, C. & Leiter M. (2008). Early predictors of job burnout and engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(3), 498-512. Maslach, C, & Leiter, M. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103-111. Mangus, L., Salo, I., & Jansson, A. (2018). Organizational stressors and burnout in public librarians. Journal of Librarianship & Information Science, 50(2), 199–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000616666130 Martin, C. (2009). Library burnout: Causes, symptoms, solutions. Library Worklife, 6(12). Retrieved from http://ala-apa.org/newsletter/2009/12/01/spotlight-2/ Nardine J. The state of academic liaison librarian burnout in ARL libraries in the United States. College & Research Libraries. 2019;80(4):508-524. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=136358544&site=ehost-live. Accessed July 24, 2019. Rogers-Whitehead, C. (2018). Self-care: Protecting yourself (and others) from burnout [webinar]. Retrieved from https://floridalibrarywebinars.org/self-care-protecting-yourself-and-others-from-burnout/ Salyers, M. P., Watkins, M. A., Painter, A., Snajdr, E. A., Gilmer, L. O., Garabrant, J. M., & Henry, N. H. (2019). Predictors of burnout in public library employees. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618759415 Schaufeli, W., Leiter, M., & Maslach, C.. (2009). Burnout: 35 years of research and practice. Career Development International, 14(3), 204–220. https://doi-org.columbiacollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1108/13620430910966406 Singer, P., & Griffith, G. (2011). Preventing staff burnout [webinar]. Retrieved from https://infopeople.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=166 Statista Survey. (February 16, 2017). Percentage of adults in the U.S. who suffered at least sometimes from select health symptoms as of February 2017, by gender [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved August 26, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/675077/common-health-symptoms-among-us-adults-gender/ Swanson, C. P. (1992). Assessment of Stress and Burnout in Youth Librarians (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ERIC. Wardle, E. A., & Mayorga, M. G. (2016). Burnout among the counseling profession: A survey of future professional counselors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 10(1), 9–15. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1131850&site=ehost-live&scope=site Westwood, D. (2017). Burnout or bounce back? Building resilience [webinar]. Retrieved from https://infopeople.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=640 Appendix A Link to Survey Questions Survey Questions Relationship Between Working While Enrolled in School and Experiencing Burnout Figure 1. The relationship between working while enrolled in school and experiencing burnout for former and current librarians. Worked while in school; Have experienced burnout Worked while in school; Have not experienced burnout Did not work while in school; Have experienced burnout Did not work while in school; Have not experienced burnout Former Librarian 62.5% 21.88% 9.38% 0% Current Librarian 74.84% 10.87% 4.26% 0.85% Return to Figure 1 caption. Percent Distribution of Hours Worked by Credits Taken, LIS Students Figure 2. The percent distribution of the hours LIS students worked by the average number of credit hours they were enrolled in. Hours Worked Credit Hours 0 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 More than 40 3 0% 0% 0% 12.5% 62.5% 25% 6 1.69% 0% 16.95% 5.08% 59.32% 16.95% 9 6.9% 3.45% 24.14% 24.14% 27.59% 13.79% 12 8.33% 0% 25% 33.33% 16.67% 16.67% More than 12 0% 0% 33.33% 66.67% 0% 0% Return to Figure 2 caption. Percentage Working or Worked While in Graduate Courses Figure 3. The percentage of LIS students, current librarians, and former librarians who are working or worked while enrolled in graduate courses. LIS Students Current Librarians Former Librarians Worked 96.4% 94.03% 84.38% Did not work 3.6% 5.97% 9.38% No response 0% 0% 6.25% Return to Figure 3 caption. Average Hours Spent Working While Enrolled Figure 4. The average number of hours a week LIS students, current librarians, and former librarians work(ed) while enrolled in graduate courses. Credit Hours LIS Students Current Librarians Former Librarians 3 36.75% 34.13% 15.5% 6 32.69% 32.64% 37.16% 9 26.15% 24.25% 25.5% 12 25.88% 20.81% 10.5% More than 12 22.16% 18.22% 10.5% Return to Figure 4 caption. Why Current LIS Students Work LIS students’ reasons for working while enrolled in graduate school, given in actual numbers, not percentages: Health care benefits: 1 Both income and experience: 77 Experience: 1 Income: 28 Return to Figure 5 caption. burnout, library school, professional ethics, wellness Leading from the Center: Reimagining Feedback Conversations at an Academic Library Consultants in Canadian Academic Libraries: Adding New Voices to the Story 3 Responses Pingback : Mentioned: burnout beginnings in LIS – Renewals Pingback : Elsewhere for January 4, 2020 - Floccinaucical Taylor 2020–05–06 at 10:04 am This is such an important article and it feels oddly cathartic to see my experiences reflected here. While this is my anecdotal experience, I can say being employed as a Graduate Assistant at an academic library while working toward my degree made me ready to quit the field before I was even getting started. So often we are expected to perform at the caliber of professionals in the field for a fraction of the pay (or no pay, since your wages can be garnished as a result of the school paying for a portion of the tuition) and no benefits. Not to mention the systemic issue of hiring libraries not valuing student employment or assistantships but also not being willing to be the providers of the relevant experience they apparently feel these applicants do not have. Excellent way to create to disillusion. This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-8882	----	Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2014 Sep 24 nina de jesus /12 Comments Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression Editor’s note: On July 16th, 2014 we published Open Source Outline: Locating the Library within Institutional Oppression, where we discussed nina de jesus’s Outline for a Paper I Probably Won’t Write and called for authors to use her open source outline as the basis for an article of their own. We are pleased that nina herself and Joshua Beatty have both taken up the challenge. Below is nina de jesus’s article based on that outline. In a first for In the Library with the Lead Pipe, we are also simultaneously publishing Joshua Beatty’s article based on the same outline. Figure A: Oppressive Institution (source) In Brief: An exploration into the relationship between libraries and institutional oppression. It begins with with an examination at how the enlightenment provides the ideological foundation and framework for public libraries and the historical processes that created the library as institution. It then examines this institution using the three logics of white supremacy: slavery, Indigenous genocide, and Orientalism. by nina de jesus Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression 1. Introduction1 Libraries are, in the hearts and minds of many people, a cherished and much beloved institution. Beyond nurturing a love of reading, libraries also embody a certain set of values. Popular author Neil Gaiman recently summarized a commonly held view of libraries: Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information.2 With libraries holding such a seemingly unassailable position within our cultural imagination, how do we begin to understand their place within institutional oppression? Just as libraries represent notions of freedom, education, and a love of reading, we also exist within a society and culture of great disparity and oppression. In one very simplistic sense, the existence of libraries themselves attest to this reality, since freely available resources wouldn’t be necessary if it weren’t the case that not everyone has equal access to these resources. Libraries themselves exist to address certain disparities within our society. This paper is an initial exploration of the ways that libraries, in attempting to address inequity, actually entrench oppression. However, this isn’t about the failures of libraries, rather it is about the way that certain values structure libraries such that they come to embody institutional oppression, rather than resist it. I discuss both how the enlightenment created the ideological underpinnings of the library as public institution as well as the historical processes that created the library as we know it today. Next, I analyze the contemporary political location of libraries within our culture. Lastly, I explore the implications of the library as institutionalized enlightenment ideology using the three logics of white supremacy as proposed by Andrea Smith3 as a way to demonstrate that libraries cannot be distinguished either from their historical roots nor from their contemporary context within a white supremacist settler state. 2. Whence libraries? 2.1 The Enlightenment4 as Ideology In Libraries and the Enlightenment Wayne Bivens-Tatum makes a compelling case for “the scientific and political principles of the Enlightenment provid[ing] the philosophical foundation for American academic and public libraries.”5 The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes the enlightenment as “the period in the history of western thought and culture, stretching roughly from the mid-decades of the seventeenth century through the eighteenth century, characterized by dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics.”6 For the sake of this discussion, I am largely considering the social and political aspects of enlightenment thought. I focus on the enlightenment and these parts of it because: The enduring legacy of the Enlightenment lives on in politics as much as in science, especially in the United States of America, which in some ways is the country best embodying Enlightenment principles.7 Bivens-Tatum further identifies the key themes of enlightenment8 political/social/ethical thought as “individual liberty, equal rights, religious toleration, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to education and political participation in a democracy.”9 In addressing the seeming contradiction between Enlightenment ideologies and the slave-holding reality of many of its proponents (especially in the US), Bivens-Tatum claims that “their historical blindness to their own contradictions hardly negates the universal appeal of enlightened political thought.”10 However, Bivens-Tatum not only has no argument or evidence to support this claim but he also ignores the historical reality that, speaking only of the US, Indigenous (and other) peoples have been resisting the settler values of enlightenment from the very beginning of its history. As already noted, he writes that the US “is the country best embodying Enlightenment principles in theory if not always in practice” and traces this to the founding document of the US state, the “Declaration of Independence.”11 It is also the case that 1776 “initiated a land grab that drew to a close only after the United States had extended its border to the Pacific Ocean and nearly eliminated the Native American land base” with the invasion of the Cherokee just a few months after American independence.12 Why was this violent genocide needed by a state founded on ideas with universal appeal? Why are Indigenous peoples in the US _still_ resisting this state grounded on ideas with universal appeal? One would think that hundreds of years later, with the values and politics of the enlightenment firmly entrenched, they might have come to understand the appeal of enlightenment values.13 Bivens-Tatum’s hand-waving about how the historical evils committed by the early ideological state as a failure to live up to stated principles doesn’t explain why resistance continues today, since it is fairly easy to argue that the US today does a much better job of living up to enlightenment ideals than it did in the past. Putting his claim in proper historical and political context helps us understand the full hegemonic force of the claim: enlightened political thought does not have universal appeal. The US, the nation best embodying enlightenment ideals, is and was grounded on the (ongoing) genocide of Indigenous peoples. Where Bivens-Tatum and I largely diverge is that he characterizes criticism of the enlightenment via historical context as being derived by an apparent contradiction between ideal and reality. However, the source of my criticism is that there is no contradiction between the ideals of the enlightenment and the harsh reality of the ongoing Indigenous genocides, rather the two are inextricably linked within settler states. A key theme of this paper is that libraries do, in fact, embody enlightenment values, but/and that enlightenment values are themselves steeped in and reinforce white supremacist settler state ideologies. To the extent that libraries do embody enlightenment values, they likewise contribute to ongoing colonization and are thus reasonably seen as sites of violence and oppression. 2.2 The Historical Genesis of Libraries In discussing the purpose of public libraries, Bivens-Tatum notes that: Public libraries began as instruments of enlightenment, hoping to spread knowledge and culture broadly to the people, who as free citizens of a democratic republic required access to that knowledge and culture to live fuller lives and to become better citizens.14 It becomes clear that the primary purpose of libraries wasn’t education (as he erroneously concludes from a claim like this)15 but was political. Education within this ideological statement is only a means to an end: creating better citizens. In this instance ‘better’ equals ‘better educated.’ Almost nothing in this statement about the purpose of libraries is value-neutral and apolitical. And it would be difficult to unpack everything that is oppressive about this motivation to create libraries. In a context like this, many of the current real-world examples about how libraries are ‘failing’ marginalized people become clearly not a ‘failure’ but intentional. Public libraries in America and Canada were not designed for everyone; they are, as Bivens-Tatum says, intended for citizens. And their purpose is to create better citizens. This is not a politically neutral purpose. And, in anticipation of his arguments against ‘revisionist histories’ about the founding of public libraries,16 I note that I am, in fact, following his account of the historical motivations and ideology surrounding the formation of libraries. I do honestly think that they were motivated by enlightenment ideals. Where we significantly depart is in statements like this, “we can have a reasonable pluralism in society, but only if everyone acknowledges the authority of the public democratic institutions.”1718 If we view libraries as embodying a particular political ideology (that of enlightenment and its support for democracy) and if we understand that libraries were created to make citizens better, then the role that libraries play, as an institution, in perpetuating settler states becomes clear. As noted in the previous paragraph, libraries have a limit to the (types of) knowledge they provide access to — they cannot significantly or effectively challenge the authority of democratic institutions. Thus, libraries are implicated within institutional oppression in two ways: by having their genesis within the enlightenment ideology and by existing as a tool to perpetuate the state. 2.3 Contemporary Libraries and Liberalism In my search for resources for this paper, the connection between liberal philosophy and the enlightenment was simply taken as fact rather than something that needed to be established. As such, I’m going to take this as a given: liberalism is the modern day embodiment of enlightenment values. It does need to be noted, though, that liberalism as political philosophy/ideology is not really at all connected to political parties as they currently exist in Canada or the US. The type of liberal political ideology that was born out of the enlightenment fundamentally structures most contemporary political parties and organizations. This ideology broadly encapsulates the values of having a democratic state, freedom and inherent rights, etc. While current political parties debate about what counts as ‘freedom’ and how, exactly, the democratic state should be run, most of the larger, influential parties agree on these basic tenets.19 ALA’s Code of Ethics asserts that: We significantly influence or control the selection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information. In a political system grounded in an informed citizenry, we are members of a profession explicitly committed to intellectual freedom and the freedom of access to information. We have a special obligation to ensure the free flow of information and ideas to present and future generations.20 It should be fairly easy to see the parallels of this statement to what Bivens-Tatum notes was the original motivation for the creation of public libraries, at least as far as the ‘political system grounded in an informed citizenry’ is concerned. As the Annoyed Librarian also notes: Outside of a commitment to liberal democracy in general — which, by the way, is the only regime that supports the intellectual freedom of writers, artists, historians, philosophers, etc. — liberal institutions should take no substantive political position. A liberal library association would support intellectual freedom, access to information, and liberal democratic political institutions, but wouldn’t go on to make political statements irrelevant to libraries.21 While the Annoyed Librarian does think that ALA (or at least parts of it) are failing this liberal standard, it doesn’t make a difference to the reality that, failing or not, liberalism (and thus enlightenment) is the fundamental political philosophy informing how (at the very least) libraries and librarians think of themselves. Last, as I began exploring in the previous section, we can see that, yes, libraries are political institutions and, from this section, they are politically liberal institutions (in the classical understanding of liberalism). This also means that regardless of what the Annoyed Librarian and ALA wish, the proposition that libraries (and librarians) be politically neutral is a self-defeating one. Claiming that libraries ought to be liberal institutions that take ‘no substantive political position’ is a political position in and of itself. And it is not a neutral one (if such a thing is even possible). 3 Libraries, democracy, and the logics of white supremacy In locating the library in institutional oppression I’ll be focusing on only one line of criticism — white supremacy and decolonization — because of how focused my earlier sections are on the role that public libraries play (or ought to play) in maintaining a democratic (settler) state. I’m also largely depending on Andrea Smith’s understanding of how white supremacy is constituted: We may wish to rearticulate our understanding of white supremacy by not assuming that it is enacted in a single fashion; rather, white supremacy is constituted by separate and distinct, but still interrelated, logics. I would argue that the three primary logics of white supremacy in the US context include: (1) slaveability/anti-black racism, which anchors capitalism; (2) genocide, which anchors colonialism; and (3) orientalism, which anchors war.22 Her analytic framework provides a three lens way to view how the library, as institution, embodies and enforces one type of oppression, white supremacy. Namely, that libraries, being liberal institutions, are not ‘neutral’ in the ways that many of the sources cited in this paper either want them to be or believe they are. Rather, the explicit and expressed function of libraries, from their inception in the US and Canadian political structures to their existence today, is to create an informed citizenry for the sake of democracy. This allows us to finally locate the library in institutional oppression. 3.1 The Logic of Slavery Andrea Smith writes: One pillar of white supremacy is the logic of slavery. This logic renders black people as inherently enslaveable—as nothing more than property…This logic is the anchor of capitalism. That is, the capitalist system ultimately commodifies all workers: one’s own person becomes a commodity that one must sell in the labour market while the profits of one’s work are taken by somebody else. To keep this capitalist system in place—which ultimately commodifies most people—the logic of slavery applies a racial hierarchy to this system.23 Note one of the key claims in Smith’s discussion of the logic of slavery, that it ‘anchors capitalism’. Another way of understanding this is that the enslavability of Black people is a necessary and foundational part of capitalism, such that slavery is not the result of capitalism, but rather that capitalism itself is structured around this logic: [T]he market did more than surround and detain black bodies — it also possessed them with logics of fungibility and accumulation. Under the logic of the Atlantic slave trade, the market’s arithmetic of accumulation was sutured to the flesh, inhabiting the bodies and lives it stripped down to the sum of their biological parts for sale within the freedom of the market. For the slave, economic rationality possessed every moment of life’s terror and death’s release. Liberal distinctions between the public and private, and the economic, political, and social were fabrications for the slave, illusions that depended on their erasure from the realm of the human. This erasure made possible the alchemy of the market so that with its social, economic, and discursive racial mechanisms, the market could transform a human being into an object and test the limits of that object’s biological life. The fungibility of blackness meant that slaves were money, were animals, were gold, were cotton, were rum, and on and on.24 This fungibility of Blackness also, for Black people, makes notions of intellectual property a fabrication when it comes to Black creative and intellectual work. A reality evidenced by the history of modern/contemporary music whereby every major movement in music over the past 100+ years has happened via a process of the exploitation of Black creative labour with little benefit to their creators.25 However, because the logic of slavery structures the process of commodification within capitalism we also see that “the overall trend in intellectual property protection is broadly correlated with the rise of capitalism. In fact, some institutional features associated with capitalism had to exist prior to the full development of intellectual property rights.”26 While it is possible for intellectual property rights to exist outside of a capitalist framework, the system we current have exists within this framework. This means that our system of intellectual property, having arisen (at least in part) from capitalism, is necessarily structured by the logic of slavery. All of this creates a framework through which we can begin to understand how libraries institutionalize white supremacy. Principle IV in the ALA’s Code of Ethics states “we respect intellectual property rights.”27 Of course, many people would counter this claim by saying that the manner by which libraries operate fundamentally contradicts this capitalist impulse by making ‘intellectual property’ freely accessible to the public. Except this isn’t entirely true or, rather, it doesn’t represent the entire picture. When we look at the work of libraries, we begin to see that they actually play a significant role in not just ‘respecting intellectual property’ but in ensuring the stability of intellectual property itself. One mechanism through which libraries do this is through the creation of ‘authority records’: “An authority record is a tool used by librarians to establish forms of names (for persons, places, meetings, and organizations), titles, and subjects used on bibliographic records.”28 While the Library of Congress (LOC) makes it clear that authority records are created with the intent to improve accessibility, the mechanism they use for this ensures that every creative work necessarily has an identifiable owner. This is necessary in a system of capital wherein everything and everyone can (and likely will be) reduced to a commodity. This is only one way that libraries come to be implicated via active participation in the logic of slavery, of capitalism, and of white supremacy. We can also see that libraries, regardless of their making ‘knowledge’ or ‘information’ accessible for free, do not actually challenge or resist this logic. Rather, libraries are another institution necessary for maintaining a system of intellectual property within a larger context of white supremacy that depends on the inherent enslaveability of Black people. 3.2 The Logic of Genocide According to Andrea Smith: This logic holds that indigenous peoples must disappear. In fact, they must always be disappearing, in order to enable non-indigenous peoples’ rightful claim to land. Through this logic of genocide, non-Native peoples then become the rightful inheritors of all that was indigenous—land, resources, indigenous spirituality, and culture. Genocide serves as the anchor of colonialism: it is what allows non-Native peoples to feel they can rightfully own indigenous peoples’ land. It is acceptable exclusively to possess land that is the home of indigenous peoples because indigenous peoples have disappeared.29 In earlier sections it was noted that libraries were created and continue to be conceived as institutions designed for benefit of creating an informed citizenry for the sake of democracy. This can only be established as a value in a settler state like the US or Canada if the Indigenous peoples of this region have already disappeared. For ‘Canada’ and the ‘United States’ to continue to exist as democratic states (or for them to even be conceived as such) requires either that we understand that the Indigenous genocide is already complete or that we ensure that the genocide is ongoing. Since it is a fact that the Indigenous peoples of North America continue to exist, the ideal of libraries as liberal institutions existing to make democracy ‘better,’ thus stronger, is no less than an ideal wherein the genocide of Indigenous peoples is finally completed (putting democracy in its strongest possible position). By and large, this is what is missing from Bivens-Tatum’s glowing account of libraries and the enlightenment. He is careful to distinguish the historical and material realities of the enlightenment from its ideas/philosophy. My argument is that the historical and material context of the enlightenment is not actually ‘historical’ at all. As we continue to grapple with the ideas of the enlightenment today, so do we grapple with the material conditions that both caused and are caused by the enlightenment (settler colonialism, white supremacy, etc). However, we cannot be surprised by this, since the logic of genocide is “that indigenous peoples must disappear,”30 so the absence of their struggle against settler colonialism in the US (and all other settler states) is necessary. This absence, of course, extends not only to their physical disappearance, but their disappearance from history and discourse. Thus, having an ethical code “grounded in an informed citizenry” for librarians is fundamentally rooted in the ongoing Indigenous genocides.31 To put it plainly, settler states, in order to lay claim to their statehood, require the genocide of native populations. Libraries in supporting “a political system grounded in an informed citizenry” support the state and thus support genocide. 3.3 The Logic of Orientalism As Andrea Smith states: The logic of orientalism marks certain peoples or nations as inferior and deems them to be a constant threat to the wellbeing of empire… Consequently, orientalism serves as the anchor of war, because it allows the United States to justify being in a constant state of war to protect itself from its enemies. Orientalism allows the United States to defend the logics of slavery and genocide as these practices enable it to stay “strong enough” to fight these constant wars.32 Smith doesn’t go into the details of Orientalism, as it was developed by Edward Said,33 but libraries firmly belong to the discursive space identified by Said as “a structured set of concepts, assumptions, and discursive practices that were used to produce, interpret, and evaluate knowledge about non-European peoples.”34 It is this knowledge that informs the logic of orientalism described by Smith — the logic that allows the US to justify its ongoing wars. Libraries disguise their Orientalism by invoking the stance of neutrality: “We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources.”35 However, it is pretty easy to see that libraries are far from neutral spaces. There are many examples in the literature about the ways that collection development,36 reference,37 cataloguing,38 and many other library functions reveal deep biases in how the library as an institution exists. More importantly, as Bivens-Tatum himself writes, “we can have a reasonable pluralism in society, but only if everyone acknowledges the authority of the public democratic institutions.”39 In such a situation, it is impossible for neutrality to exist. Thus, if we look past this claim of neutrality and understand that it is an impossible position, we begin to understand how libraries come to articulate the logic of Orientalism. Part of what made Said’s work so groundbreaking and influential is that he demonstrated the way that knowledge creation within the empire is not (and never has been) a neutral activity and so the knowledge itself cannot be neutral. One of the interesting distinctions often drawn in library literature is between ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’. Information is understood as neutral facts and knowledge is created when we understand information (or something like that). It is a tidy distinction that allows ‘neutral’ librarians to feel like we are transmitting neutral facts, all unmediated by reality. Most criticisms of library neutrality tend to focus on the librarians and/or institution, rather than the ‘information’ or ‘knowledge’ preserved, stored, communicated, and legitimized by libraries. Said’s claims are, in part, explorations about the epistemology of empire, of colonial expansion, and of war but few criticisms of library neutrality have examined or focused on the role that libraries have within the empire and its epistemology. When we look into the collections, the actual ‘information’ contained in libraries and how it is organized, we can see that it (surely by accident) somehow manages to construct a reality wherein whiteness is default, normal, civilized and everything else is Other. In so doing, libraries very much participate in a larger imperial project that justifies war. We see that libraries very happily fulfill this expectation of Bivens-Tatum: “we can have a reasonable pluralism in society, but only if everyone acknowledges the authority of the public democratic institutions,”40 since these ‘public democratic institutions’ he is discussing are constituent parts of the empire. Seen from this light, is it at all surprising that library collections play their happy role in the Orientalist project of creating the Other? 4 Conclusions Looking back, now, at this paper and seeing what all I had to say during this excursion, one of the surprising themes (to me at least) is how often the concept of ‘neutrality’ came under fire, even though this was not intended. As I consider it now, it seems obvious to me that neutrality has been central to locating the library in institutional oppression. But it is a more complex concept of neutrality than is usually discussed within the literature, which tends to focus on the coherence of the neutrality of the individuals operating and working within libraries or on some of the processes and systems of libraries (like classification). The main notion of neutrality that I challenge within this article is that of institutional neutrality. Regardless of many people’s feelings about the coherence of individual neutrality, many have taken it as axiomatic that libraries are neutral institutions and that any failure of libraries to be neutral is largely the fault of individuals failing to live up to the ideals or ethics of the profession, rather than understanding the library as institution as fundamentally non-neutral. Libraries as institutions were created not only for a specific ideological purpose but for an ideology that is fundamentally oppressive in nature. As such, the failings of libraries can be re-interpreted not as libraries failing to live up to their ideals and values, but rather as symptoms and evidence of this foundational and oppressive ideology. In tying my line of criticism to that of colonialism, settler colonialism, and white supremacy (but as a reminder: there are many other lines of criticism that can and ought to be explored when situating the library in institutional oppression), I also have the seeds of solutions, for those who want such things. The clear solution is decolonization.41 Of course, this is a difficult prospect for many within the field since it precludes any solution that is reformist in nature; no reform is possible if we understand libraries as fundamentally white supremacist institutions. For those who find this unpalatable, there is, perhaps, a worthwhile solution in decoupling libraries from their avowed goal in propping up and strengthening settler democracies. This could allow us to preserve the institution, but would require drastic and daring changes to the overall structure and organization of libraries. Libraries, unlike other institutions of settler states (like the judicial system), have at least some emancipatory potential. Realizing the emancipatory potential of the library as institution would require breaking and disrupting the system of intellectual property and other aspects of capitalism, especially the publishing industry. It would require disrupting the empire’s mechanisms for creating ‘knowledge’ by being more than a repository for imperial knowledge products. It would require supporting Indigenous resistance to the settler state and working towards dismantling anti-Blackness. In so doing, perhaps libraries could begin to live up to the ideal expressed by Gaiman in the introduction. Libraries really could come to represent and embody freedom. They could become focal points for the free exchange and access of ideas, knowledge, and imagination. Thanks to Chris Bourg and Ellie Collier for being such ridiculously awesome reviewers and for making this paper about 100000000000x better. Really. THANK YOU SO MUCH.    5 Works Cited Addams, Suellen S., and Kate Pierce. “Is There Transgender Canon?: Information Seeking and Use in the Transgender Community,” 2006. http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2006/adams_2006.pdf. Annoyed Librarian. “Libraries as Liberal Institutions.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.ca/2006/12/libraries-as-liberal-institutions.html. Berman, Sanford. “‘Inside’ Censorship.” De Facto Censorship Implicit in Collection Decisions, no. 18 (July 15, 2001): 48–63. Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment. Library Juice Press, 2012. Bristow, William. “Enlightenment.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/enlightenment/. “Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics. Curry, Ann. “If I Ask, Will They Answer?” Reference & User Services Quarterly 45, no. 1 (Fall 2005): 65–75. Downey, Jennifer. “Public Library Collection Development Issues Regarding the Information Needs of GLBT Patrons.” Progressive Librarian, no. 25 (Summer 2005): 86–95. “Frequently Asked Questions (Library of Congress Authorities).” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://authorities.loc.gov/help/auth-faq.htm#1. Gaiman, Neil. “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming.” The Guardian, October 15, 2013, sec. Books. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming. King, Tiffany. “Labor’s Aphasia: Toward Antiblackness as Constitutive to Settler Colonialism.” Decolonization. Accessed August 9, 2014. http://decolonization.wordpress.com/2014/06/10/labors-aphasia-toward-antiblackness-as-constitutive-to-settler-colonialism/.> Klumpp, Tilman, and Paul H. Rubin. “Property Rights and Capitalism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Capitalism, edited by Dennis C. Mueller. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Kohn, Margaret. “Colonialism.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/colonialism/. “Orphan Works and Mass Digitization | U.S. Copyright Office.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/. Roberto, K. R., ed. Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2008. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2003. Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=488. Saunt, Claudio. “1776: Not Just the Revolution – The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, July 6, 2014. https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/07/05/not-just-revolution/7NWJFee79vi7mxxLe2zMvI/story.html. Wolfson, Matthew. “The Origins of Globalisation.” Prospect Magazine, May 14, 2013. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/david-armitage-foundations-of-modern-international-thought-review. A note about the research/citation methodology of this article: I’ve decided to make a principled stance about only citing open access resources. The exception within the paper is monographs, which haven’t been considered by the OA movement in the same way. But as far as articles and other scholarly resources are concerned, if I wasn’t able to find a non-paywalled copy, I haven’t cited or used it within this paper. There are obvious and unfortunate limitations when strictly adhering to such a principle, since much relevant research remains locked up behind publisher paywalls. [↩] Gaiman, Neil. “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming.” The Guardian, October 15, 2013, sec. Books. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming. [↩] Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). [↩] Bivens-Tatum is careful to note his bias towards the enlightenment on page 4 of his book when he writes “I will be discussing the principles of the Enlightenment in a positive way.” In the same spirit, I’ll state outright that I think the enlightenment is and was evil because it is the ideology of colonialism. I don’t use the word ‘evil’ lightly, but I’m hard pressed to think of any other word to describe a set of philosophical and political ideas that directly led to the deaths of millions of people and the subjugation of pretty much the entire world under white colonial powers. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 185. [↩] Bristow, William. “Enlightenment.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/enlightenment/. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 12. [↩] While it is commonplace to capitalize or treat the ‘Enlightenment’ as a proper noun, my practice of not capitalizing the term is a small act of resistance to the mythology surrounding most discourse about the enlightenment. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 23. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 23. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 12. [↩] Saunt, Claudio. “1776: Not Just the Revolution – The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, July 6, 2014. https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/07/05/not-just-revolution/7NWJFee79vi7mxxLe2zMvI/story.html. [↩] The articles/posts on http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com provide a great example of contemporary Indigenous resistance to setter colonial states like the US. This is an ongoing struggle. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 133. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 133. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 111. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 112. [↩] So that my position is very clear: I don’t acknowledge the authority of public democratic institutions. This is exactly  why I’m writing a paper locating the library in institutional oppression. I’m not attempting to quibble about what is or isn’t the enlightenment or what did or did not motivate the creation of public libraries. Part of my argument rests on the understanding that libraries, as an institution, are oppressive because of their relationship to a white supremacist, hetero-patriarchal settler state. And because of the exact reasons he describes: libraries are necessary for creating better citizens of a democratic state. This is one of the major reasons why, as they currently exist in Canada and the US, libraries are a tool of oppression, rather than of liberation. [↩] In Canada, for example, while the Conservative party and the Liberal party place a different emphasis on what they consider ‘freedom’ and have divergent views on economics, neither has any interest in pushing for a non-democratic Canada. [↩] “Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics. [↩] Annoyed Librarian. “Annoyed Librarian: Libraries as Liberal Institutions.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.ca/2006/12/libraries-as-liberal-institutions.html. [↩] Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=488. [↩] Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=488. [↩] vitoria. “The Fungibility of Blackness.” Acceptable Society. Accessed September 5, 2014. http://acceptablesociety.blogspot.ca/2012/04/fungibility-of-blackness.html. [↩] For a recent example, do an internet search on “Miley Cyrus twerking cultural appropriation.” See Bowen, Sesali. Let’s Get Ratchet! Check Your Privilege At The Door.” Racialicious – the Intersection of Race and Pop Culture.  Accessed September 15, 2014. http://www.racialicious.com/2013/04/09/lets-get-ratchet-check-your-privilege-at-the-door/. [↩] Klumpp, Tilman, and Paul H. Rubin. “Property Rights and Capitalism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Capitalism, edited by Dennis C. Mueller. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 11. Preprint here: http://www.ualberta.ca/~klumpp/docs/PropertyRightsFinal.pdf [↩] “Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics. [↩] “Frequently Asked Questions (Library of Congress Authorities).” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://authorities.loc.gov/help/auth-faq.htm#1. [↩] Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=488. [↩] Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=488. [↩] “Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics. [↩] Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy – Centre for World Dialogue.” Global Dialogue 12, no. 2 (2010). http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=488. [↩] Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2003. [↩] Kohn, Margaret. “Colonialism.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/colonialism/. [↩] “Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics. [↩] See Downey, Jennifer. “Public Library Collection Development Issues Regarding the Information Needs of GLBT Patrons.” Progressive Librarian, no. 25 (Summer 2005): 86–95. [↩] See Curry, Ann. “If I Ask, Will They Answer?” Reference & User Services Quarterly 45, no. 1 (Fall 2005): 65–75. http://pacificreference.pbworks.com/f/If+I+Ask,+Will+They+Answer.pdf [↩] See “Teaching the Radical Catalog.” in Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front, ed. K.R. Roberto. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, April 2008. http://www.emilydrabinski.com/teaching-the-radical-catalog/ [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 112. [↩] Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. Libraries and the Enlightenment (Library Juice Press, 2012), 112. [↩] Refer to Unsettling America, http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com, for a starting point to understanding decolonization. [↩] institutional oppression, libraries, public libraries, the enlightenment Locating Information Literacy within Institutional Oppression The Right to Read: The How and Why of Supporting Intellectual Freedom for Teens 12 Responses Ellie 2014–09–24 at 3:22 pm Thanks to @SeerGenius for pointing out additional scholarship: Alternative Perspectives in Library and Information Science: Issues of Race by Lorna Peterson – http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40324271 Unequal Legacies: Race and Multiculturalism in the LIS Curriculum by Christine Pawley – http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/506955 Ellie Collier 2014–09–24 at 3:57 pm And as a result of conversations there, we now have a GDoc to create an extended bibliography – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b9dM66G1RUK-ecGKdEWCUgptx8Ii5bPvBs5QVGEBUpw/edit?usp=sharing Pingback : Rockstar Librarians - Coral Sheldon-Hess Peter 2014–10–16 at 12:34 pm You short cut a bit around one of the enlightenment’s main historical contributions to Andrea Smith’s triad: enlightenment ethics sanctify ‘individual’ property rights. John Locke made his freedoms very clear: Life, Liberty, Property (a triad too crass for a literal inclusion in the declaration of independence). Without such sanctity, capitalism could neither flourish nor exist. Now, property rights thoroughly eclipse and replaced human rights and freedoms, including the notion of the being human itself. Indigenous communal ownership and decision making needed elimination because, among other reasons, it was communal. Colonialism is part and parcel of capitalism, and orientalism and its modern justification for war are the very manifestations of capitalism. Indeed, the historical transition from feudal ethics to enlightenment ethics was necessary to support the transition from primitive accumulation to modern capitalism. Alecto Greenslade 2014–10–16 at 11:24 pm An example of the terribly convoluted space or function of libraries that comes to mind after reading this article, is the prison library. I have worked, briefly, in a prison library. While prisoners would say things like, “I feel free to be myself here [in the library]” and while some items in the collection offered potential for transformation because they offered a chance or a vision to do or be or reach for something different, the library was clearly integrally fitted into the prison system. Access to it was controlled and people were controlled while in the library; and the rationale for it included the potential for “rehabilitation” so prison libraries are unarguably located in institutional oppression. I myself have decided that rehabilitation is a furphy in the prison context and a lot of prisoners lives: “rehabilitation” implies a state of health to which a person who has been wounded or ill can return – or be returned. A lot of prisoners don’t have lives which don’t include prison to which they can return or be returned, so they can’t be “rehabilitated”. I do think that prison libraries (and prisons) offer the opportunity for transformation, by which I mean the opportunity for doing something different or differently whether it’s becoming an artist or thinking clearly about getting married when you leave or resolving to pursue lapidary as a hobby, also when you leave, or anything that’s different. In such a constrained environment, it’s very hard to grasp that chance but it’s there, oddly and paradoxically enough. Such transformations can entail leaving the life that got the prisoner into prison in the first place – which is what prison and prison education and prison industries etc are intended to do so such “transformations” fit the institution’s purpose, no question. Maybe the nascent ‘transformations’ that I witnessed in the library, stuck less in my craw than the rehabilitation-lite efforts did because once chosen, the learning and the activity could be somewhat self-directed by the prisoner. It’s that funny thing of agency – people operate in worlds they have not constructed and would not construct if they had a choice but they/we find ways to be assert ourselves nevertheless, even if they are small expressions – now THAT is a feature of human nature that is very clearly demonstrated in prisons, Enough. Cheers. Pingback : Mirror, Mirror, Or, Library Reflections | Kelly Dagan Pingback : The Enlightenment and libraries: it’s not really that bad | Sense & Reference Pingback : Reflections on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Holiday | Information. Games. Pingback : Questions & the library | Academic Research & the Library Pingback : Since the last time I wrote about my class… | Fieldnotes from the library Pingback : What kind of license would you use? | professional wanderlust Pingback : In the Library with the Lead Pipe » Locating Information Literacy within Institutional Oppression This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. 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www-inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe-org-9563	----	White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content chat18.webcam Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2015 Oct 07 April Hathcock /71 Comments White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS Image by Flickr user katieblench (CC BY 2.0) In Brief: Whiteness—an ideological practice that can extend beyond notions of racial supremacy to other areas of dominance—has permeated every aspect of librarianship, extending even to the initiatives we claim are committed to increasing diversity. This state of affairs, however, need not remain. This article examines the ways in which whiteness controls diversity initiatives in LIS, particularly in light of the application requirements set upon candidates. I then suggest ways to correct for whiteness in LIS diversity programs by providing mentorship to diverse applicants struggling to navigate the whiteness of the profession and concurrently working in solidarity to dismantle whiteness from within.1 By April Hathcock Failure of Diversity Initiatives in LIS It is no secret that librarianship has traditionally been and continues to be a profession dominated by whiteness (Bourg, 2014; Branche, 2012; Galvan, 2015; Hall, 2012; Honma, 2006), which is a theoretical concept that can extend beyond the realities of racial privilege to a wide range of dominant ideologies based on gender identity, sexual orientation, class, and other categories. In fact, recent years have seen LIS professional organizations and institutions striving to provide increasing numbers of diversity initiatives to help members from underrepresented groups enter and remain in librarianship (Gonzalez-Smith, Swanson, & Tanaka, 2014). The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Society of American Archivists conduct the Mosaic Program to attract diverse students to careers in archiving; the American Association of Law Libraries manages the George A. Strait Minority Scholarship to help fund library school for college graduates interested in law librarianship; the American Library Association (ALA) runs its Spectrum Scholars Program to provide scholarships to diverse LIS students and a corresponding Spectrum Leadership Institute to help prepare these students for successful careers in the library field. Examples abound of library organizations attempting to address the “problem of diversity” in the LIS field. Nevertheless, these efforts are not making any meaningful difference. As one of my colleagues has so accurately put it: “We’re bringing [people] from underrepresented identity groups into the profession at same rate they’re leaving. Attrition [is] a problem” (Vinopal, 2015). With minority librarians leaving the profession as soon as they are recruited, what can be done to render our abundance of diversity initiatives truly effective? Why are these ambitious and numerous initiatives failing to have the desired effect? Shortly after discussing this very issue with a colleague over lunch, I received an email regarding the approaching deadline for the ARL Career Enhancement Program, which is aimed at placing diverse, early career librarians in internships with member libraries. Reading through the onerous application process, the realization hit me: Our diversity programs do not work because they are themselves coded to promote whiteness as the norm in the profession and unduly burden those individuals they are most intended to help. Whiteness in LIS Studying whiteness in LIS has yet to hit the mainstream of library scholarship, but there have been a number of critical and radical library scholars who have taken up the challenge of interrogating and troubling the whiteness of the profession (Bourg, 2014; Espinal, 2000, 2001; Galvan, 2015; Hall, 2012; Honma, 2006). These critical examinations highlight the many dimensions of any accurate definition of whiteness as an ideological practice. As Galvan (2015) so succinctly puts it, “whiteness . . . means: white, heterosexual, capitalist, and middle class.” Hall (2012) takes a different approach to defining the breadth of whiteness in LIS by differentiating it from the “black bodies” of LIS: “I would assert that [whiteness] is an issue, a question, that transcends race, ethnicity, any broad or limiting categorization and unites all librarians who identify or are identified as different” (p. 201). For these writers, whiteness refers not only to racial and ethnic categorizations but a complete system of exclusion based on hegemony. Likewise, in this article, I use “whiteness” to refer not only to the socio-cultural differential of power and privilege that results from categories of race and ethnicity; it also stands as a marker for the privilege and power that acts to reinforce itself through hegemonic cultural practice that excludes all who are different. This system of exclusion functions primarily through the normativity of whiteness within librarian and larger societal culture. As Branche (2012) notes, “Whiteness and white normativity are embedded in U.S. library culture” (p. 205). The normativity of whiteness works insidiously, invisibly, to create binary categorizations of people as either acceptable to whiteness and therefore normal or different and therefore other. The invisible nature of whiteness is key to its power; when it is not named or interrogated, it can persist in creating a culture of exclusion behind the scenes of LIS practice (Espinal, 2000, 2001; Galvan, 2015; Honma, 2006). As Yeo and Jacobs (2006) note, “One must ask oneself if it would be possible to really achieve diversity without challenging our racist, homophobic and sexist consciousnesses that are so deeply imbedded that we don’t even recognize them?” For example, whiteness as hegemonic practice is at work when a librarian of color is mistaken for a library assistant by white colleagues at a professional conference. Likewise, whiteness is at work when genderqueer librarians are forced to choose between binary gender groupings, neither of which apply to their identities, when using the restroom at work. Finally, whiteness is at work when a librarian from a working-class background in search of employment is told by well-meaning colleagues, “Just take a job anywhere and move,” when the unemployed librarian lacks the financial privilege to do so. This working of white normativity occurs without thought and intention but is still powerfully exclusionary and damaging to the profession. A major contributor to the invisible normativity of whiteness in librarianship has been the fact that whiteness has played such a fundamental role in the profession from the start. Public libraries in the U.S. developed initially as sites of cultural assimilation and “Americanization” of immigrants needing to learn the mores of white society (Hall, 2012; Honma, 2006). Given the historical context, white normativity continues to be a hallmark of modern librarianship. White normativity in LIS extends to the ways in which we discuss and address diversity in the profession. Rather than being framed as a shared goal for the common good, diversity is approached as a problem that must be solved, with diverse librarians becoming the objectified pawns deployed to attack the problem. With this white-centered thinking at the fore, many LIS diversity initiatives seem to focus primarily on increasing numbers and visibility without paying corresponding attention to retention and the lived experiences of underrepresented librarians surrounded by the whiteness of the profession (Gonzalez-Smith, Swanson, & Tanaka, 2014; Honma, 2006; Yeo & Jacobs, 2006). Focusing on numbers rather than the deeper issues of experience and structural discrimination allows the profession to take a self-congratulatory and complacent approach to the “problem of diversity” without ever overtly naming and addressing the issue of whiteness (Espinal, 2000, 2001; Honma, 2006). In many ways, this article serves as an extension of Galvan’s (2015) examination of the practice of whiteness in LIS hiring and job recruitment. She identifies culture, conspicuous leisure, and access to wealth as barriers to entry for members from diverse backgrounds (Galvan, 2015). My research extends that framework to examine ways in which similar barriers come into play even before the hiring process—in diversity initiatives supposedly aimed at encouraging members of marginalized groups to pursue the education and training necessary for a career in librarianship. “White” Diversity Initiatives The profession is so imbued with whiteness, extending even to the ways in which we discuss and address diversity, it is no wonder that our myriad diversity initiatives are not working. When we recruit for whiteness, we will perpetuate whiteness in the profession, even when it comes in the form of a librarian with a diverse background. A look at the application requirements for a typical LIS diversity initiative demonstrates this point. In order to qualify for an internship through the ARL Career Enhancement Program, for example, applicants must submit: a completed application form; a resume; a 500-word essay detailing their professional interests and goals; an official letter of acceptance to an ALA-accredited MLIS program; official transcripts; and two letters of recommendation, one of which must be from a professor or employer. Each of these requirements assumes that applicants are situated in positions of white, middle-class, cisgender normativity that allow for the temporal, financial, and educational privilege that fulfilling these criteria would require. Only an applicant with access to the privileges of whiteness would have the tools needed to engage in the requisite work and volunteer opportunities called for by the diversity program, have the high-level of educational achievement required, possess the close relationships with individuals of power needed for stellar recommendations, and be able to provide all the documentation necessary to complete their application through the online form. In many ways, this long list of requirements resembles the complex application processes of the most elite private institutions of higher education. Many public institutions, including almost all community colleges, do not require such detailed paperwork for matriculation into their undergraduate programs (see e.g., St. Petersburg College). These institutions take their public mission seriously to provide education to all members of the community. However, diversity initiatives in LIS that are meant to benefit members of underrepresented groups require lengthy applications that many individuals from diverse backgrounds may not be equipped to complete. These applications are created particularly to recruit for whiteness and require the ability to play at whiteness in order to succeed. For example, applicants are required to submit resumes detailing their work experience, but an applicant from a working-class background may not have the requisite experience, either through work or volunteering, to place on a resume. Building a relevant resume assumes the applicant has the white, middle-class background that allows for early career professional work or volunteerism, whereas many applicants do not have that privilege (Galvan, 2015). It may also be the case that the applicant has plenty of work experience in low-wage jobs but is unaware of ways to frame that experience to reflect the transferable skills that relate to librarianship. Without the white-normative experience of applying for professional opportunities, the applicant will not know how to frame their resume to meet the requirements for the application and, because of this lack of knowledge, may decide not to apply at all. Another example can be seen in the requirement of official transcripts. A genderqueer applicant who has since changed names and gender identities may not know how to navigate the legal and bureaucratic labyrinth of transferring their personal information from one name and identity to another. Because the transcripts must be official, the applicant will likely have to work with the educational institution, as well as the diversity program, to verify their identity. This process adds additional labor to the already onerous application process—labor that is not required of the white-normative, cisgender applicant—and could likely discourage the applicant from applying. In both cases, an application process rooted in whiteness can have a chilling effect on the types of applicants who actually apply, creating a self-selection process that further promotes whiteness in the profession. Even for those applicants who successfully apply and are accepted into these diversity programs, playing at whiteness is still a requirement for career success. Programs like the ARL Career Enhancement Program assume that successful applicants possess the privileged free time, financial backing, and familial circumstances to allow them to relocate for these internships, residencies, or ALA-accredited library programs. Moreover, these diversity initiatives not only require whiteness for the application process but they also require continued whiteness to succeed in the profession (Galvan, 2015). Thus, those applicants who find success in these diversity programs are those who can successfully replicate necessary whiteness. As Espinal (2000, 2001) observes, “Many librarians of color have commented that they are more accepted if and when they look and act white” (p. 144). This means the inverse is also true: Those librarians not able to play successfully at whiteness will be continually excluded from the profession (Satifice, 2015). This phenomenon is not unique to LIS. Writing about the technology sector, Kẏra (2014) notes, “When we talk about diversity and inclusion, we necessarily position marginalized groups as naturally needing to assimilate into dominant ones, rather than to undermine said structures of domination.” Jack (2015) makes a similar observation regarding elite undergraduate institutions matriculating underrepresented minority students—the “privileged poor”—from private high schools: “Elite colleges effectively hedge their bets: They recruit those already familiar with the social and cultural norms that pervade their own campuses.” Manipulating diversity programs to recruit for whiteness ensures that only those diverse candidates adept in whiteness will succeed. My own experience serves as a prime example. I am a cisgender, heterosexual, middle-class black woman, raised by two highly educated parents who taught me from a young age the importance of playing at whiteness to achieve. I can specifically remember my mother admonishing me to “play the game and do what you want later” throughout my life. I have grown very adept at playing at whiteness; it has allowed me to complete a number of post-graduate degrees, spend time practicing corporate law at an award-winning global firm, and successfully transfer careers to a rewarding position in academic librarianship. This playing at whiteness also allowed me to apply for and successfully obtain a position as an ALA Spectrum Scholar in the 2012 cohort. Knowing how to replicate whiteness has served me well. Image by Flickr user Emilien ETIENNE (CC BY 2.0) “Lifting as We Climb” While my own ability to play at whiteness has served me in my career, it is a privilege that I know I cannot use selfishly. As my mother reminded me in a recent conversation about the issue of diversity in the professional world, “You play the game and give the white world what it wants just to get through the door. Then, once you’re inside, you blast that door wide open for others to follow you” (B. Evans Hathcock, personal communication, August 18, 2015). Just as the National Association of Colored Women exhorted fellow middle-class blacks to do in their motto “Lifting as We Climb” (Wormser, 2002), it is important that those of us in LIS with privilege—be it the privilege of actual whiteness or the privilege of skill in playing whiteness—serve as effective allies to those who do not. We need to make space for our diverse colleagues to thrive within the profession. In short, we need to dismantle whiteness from within LIS. We can best do that in two equally important ways: by modifying our diversity programs to attract truly diverse applicants and by mentoring early career librarians in both playing at and dismantling whiteness in LIS. One of the first steps to washing away the blackface of white librarianship is to reframe diversity initiatives so that they attract and retain applicants from truly diverse backgrounds. When we recruit for whiteness, we will get whiteness; but when we recruit for diversity, we will truly achieve diversity. It is important to note that reworking application processes to accommodate applicants with different backgrounds and experiences in no way requires lowering standards. Talented applicants from truly diverse backgrounds—that is, backgrounds not functionally equivalent to standards of successful whiteness—exist and can be recruited and retained for these programs. To identify and attract them, however, requires framing application questions and required material in ways that make sense for the applicants’ experiences. For example, instead of requiring that at least one or all letters of recommendation come from professors or former employers, it may be useful and more relevant to allow applicants to submit letters from community members or other acquaintances who can provide equally informed assessments of the applicant’s work and goals. Assuming that an applicant has the necessary relationship with a professor or supervisor means assuming that applicant attends school or works in a white, middle-class, cis-male environment where closeness with professors or supervisors is the norm. A diverse applicant may not have the opportunity to form those kinds of school and work relationships. However, that same applicant may know a staff member at the local public library who is well aware of the applicant’s career goals and the work they have put toward achieving them. The local library staff member would not qualify as either a professor or former employer but can still provide valuable insight into the qualifications of that particular applicant. Dismantling whiteness from the infrastructure of our diversity programs is key, but it will take time. In the meantime, there are diverse individuals out there who wish to become and remain successful librarians. Thus, another important step in washing away the blackface of white librarianship involves teaching new librarians from diverse backgrounds how to navigate effectively the white system that we have. We also need to teach these new librarians how to dismantle whiteness’ stranglehold on the profession. Being a nonwhite librarian playing at whiteness is an isolating and lonely practice, so it is essential that new librarians from diverse backgrounds get the support they need and have safe spaces to go in the midst of this work. Fortunately, there are a number of communities of radical and critical librarians who are willing to provide support, guidance, and mentorship in bringing true diversity and anti-racist practice to the profession. One colleague and fellow beneficiary of LIS diversity initiatives has created a mentorship group for students of color to help them navigate the realities of learning and working in a privileged space and to assist them in fulfilling the requirements of whiteness necessary to succeed (Padilla, 2015). Social media spaces, such as #critlib and #radlib on Twitter, provide public spaces for librarians to vent frustrations and share strategies for combating whiteness—comprising a range of hegemonic statuses, as defined above—in LIS. For those not comfortable with speaking out publicly, social media can also provide useful points of contact for more private, offline relationships and discussions aimed at combating whiteness in the profession. Even within our professional organizations, a number of caucuses and interest groups, including the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table and the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association exist to help members of diverse identity groups find community in the midst of the whiteness of librarianship (Espinal, 2000, 2001; Gonzalez-Smith, Swanson, & Tanaka, 2014). There are many ways for nonwhite librarians and library students to gain the support and knowledge they need to enter the doors of the profession and subsequently “blast them open.” Likewise, there are many practical ways more experienced librarians—from all backgrounds and levels of privilege—can help to fight whiteness in our diversity initiatives: Volunteer to serve on ALA and workplace committees and working groups tasked with organizing LIS diversity initiatives and speak up regarding ways those initiatives can be modified to embrace a more diverse applicant pool. Offer to take part in formal mentoring programs through professional associations or within your institution. Help library workers new to the profession to navigate the culture of whiteness in the profession at large and within your specific place of work. For example, the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Dr. E. J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Program pairs academic librarians with current Spectrum Scholars interested in academic librarianship, and mentor applications are always welcome. Participate in informal mentoring with nonwhite library workers and students. With social media, it is possible to serve as an effective resource and ally for someone, even from miles away. Do what you can to let new colleagues from diverse backgrounds know that you are available as a resource for advice, to serve as a reference, etc. Even if you are yourself new to the profession, you have a role to play. Develop relationships with more seasoned librarians who have demonstrated a commitment to inclusivity and learn from their experiences in the struggle. If you have privilege, begin speaking up for those who do not and signal boost their messages. Fighting whiteness is hard work that requires additional labor from everyone. As Lumby and Morrison (2010) note, “It is therefore in the interest of all to address inequities, and not just in the interest of the apparently disadvantaged” (p. 12, citing Frankenburg, 1993). Washing Away the White Librarianship in Blackface Whiteness has permeated every aspect of librarianship, extending even to the initiatives we commit to increasing diversity. We can, however, make meaningful and important changes. With continued critical study of whiteness and its effects on LIS, it is possible to redirect our thinking about diversity from a problem to be solved to a goal worth achieving. Moreover, we can and should develop real strategies for attaining that goal. The first step is to help diverse applicants navigate the whiteness of the profession and make a concerted effort to dismantle whiteness from within. In doing so, we can recreate the profession into one that truly embraces inclusivity. We can wash away our white librarianship in blackface. Huge thank you to Annie Pho, Jennifer Vinopal, and Erin Dorney for reading, reviewing, and helping to revise this article. It is so much better having come across their desks. Unending gratitude to Betty Evans and Dewitt Hathcock for teaching me how to play the game successfully and raising me to be the radical I am today. Works Cited Branche, C. L. (2012). Diversity in librarianship: Is there a color line? In A. P. Jackson, J. C. Jefferson, Jr., & A. S. Nosakhere (Eds.), The 21st-century black librarian in America (pp. 203-206). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Bourg, C. (2014, March 3). The unbearable whiteness of librarianship. Feral librarian. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-librarianship. Espinal, I. (2000). A new vocabulary for inclusive librarianship: Applying whiteness theory to our profession. Paper presented at REFORMA National Conference, Tucson, Arizona. Espinal, I. (2001). A new vocabulary for inclusive librarianship: Applying whiteness theory to our profession. In L. Castillo-Speed (Ed.), The power of language/El poder de la palabra: Selected papers from the second REFORMA National Conference (pp. 131-149). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Frankenburg, R. (1993). White women. Race matters. The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Galvan, A. (2015). Soliciting performance, hiding bias: Whiteness and librarianship. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Retrieved from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/soliciting-performance-hiding-bias-whiteness-and-librarianship. Gonzalez-Smith, I., Swanson, J., & Tanaka, A. (2014) Unpacking identity: Racial, ethnic, and professional identity and academic librarians of color. In N. Pagowsky & M. Rigby (Eds.), The librarian stereotype: Deconstructing perceptions and presentations of information work (pp. 149-173). Chicago, IL: Association of College and Research Libraries. Hall, T. D. (2012). The black body at the reference desk: Critical race theory and black librarianship. In A. P. Jackson, J. C. Jefferson, Jr., & A. S. Nosakhere (Eds.), The 21st-century black librarian in America (pp. 197-202). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Honma, T. (2006). Trippin’ over the color line: The invisibility of race in library and information studies. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 1(2). Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj0w1mp. Jack, A. A. (2015, September 12). What the privileged poor can teach us. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/what-the-privileged-poor-can-teach-us.html?_r=0. Kẏra (2014, December 10). How to uphold white supremacy by focusing on diversity and inclusion. Model View Culture. Retrieved from https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/how-to-uphold-white-supremacy-by-focusing-on-diversity-and-inclusion. Lorde, A. (1984). Sexism: An American disease in blackface. In Sister Outsider (pp. 60-65). Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press. Lumby, J., & Morrison, M. (2010). Leadership and diversity: Theory and research. School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation, 30(1), 3-17. Padilla, T. [@thomasgpadilla]. (2015, August 18). @AprilHathcock we started a students of color group, tried to mentor incoming groups to privileged realities, req. of entrance. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/thomasgpadilla/status/633660350337019904. Satifice. (2015, September 10). It’s time to get personal, dirty, and downright nasty [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from http://satifice.tumblr.com/post/128776550132/its-time-to-get-personal-dirty-and-downright. Vinopal, J. [@jvinopal]. (2015, August 18). @AprilHathcock we’re bringing ppl from underrepresented identity groups into profession at same rate they are leaving. Attrition a problem+. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/jvinopal/status/633652864087404544. Wormser, R. (2002). Jim Crow stories: National Association of Colored Women. The rise and fall of Jim Crow. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_org_nacw.html. Yeo, S., & Jacobs, J. R. (2006). Diversity matters? Rethinking diversity in libraries. Counterpoise, 9(2). Retrieved from http://freegovinfo.info/files/diversity_counterpoise.pdf. The title of this article is a variation on a quote by librarian, scholar, and activist Audre Lorde (1984): “Black feminism is not white feminism in blackface.” In this article, I am arguing the opposite as it relates to diversity initiatives in LIS in that I posit that diverse librarianship as we conceive of it is in fact white librarianship in blackface. [↩] Editorial: Summer Reading 2015 A Critical Take on OER Practices: Interrogating Commercialization, Colonialism, and Content 71 Responses Karl Ericson 2015–10–07 at 10:48 am This article has given me much to think about and confront within myself. Thank you for getting under my skin, helping to remind me of my need to confront my own comfort, find comfort in the uncomfortable, and arrive at new understandings from which to act. April Hathcock 2015–10–08 at 8:54 am Thanks, Karl, I’m glad to hear it. These conversations are never comfortable, but nonetheless, so important. Thanks for joining in. Hanni Nabahe 2015–10–07 at 12:11 pm Your points are valid, although I feel that what you are calling for is happening already, particularly within ARL’s CEP. I am exactly the kind of diverse applicant you talk about in your article: returning to school after a 20 year gap, single mother, immigrant from Mexico. Not only did I find it fairly simple to navigate the process, I had an amazing experience with the librarians at my CEP internship location, UC San Diego, when it came to housing and relocation (they accommodated me bringing two of my children and set us up on an apartment on campus). The program opened a whole new world to me and I am on my way to help others take advantage of what I have learned. I do understand the frustration expressed here, particularly as it relates to letters of recommendation. Last spring, I too had hoped to apply for the Spectrum scholarship and the only reason I did not was that they required 3 letters of recommendation. I ended up applying to the ARL/SAA Mosaic fellowship where the requirement was only 2 (beyond not having enough people that fit the faculty/supervisor requirement, some are just too busy and have already written enough of those for applicants like me). Guess which program I am now a part of? I do feel that what’s missing here is testimony from current applicants, from people living this issue, not just from those observing it from on high. I wish you had more than circumstantial evidence and academic papers (yup, you sure played at whiteness right there) to back your arguments and truly strengthen your case. Had you taken the time to go that extra step, you might have been pleasantly surprised. nina de jesus 2015–10–07 at 2:28 pm @Hanni Given that this is an academic article in a peer-reviewed journal, it isn’t really all that surprising that Hathcock, you know, wrote this like an academic paper and used academic sources. That said, given that she also cited an email from her mother, I’m really not sure where you are getting this impression that she has her head stuck in the ivory tower or whatever. Regarding the ARL’s diversity initiative, I was one of their recipients of the scholarship for Recruiting a Diverse Workforce Initiative, something I think they no longer do. Now, getting the scholarship was amazing and I had a great experience, overall, doing the various activities that were part of the reward. Moreover, because I was attending school in Canada, the scholarship paid for most of my MLIS tuition, a real blessing. But I also know of someone in my same program who didn’t apply for the scholarship because he didn’t understand where South Asians fit into the American 2010 Census classifications for race. Stuff like this? Is a real barrier. Moving on, though, I got the scholarship. And it was great. Perhaps you might’ve noticed that I’m actually the person Hathcock cites as an example of how the whiteness of LIS doesn’t really care if I’m able to participate. I encourage you to read that post. Because I ought to be a cautionary tale for any marginalized person entering the field. I did all the right things. I got a prestigious scholarship. I even published an article in this very journal. I’ve been attending conferences, given talks and such. And yet… I am still stuck in the same part-time position I got when I graduated three years ago. Note how one of Hathcock’s main points is that attrition is happening as fast as recruitment. I am one of the people who will be out of the field whenever I loose my current (contract) position. I’m too poor to keep persisting in a field that has made it very clear that there is little or no room for people like me. These changes? Aren’t happening ‘now.’ If they were, my situation might be a little less bleak. You know I’m starting to research how I can maybe ‘safely’ do sex work if it becomes necessary? I’ve run out of time and options after bumping into pretty much every barrier that exists within this field. For your sake, I truly hope that everything stays as wonderful and rosy as the picture you are painting. You should talk to some of the people in my cohort. They’ll tell you I was probably one of the most consistently optimistic people in the program. So, yeah, I’m ‘living’ this issue but on the other end of where you are. A place where I truly hope that you never find yourself in. Hanni Nabahe 2015–10–07 at 2:55 pm ARL does still have IRDW around–it helps to keep up with one’s colleagues, and to stay involved. I am sorry about your situation, and since I am in still in school, not sure where I will be when all is said and done. That is besides the point, however–and the point is that there was simply no need for this article to single out one program, particularly one that IS doing so much for students like myself, these diverse types whose plight the articles claims to address. For an academic paper, I find it simplistic and suspect–if this is such an issue out there (and, yes, it is with some programs, of course) then why not offer other examples? Talk about a small sample size… I find the article makes vast generalizations, likely based on this twitter conversation you all had and to which, I’m willing to bet, not many of us “diverse” people were represented. When well-ran initiatives like ARL’s get clumped with issues that may plague others out there, it doesn’t do anyone any favors. In a time when we must justify our value to continue receiving funding, this sort of articles are counterproductive. Go ahead and critique, but do it constructively and, for goodness sake, talk to more than just your friends, who most likely will do nothing but reinforce whatever you believe. And, please, do keep in mind that those who are watching and could use your very words to justify less funding, less support. You paint quite the bleak picture, nina–are you sure we are all destined for the same? Is that what you would like to see? Articles like this are very unlikely to help either you or me. skeskali 2015–10–07 at 4:49 pm A person who has done “all of the right things” and still finds themselves on the outs in this profession is hardly beside the point, Hanni. It is very much the point that regardless of how POC in this profession try to navigate and perform whiteness, as long as we aren’t the ones making hiring decisions and directing/shaping this profession, there will always be someone who will find our performance lacking. Once that happens, one can rapidly find themselves on the outside. As a student, it would serve you well to be aware rather than casting doubt on people who have lived experience to the contrary. We’re not suggesting it will happen to you, only that it *could*. Hanni Nabahe 2015–10–07 at 8:10 pm Oh, I have plenty life experience and I’m personally aware of the depths of what can happen even when you think you have it all figured out. That’s the thing with real diversity–you don’t always hear what you *think* you are going to hear. And, by the way, I was not disregarding nina’s experience in the least. I was trying to keep the argument focused on what I see as flaws in this article’s approach. If you are going to (rightly) exercise your right to critique those who try to advance a cause, put more thought into it, is what I’m saying here. To just pick one example and, because it fits, pound on it without checking your facts or a broader experience, can lose you credibility. And cause unintended harm. That was my point. Yours, @ skeskali, seems to want to put me in my place and tell me what serves me well or not. Nice try. satifice 2015–10–08 at 8:14 am O.o I see. I find it interesting that you claim to be staying focused on the academic merits of the article, accusing it of making ‘vast generalizations’ based on some alleged twitter conversation where “not many of us ‘diverse’ people were represented”. And then accusing me of only talking to my friends… Lol. Given that, no, I quite clearly said that not everyone is going to end up in my position (in fact, I hope no one does). But you are claiming to invalidate the generalizations of the article about the ARL programs using your individual experience. What I did was confirm the generalizations based on my own experiences. The funny thing? It actually doesn’t matter what our individual experiences are because this article is talking about systemic, institutional problems. Which is why examining the form and content of the program, rather than talking to individuals, is a perfectly sound way to approach this topic, especially since you confirm one of the ‘vast generalizations’ by pointing out that you couldn’t apply for the Spectrum Scholarship because you weren’t able to get three letters of reference. This is the *exact* thing that this article was intending to address. Perhaps you may not want to attribute your inability to apply for a spectrum scholarship to an inadequate performance of whiteness. How you understand your own experiences is your business. Also, I see that on nitpicking on a single point, you are missing out on the positive, substantive contributions this article is making. Yes, it is being highly critical of specific programs. But did you miss the part where she offers possible suggestions for improvement and to reduce barriers? Great, you think the ARL programs are great. But does this mean they can’t get *better*. Or do you really think they are perfect as is? How is an article that offers up concrete, actionable suggestions to improve the problems it highlights counterproductive? How is this not constructive criticism? Did you stop reading after she mentioned the ARL? April Hathcock 2015–10–08 at 9:07 am Thanks for your comments, Hanni. I’m thrilled to learn that an LIS diversity initiative has worked so well for you. But as others have already pointed out to you, there are so many others who have not been able to perform whiteness as successfully as you have. I accept your challenge to learn more about the lived experiences of others and encourage you to do the same. As someone new to the profession, you can greatly benefit from hearing from the folks who have engaged you in dialogue here, including nina and Seskali. This article and it’s beginning Twitter convo actually grew from conversations I had with several people I’d never met or interacted with. You point out my academic citations, but I also cite to nina’s Tumblr, which I discovered while exploring this topic. There are also some blogs cited in my work, as well. The willingness of nina and these others to share their lived experiences candidly in such a public space has been eye-opening and inspiring. I chose ARL CEP as one of any number of programs to illustrate the point. I understand if that makes you feel uncomfortable as a recipient, but really the analysis is the same if you substitute any of the other programs. I mention this in the article and also talk candidly about Spectrum, a program I successfully participated in. In all my research and conversations, I ultimately realized the truth of my mother’s wisdom, also cited (I chose ITLWTLP because I knew they’d accept alternate forms of “scholarship”), that I needed to look beyond my own success story to the systemic oppressions operating against others. I had that responsibility. And you do, too, Hanni. Don’t get comfortable with the status quo. Hanni Nabahe 2015–10–09 at 4:26 pm I did not accuse you of only talking to your friends–I was saying that about the article, which does come across like a conversation had only with those on one side of the issue. Your experience are as valid as mine. So if you can speak up and make yourself part of this conversation, so can I. We do have different ways to understand our particular experiences and you might be surprised how much we agree on things, if you would just engage openly and honestly, instead of being defensive and taking offense simply because I happen to experience or see certain things in a different way. I was not nitpicking on a point, I was focusing on the one aspect in which I did not agree with this article, the ONE area where I saw potential to invalidate what could otherwise be a good effort. We all want to make things better, at least I assume as much of those who come here. I don’t think anything or anyone is perfect, and we continue to evolve as the world around us does–either that or we don’t make it. Perhaps I just like to give credit where credit is due, and not just pounce at anything that looks like the enemy out there. There are so few of us, we need to work together, to communicate and help each other out. Singling one program out without basis (which is what I specifically point out with CEP, since it is what I do know something about), that was my main concern here. Any of this still funny? I’m sure you’ll tell me now Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 1:25 am You make sharp points, Hanni Nabahe! Thanks for expanding this conversation :) Emily Agunod 2015–10–13 at 6:18 pm @nina The ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce is still in place despite constant threats from the government to reduce funding for IMLS. I’m an Asian, a Southeast Asian to be exact and I never have a problem filling in the census. I just choose Asian. That’s why the choice enumerates several Asian types and then says “and so on.” So I don’t see why that can be a barrier. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 1:59 am How is being able to submit letters of recommendation an (successful?) act of “playing whiteness”? Don’t most academic jobs ask for letters of rec, if not references? DeCoster 2015–10–07 at 3:08 pm Thank you for taking on this difficult topic. I agree with your misgivings about some of these diversity initiatives. However, I can’t help but think the Galvan definition of whiteness gives non-hetero identifying librarians (present company included) a bit of a pass, and I think this is terribly unhelpful. I have never witnessed a more gay-friendly work culture or have had a higher percentage of gay colleagues than in the 2 libraries I’ve worked (I almost think one could make an argument that the groovy lesbian librarian has replaced the stifled spinster librarian as the majority stereotype). Yet whiteness *still* overwhelms the profession! In other words, the queering of librarianship does not dismantle whiteness. My biggest frustration with the whiteness of our profession stems from my students who never have the chance to see themselves mirrored in the person presenting information literacy and research. (I work in an urban, minority-serving institution with only white and Asian librarians.) It makes research appear as a white undertaking of sorts, and honestly, it doesn’t matter if a Marxist lesbian is presenting to them. It doesn’t matter that I am the first in my family to finish college. To the students, whiteness is, well . . . whiteness. (Yes, we asked.) So although I agree with the importance of intersectionality, I think this expansive definition of whiteness muddies the conversation and obscures the actual problem. galvan_as 2015–10–07 at 4:55 pm My definition includes heterosexuality because of the intersection between whiteness and heteronormative expectations. Although I too have worked for several libraries with many openly LBGTI faculty and staff, I can’t help but notice a particular presentation of what it means to be gay–as you say, “groovy lesbian”–is acceptable. LBGTI colleagues for example, do not guarantee their existence in leadership. My definition does not give non-hetero identifying librarians a pass, but is meant to emphasize the performative nature of gender as necessary for success during hiring. That so much anxiety surrounds interview clothing is a clear indicator of gender-as-performance for the comfort of others, not authenticity of the self. Performing whiteness means performing gender, because whiteness conflates gender with sexual orientation. April Hathcock 2015–10–08 at 9:13 am I echo, Galvan. And just want to point out that I can’t imagine queer folks getting a “pass” at anything. Intersectionality is essential if we’re to break down the system of oppression at work in our profession. DeCoster 2015–10–08 at 11:32 am I agree with the importance of intersectionality. Yet I think we can be intersectional without conflating identities, and I maintain that adding heterosexuality to the definition of whiteness is unhelpful. Can’t we be intersectional and discuss gender representation specifically? When feminists embrace intersectionality they do not lump racial or economic discrimination into their definition of sexism. They are able to consider these related concepts together without redefining words. I was thinking a lot last night about this, and I wonder if it is a matter of perspective. The student body at my institution is 30% black and 36% Hispanic. Librarianship is 88% percent white, and so are the librarians at my university. By your definition of whiteness, we are doing much better, but this is not true for my students. I couldn’t look them in the eye and maintain this definition. (I suppose it would be easier if I worked at a majority white institution.) There are intersections and there are definitions. By lumping heteronormative expectations (using the word “heterosexuality”) into a definition of whiteness, you not only obscure the whiteness of libraries, but you deny the heternormative pressures felt within communities of color. I don’t buy it. But I do really appreciate the dialog, and I understand the intention. As a side note, I would love to find statistics of LGBTI representation in librarianship and within leadership positions. galvan_as 2015–10–09 at 1:16 pm Heteronormative pressures felt within communities of color is a necessary discussion. It’s also beyond the thesis of my (or April’s) essay. Given your enthusiasm for the discussion and unique perspective, I’d encourage you to submit your own essay to Lead Pipe. ComposedCitrine 2015–10–08 at 7:03 am As someone who has been active in advisory work for at least one of the diversity initiatives mentioned, an LIS doc student conducting research in intersectionality, LIS leadership and lived experience, an LIS administrator and member of one the diverse groups these efforts target, this article reminds me that as a profession we must have some honest dialogue about the intent of these diversity initiatives. How is that intent carried out beyond graduation and into professional life? Given the rate of retention, there is disconnect between stated goals and objectives of these initiatives and those of LIS institutions. Yet we persist with these initiatives as a primary strategy for an issue to which we have not applied a critical lens. I am again called to question the intent of these initiatives which drive processes and outcomes. This does not mean that I believe that we should abandon these initiatives. After years (in some instances decades), it is time that we engage is a deeper critique and examination of what we are really trying to achieve when it comes to diversity of all kinds in LIS. April Hathcock 2015–10–08 at 9:14 am Yes! This has been a great discussion thus far. Let’s keep it going. Max Macias 2015–10–08 at 10:22 am I love this and you are spot on. I would also say that the hierarchies that are used in committees, and other organizational structures have domination and oppression built into them. We need new social structures for organizations if we want to break out of the White-supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist shitstem. Every group I have been involved in has taken that teaching POC how to ‘succeed’ in a White-supremacist culture is the outcome. I am a graduate of the Emporia State Diversity Initiative. In the library where I worked (while in grad school), I was given edifying tasks like sorting the mail. I was called “unprofessional,” “angry,” and people said things like, “he hates White people!” about me–because I wasn’t the docile stereotype that they wished for. US culture is fundamentally White-supremacist–it is so ingrained in the national unconscious–I don’t see how we are going to shake it without our nation applying therapeutic treatments. However, I don’t see this happening anytime soon. I’ve come to the conclusion that, in order to have any chance at a fair shake, POC need separate institutions. Thank you for writing this article. I was surprised to read it on this site. April Hathcock 2015–10–08 at 1:45 pm Thank you, Max. And thank you for sharing your experiences. JY 2015–10–09 at 3:39 pm Thanks for your comments Max and for everyone else contributing to this discussion. I’m new to librarianship and your comment about teaching POC to ‘succeed’ in a White-supremacist culture had me thinking… If POC need to act white to succeed then how can we break down white supremacy? Aren’t we just furthering it? I feel like we’re stuck in a bind. How can using “the master’s tools” “dismantle the master’s house”? April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 11:05 pm That’s the key, isn’t it, JY? In the article, I advocate for helping others succeed in the white environment while also working with them (once they’re in) to dismantle white supremacy in the profession. It certainly won’t be easy, but I believe it can and should be done. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 2:42 am You know what’s sad? when POC, in the same institution, don’t help each other out… I’ve seen this personally and it surprises me when there isn’t more solidarity among co-workers… Sandra Rios Balderrama 2015–10–08 at 3:41 pm Great read (thank you) including each one of the comments and replies. I recall in 1997-1998 (as first Director for Office for Diversity at AL) working on developing “non-traditional” criteria for applying for the Spectrum Initiative Scholarship as well as criteria for using the scholarship. The intent was to allow applicants to express their story and interest in librarianship/info management etc.. in varied ways (as not all of us are strong in print), including by audio, by video etc…Essay questions were also non-traditional having to do with life experience and volunteer/non-paid work, and others really challenged those that unconsciously played the game of whiteness by asking for experiences with any other groups, other than with the group(s) an applicant identified with/as. Also we felt that some “winners” of the scholarship may need to use the finances in non-traditional ways due to individual situations e.g. gas to commute, childcare etc..I don’t know if the criteria was kept. I do remember that some applicants preferred to go the traditional route of application, perhaps based on reasons you state here in your piece. Challenges about working-in-a-new-way were everywhere. People involved in that work of cultural/ethnic infusion included Ken Yamashita, Khafre Abif, Lillian Lewis, Jose A Aponte, and others. Well, thank you for this piece and making me remember some spirited authentic work. April Hathcock 2015–10–08 at 7:50 pm Thank you, Sandra! It’d be great to bring that important work back. I’ve read a lot of your work and it is so valuable to the profession. Thank you. Niomi Dubose 2015–10–08 at 8:08 pm I find the following statement regarding the qualifications for the ARL internship to be extremely stereotypical and it deeply saddens me that it basically implies that non-whites are poor and uneducated and could not possibly have had any opportunities to meet influential people to use as references. That is completely ridiculous and is the epitome of white privilege. “Only an applicant with access to the privileges of whiteness would have the tools needed to engage in the requisite work and volunteer opportunities called for by the diversity program, have the high-level of educational achievement required, possess the close relationships with individuals of power needed for stellar recommendations, and be able to provide all the documentation necessary to complete their application through the online form.” April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 1:34 pm No, Niomi, my overall argument is much more nuanced than that. It requires reading the entire article. It is white supremacy to assume those examples of excellence are the ONLY means of finding exceptional non-white applicants. And as a non-white professional myself, I find that greatly troubling. Hanni Nabahe 2015–10–09 at 4:11 pm Why automatically assume we did not read the article in its entirety? Is it that only if we praise your efforts in their entirety we pass the literacy test, but if we don’t, it means we can’t or didn’t read? April, realize that one does not need to be buying into the status quo to critique someone’s perceptions or actions–you did just that yourself. Yes, there are ways to make these programs better, no one is denying that. Yes, there are changes that need to happen, mostly in the system, but sure, some of them have to take place in the initiatives themselves too. But just because we do not agree with you 100%, it does not mean we don’t understand your argument or that we side with the “white supremacist system”. I spoke up as a participant in these programs, not because I am already successful (as a student, it remains to be seen how far I get), but just to let the record note that not all is working against us out there, that there are actually people working for us, fighting the good fight. I stand not by this system you critique, but by those who are making a difference. I myself already do what I can to make a difference where I can, and realize we do have a long way to go. Your mother may have encouraged you to look beyond your own success, but I highly doubt she would have been ok with your forgetting those who helped you get to where they are and or to skip giving credit where credit is do. That is all I am doing here. April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 11:18 pm When someone takes a single phrase of my work and interprets it out of context and in complete opposition to my stated meaning, then I assume they didn’t read my entire work. I’m not going to engage anymore because this conversation isn’t constructive. Not because you disagree–I welcome disagreement and discussion–but because you keep misrepresenting my words. It’s a frustrating way to discuss anything with anyone. I will say this: My mother is incredibly proud of me and my work, including this article. I give due credit to those who have helped me, particularly in this very article, which you assure me you read in its entirety. So, please do not attempt to speak for my mother’s thoughts or feelings again. I wish you all the best in your new career, Hanni. Niomi Dubose 2015–10–10 at 4:01 pm I see. I did actually read it in its entirety and did find that to be a dig but I understand why you said it so it’s no problem. I enjoyed the article. The statement that I referenced just stood out to me. Basically, I feel like whatever stipulations that are required, non-whites can meet them. For persons of every race there are exceptions and instances where this is not the case which should be considered by internships such as ARL. I have just run into people assuming that non-whites coming into the library profession are lacking in one way or another compared to white people. Anyway, no need for us all to get rattled up. The article was good overall. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 2:47 am @Niomi, what a great point! I was thinking the exact thing… how is it a “privilege of whiteness” the act of being able to submit a standard application? what would an anti-privilege-of-whiteness application look like? Shaundra Walker 2015–10–08 at 8:59 pm Thank you for this piece. I agree wholeheartedly with the comments above from Max Macias. We need more honest, open critiques of LIS diversity initiatives. The literature is full of reflections from individuals who have successfully progressed through the various programs. Experiences of those who haven’t been as successful are lacking. Knowing more about the barriers faced by such individuals would certainly help the profession to refine its approach. Until multiple perspectives (positive and negative) are considered, we can convince ourselves that what we are doing is working, when in actuality our efforts could be improved. Also, I appreciate the personal references in your article. Too often the LIS field has turned to quantitative data alone to assess its progress in diversifying the profession. More experiential reflections from marginalized individuals and groups would certainly help to refine and explain the quantitative findings. Thanks again for a powerful piece of work. April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 1:35 pm Thank you, Shaundra. Cynthia Perez 2015–10–08 at 8:09 pm I was extremely excited to apply for the ARL- IRDW program and I had the most difficult time trying to get my transcripts delivered to them. The person in charge contacted me, at almost 2pm east coast time indicating that if I couldn’t get the transcripts to them electronically by the end of the day, my application could not be considered. Neither of the universities that I had attended offered that option. I was not able to communicate this because their office was already closed on the east coast. The very next day, I received a voicemail indicating they had received my transcripts and how would I like them returned to me. One day and she would not allow my application for consideration. Extremely frustrating. April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 1:36 pm That is extremely frustrating, Cynthia. I’m so sorry to hear about this. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 2:53 am That IS unfair and frustrating, Cynthia–they should have been flexible. IndieBlack 2015–10–09 at 3:31 pm Thank you for this article. I am new to the profession and still consider myself an outsider. Coming into librarianship from a different profession, I was shocked that diversity initiatives have been going on for so long, with little change. I’ve been on several interviews, and consider myself versed in playing whiteness, but have experienced hostility. I agree that the programs have been ineffective at retaining librarians of diverse backgrounds, but also agree with another poster that there needs to be diversity in human resource departments and in leadership. These are the two barriers that filter diverse applicants out. Another point, the job climate still hasn’t fully recovered and some feel like “why should I hire this person of color/lgbtq/disabled person if I can simply hire the white person.” In short, it’s deliberate exclusion at this point. Lastly, thank you for highlighting the recommendation letter. It’s very difficult to get more after you’ve exhausted the pool of people who can do it for you the first time. And it’s frustrating to see time and time again all of these applications requesting rec letters, and then have people say to you “Just apply again.” It’s not that simple. April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 11:06 pm It is tough. But you are certainly not alone. Please feel free to reach out to me and others as you struggle to get going in this profession. We need you! Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 3:03 am Asking for letters of recommendation was a hassle for me, too, because I wanted to apply to many things and I felt embarrassed/shy asking repeatedly for letters from the same handful of people… I felt it was exhausting for them too but I could only express to them that they were they only persons who could write me a relevant letter… Bob Holley 2015–10–09 at 3:42 pm I very much agree with what you say here, but I would add some additional consideration to the issue of classism. Those who come from the working class or are poor face obstacles at times similar to those of race, ethnicity, and gender orientation. I wonder how many libraries would hire a candidate who spoke non-standard English whether because of race or class. I think that saying “He don’t” would be a strong negative on any interview no matter how intelligent the candidate was. I’ll agree that being white makes it easier to cross the divide, but learning middle class ways may be a requirement for all those who would become librarians with a working class background. My one final comment is that Harvard University and perhaps other elite institutions have special funds for poor students to participate in activities that they otherwise could not afford even with full scholarships for tuition and board. The example I remember is getting a small grant to rent a tuxedo (I know this is a sexist case) to attend an important social function. April Hathcock 2015–10–09 at 11:07 pm Thanks for those insights, Bob. Micha 2015–10–11 at 9:15 pm April, thanks for getting this valuable conversation going. In reading the comments section, I have appreciated the addition of personal experiences and would like to share my own to the discussion. As a previous ARL/SAA Mosaic recipient, the program granted me my first LIS/archives experience outside of the classroom. For my application, I had my supervisor (I was working in a charter school) and a PhD candidate at my school who I had connected with in local activist spaces write my recommendations. While this is likely out of the norm for most applicants, it does somewhat fold in your suggestions for community members to be a recommenders. I would also like to point out the requirements for the applications to these diversity initiatives are very similar (if not the same) requirements to the LIS programs. (My program’s http://www.simmons.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/graduate-admission/dual-degree-archives-and-history-ma) Although, I will admit I experienced self doubt around my application’s attractiveness as a Mosaic candidate, and I greatly thank that PhD candidate at my school (who is a poc) who encouraged me. You mentioned mentorship as a way to correct for whiteness in LIS diversity programs, and I would also like to share that this is already a component of ARL’s diversity programs. I agree, mentorship is crucial. In relation to my own personal attrition, speaking candidly with people about my observations and concerns as a black (and unapologetically pro-black), queer, gender non-confirming woman has been the near only sustaining factor at times. Being a part of LIS diversity initiatives has granted me access to a network of upcoming and seasoned professionals who have listened, validated, and sometimes even pushed my perspective. Stephanie Hardy 2015–10–12 at 11:49 am Awareness of our attitudes and actions is beneficial, and I appreciate the reminder. But isn’t categorizing labeling, stereotyping, and shaming “white and middle-class” just as discriminatory as racism, sexism, or any other -ism? At some point, all of us have been sneered at by narrow minded snobs, overlooked because of our race, class, religion, or gender, or rejected because we weren’t a good fit. I’ve been turned down because I’m white and female and programs I’ve applied to wanted more “diversity.” I do not mean to belittle anyone’s struggles or challenges- they are real and they exist. On the average, library culture is one of the best professions for demonstrating respect for all individuals. Increasing this and mentoring all who want to join in will help. But harping on the differences and creating a greater divide won’t help diversity. It will only set up a different set of exclusionary rules. As a library director, I have the opportunity to look at applications and believe me, I don’t disregard anyone’s experience! If someone has worked at MacDonald’s then I know they understand customer service. I want the best librarians on our staff and I don’t care what shade they come in. But I do care about competence, attitude, and the ability to get along with others. Those traits have nothing to do with race, class, gender, or sexual orientation. They are qualities found in a good human being. ARLDiversityScholar 2015–10–12 at 2:24 pm “Each of these requirements assumes that applicants are situated in positions of white, middle-class, cisgender normativity that allow for the temporal, financial, and educational privilege that fulfilling these criteria would require. Only an applicant with access to the privileges of whiteness would have the tools needed to engage in the requisite work and volunteer opportunities called for by the diversity program, have the high-level of educational achievement required, possess the close relationships with individuals of power needed for stellar recommendations, and be able to provide all the documentation necessary to complete their application through the online form.” I wonder if the author actually attempted to reach out to more than a few previous ARL CEP or Diversity Scholars? As a former ARL diversity scholar and male POC librarian I find the characterizations made in this piece disappointing and exhausting. Maybe the transcript requirements are needed for the program grant (My undergraduate grades were pretty poor btw) “For example, applicants are required to submit resumes detailing their work experience, but an applicant from a working-class background may not have the requisite experience, either through work or volunteering, to place on a resume. Building a relevant resume assumes the applicant has the white, middle-class background that allows for early career professional work or volunteerism, whereas many applicants do not have that privilege…” So white privilege is now a requirement to volunteer or have work experience? This is just absurd…I’m sorry. You also need to submit a resume to work in fast-food…Hegemony? oppression? Fighting whiteness?…that’s a bit extra. If that’s been your library experience, I would leave the profession too. Librarians and libraries have been the most supportive and generally progressive professional environments that I have ever experienced. If the ARL application requirements are onerous and present a real burden and you feel so “oppressed” by the whiteness in librarianship, I fear for your journey in Business, Law, Medicine, Engineering (or practically any other professional environment). The author admits that she’s successful because she played “white”, so never mind I consciously used “whiteness” as a tool to become successful, but shame on you for using it too. This seems to almost send the message that being professional and having initiative is in a sense; whiteness. Of course the author, and many other “conscious” and “radical” POC librarians shame (directly or indirectly) other POC librarians if we don’t align with their views–we’re sellouts and self-hating of course. It reminds me of being a kid in an all black and latino school, and because I did my homework, participated in class, respected the teacher, etc I was “acting white”. Diversity discussions in LIS have turned into shaming sessions. And now to pick on ARL, who does more than any other LIS organization, including ALA–sigh. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 3:08 am Wow you are right on point! @ARLDiversityScholar Blkwolf 2015–10–12 at 11:05 pm Thanks for this article! It got my juices flowing and thinking. I know there have been some very visceral reactions to it, but I needed to make this personal from my own perspective. I am an ARL scholarship recipient and am delighted for the experience it offered me. But I’m always the one looking for ways to make it better. I was an older recipient than most of my young colleagues so I brought a certain angle to it along with the fact that I am black and gay and had about 8 years paraprofessional experience before pursuing the MLIS. I guess the issues that left me sometimes discouraged were the fact that there was no mentor for me to be found. And it wasn’t only ARL but another scholarship I received put me with someone that I felt we were about as awkward as virgins on prom night. I always felt age had something to do with it. Don’t get me wrong he was kind. But as far as ARL I felt like I got overlooked on some levels. I tried not to take it personally but being black gay and male in a sea of white females for the most part can be a bit disconcerting. I don’t need for white women to disappear. I just needed some point of likeness to say, “I see you.” I honestly reached out beyond ARL to black women I knew in the field who I had never disclosed my sexuality to wanting to connect with another black gay male. I got responses that fizzled due to I believe some black men’s either homophobia or need to put me in some tribal matrix of them being the elder and me being the initiate. Believe me I’m too old for anybody’s initiate. I’ve been around the block more times than I care to admit. Still what I needed was a personal touch. I get all the mentoring jive and all. But I just needed somebody to call and say “I’m not quite sure I’m in the right field after 8 years.” You see even after I got the degree I was looking for other black gay men who might be in the field to bond to ala mother hen to chick if for no more than security sake in this academic sea of drama. I’ll never forget preparing to apply for a position at the academic library where I worked as a circ supervisor and a white female mentor reminding me of a sudden that I wasn’t the only one with degrees and experience and quickly named every white female in the building who she thought had like credentials and would be competing with me. My heart broke. I didn’t apply for the academic position. I got a call from Virginia Tech to come to their school for a diversity interview and couldn’t go because on my clerk salary I didn’t have the funds. They responded almost indignantly as if I’d slighted them. I handled it diplomatically by telling them I didn’t have the money up front. I felt humiliated. I got an offer from a public library (because academic libraries are slow as molasses in winter) which I really didn’t want hearing the mantra from well-meaning white folks and church going black folks to “take what you can get.” I took it as you’re not good enough to be an academic librarian. My heart broke again. Well I got the public library position and I’m miserable handing out computer tickets and telling unruly kids whose parents have mistaken the library for a babysitting service to “stop…quit…and don’t do that.” They just wanted a black man! My doctors are talking about doubling my blood pressure medicine. It’s harrowing being black gay male and a librarian. Regardless of what anyone says for or against what you wrote you got everybody’s ear. What I’ve seen are whites zealously preserving their own systemic privilege and blacks (especially gay ones) making sure they’re not judged by their sexuality over their ability to be librarians. I’ll be honest, at this rate, if a job offer came from another field today, I won’t say I wouldn’t take it dragging my $40,000 MLIS degree along for a life time as a cautionary tale. Mrs. Jones 2015–10–13 at 8:46 am While I appreciate your insight, the problem doesn’t lie with the diversity initiatives. The issues of privilege and attrition are attributed to the high cost of graduate school and the abysmal salary range. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 1:18 am Great point! Graduate school debt (most times in addition to undergraduate debt) can wear one down not only financially but emotionally/psychologically… Emily Agunod 2015–10–13 at 7:28 pm @April Kudos on your extensive research. I am a current CEP Fellow. With all due respect, I just want to make a few points. I agree that based on statistics, the librarianship is predominantly white. I am an Asian and I know based on ALA statistics show that barely 3% of my race group are librarians here in the U.S. You do have to take into consideration that these statistics will include people who entered the profession as far back as 50 years ago when diversity initiatives were not in place yet and people who had access to college were mostly white. I believe as the years go on that there will be a more equitable distribution of races in this profession. What we need to really achieve is not to eradicate whiteness but reach a point when race should not matter. Culturally, as an Asian, librarianship is not one of those “go-to” professions. In my experience, Asian parents push their children to become doctors, lawyers, etc. Becoming a librarian is a choice I made as a 48-year old woman after working in a library for 6 years. But even then, my siblings and former friends from college wonder why I chose to be one (which is none of their business). But this is a phenomena I associate with the Asian value system. One only needs to observe and it will become apparent that certain races gravitate to certain careers. I noticed this as well when I was attending staff meetings during my fellowship at Bethesda. All the computer scientists were Asian. Lastly, I didn’t feel that any of the requirements for the program is any indication that only white people can apply. In fact, these requirements are less than what I needed to get into graduate school. Just to deconstruct your argument on this set of requirements: 1. a completed application form – (all scholarship requires an application form) 2. a resume – (it is fair to assume that someone who is an early career librarian has already built a resume; if you are old enough to be in grad school, you should some work experience) 3. a 500-word essay detailing their professional interests and goals – (any college student should be able to write a 500-word essay, especially if it is about him/herself) 4. an official letter of acceptance to an ALA-accredited MLIS program – (all colleges send letters of acceptance to students who are accepted) 5. official transcripts – (any student can request their transcript) 6. two letters of recommendation, one of which must be from a professor or employer – (this is also very attainable) As a mother of two grown children, when they were in high school I helped them scour for scholarships and even the ones for minority or under-privileged students require basically the same requirements. So I really don’t see what your basis is for saying: “Each of these requirements assumes that applicants are situated in positions of white, middle-class, cisgender normativity that allow for the temporal, financial, and educational privilege that fulfilling these criteria would require.” Statements like this imply that non-whites are incapable of fulfilling these requirements. Another thing you pointed out was: “Only an applicant with access to the privileges of whiteness would have the tools needed to engage in the requisite work and volunteer opportunities called for by the diversity program, have the high-level of educational achievement required, possess the close relationships with individuals of power needed for stellar recommendations, and be able to provide all the documentation necessary to complete their application through the online form.” Even if a student doesn’t have a computer, there is always the public library. If someone really wanted to break so-called barriers, they can. Professor are more than happy to help. Volunteer work is not a requirement for the Career Enhancement Program and neither are high grades. That is not to say that these are not things the scholarship judges look at. I can’t speak for other LIS grad schools but my school, SJSU, encourages us to do keep a high GPA. I am an online student so I don’t have “close relationships” with the powers that be. I have worked for them online, but I haven’t even seen any of them in person, yet I am able to get letters of recommendation. Again, this is a matter of preparation. Someone who asks at the last minute probably won’t get it. I just want to say that my ARL CEP fellowship was a gratifying experience and I was lucky enough to be called for a job interview two days before my fellowship ended. The government contractor hired me on the spot. And he was a white guy – who looked like John Kerry. I will be working at a federal library which hopefully is not “white-washed.” Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 3:16 am Thank you, Emily, great points! :) @LibGirl09 2015–10–13 at 11:48 pm You make good points about the need for continued support to help people of color remain successful in the librarian profession. However, I see no need to throw the ARL and ALA diversity initiatives under the bus in the process. They are doing great work in helping POC fund their education and get started in the field. Is there room for improvement? Always. Should they be considered to be failing their mission because not everyone sticks it out? Absolutely not. I don’t think they should bear the brunt of the responsibility for ensuring retention. It truly takes a village, and we all have a role to play. There is room for the initiatives to expand or strengthen the support they can provide, but I see no reason to disparage the good work they are already doing. The application requirements for ARL, ALA, and other diversity scholarship/fellowship opportunities are completely reasonable in my opinion. You use community college applications as comparison. But MLS students are not fresh out of high school. We are talking about people who have completed high school and college, and are now pursuing an advanced degree. I would expect them to have some type of work experience (even if it’s not libraries), to be able to write 500 words, and to have a couple of professional references. The CEP Program (since you want to pick on that one) is for students who have completed a minimum of 12 credits towards the MLS. I would expect someone halfway through their degree to be able to have at least one professor who can write a reference. I personally find it offensive to say that anyone who can accomplish these things is exhibiting “whiteness.” I would not want to see application criteria for graduate schools or graduate level scholarships/programs lowered for me just because I am a person of color. I don’t want less expected of me. I am an ALA Spectrum Scholar, and an ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Scholar (IRDW). The scholarship money was appreciated, but the most valuable part to me is the mentoring and the connection to a network of other POC librarians I received through ARL. As an IRDW Scholar I was matched with a mentor. I was fortunate to have a good mentor who took time to meet with me on a regular basis, give me professional advice, and kept in touch after I finished the program. I have kept in touch with several people from my cohort who in turn have introduced me to others in the field when we cross paths at conferences. So my network continues to grow and it feels good to have that support system. I feel very blessed to have benefitted from the hard work Mark Puente and others at ARL put into their diversity initiatives. Even though I disagree with some of the points in this article, it does remind me to continue to be available to provide the same support to others that was given to me. Also to be more involved in diversity conversations/efforts. I’m still an “early career librarian” but if anyone wants to pick my brain for advice – specifically medical/academic librarianship, I’m always happy to chat. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 3:23 am Yes, yes, yes @LibGirl09 …especially on: ‘I personally find it offensive to say that anyone who can accomplish these things is exhibiting “whiteness.”’ Also, librarian jobs (in my experience) at community colleges are the hardest to obtain and they sometimes ask for more documentation (like, an essay prompt on the spot)… Jessica Humphries 2015–10–14 at 12:19 am I hope this find you well, thank you for opening up this dialogue. My preference is conversation and not long winded text, but since that is not possible I hope I can achieve everything I want to in this piece. As a mixed raced urban indigenous black women who is educated, and benefited from the ALA spectrum scholarship program, ARL Career Enhancement program and ARL Initiative to recruit a diverse workforce. I have read this article a few times now finding myself in agreement with some parts and saddened by more. I agree that there needs to be more work put into the retention of diverse folks in the profession, and I think that most people in the field would agree that we are missing the mark on creating spaces that hold up indigenous and racialized librarians of colour instead of silencing their every move. However these programs that are cited are not only making education more financially accessible to racialized and Indigenous students, but also supporting professional development, networking and mentoring opportunities. Through these programs I have created a network of mentors, and colleagues who I have connected with constantly, relied on when facing institution racism in the field. I know that I can only speak for myself but these communities have supported my work, my struggles in the academy and held space for the fight. As part of these communities I have returned support by reviewing applications of my colleagues, supporting students entering my program and working on diversity initiatives within the school I attend. I wish that this article provided more personal experiences with people who have benefited from these programs. Yes, like everything we must constantly re-evaluate our efforts, re-think our process and re-define the ways we approach things and I believe there is space to provide this feedback to program directors. This could be an opportunity to look at the criteria for applications. I would be personally interested in hearing some suggestions. How to we effectively connect with a variety of diverse populations while maintaining commitments to sponsors and institutions supporting these initiatives? How do we create a more accessible process while supporting people to be successful in their future endeavors, much of which will operate in these institutional practices? That being said, I cannot personally agree with the way in which whiteness is centered in the article and continues to be the framework to which we write upon. In order to dismantle these arch structures to which libraries are build on we must name these institutions and practices of colonization as such. Furthermore, the way in which this article erases the Indigenous and racialized identities but provocating this idea that “we play white” in order to achieve our goals deeply saddens me. Yes, there are institutional practices that we must understand in order to achieve this idea of “success”, but to imbed that success, that fight and that journey into a process of whiteness is a permeation of colonial violence against the communities that we should be holding space for in the field. The struggle is real! We need to stop addressing our issues among our communities using colonial practices and tools, we need to open up collective dialogue and start truly listening to each other in order to change the professional practices. Mario Macias 2015–10–16 at 3:27 am OMG yes @Jessica: ‘Furthermore, the way in which this article erases the Indigenous and racialized identities but provocating this idea that “we play white” in order to achieve our goals deeply saddens me. Yes, there are institutional practices that we must understand in order to achieve this idea of “success”, but to imbed that success, that fight and that journey into a process of whiteness is a permeation of colonial violence against the communities that we should be holding space for in the field.’ Alecto 2015–10–14 at 8:33 pm Hello all. What effect will initiatives designed to eliminate the problems outlined here, have on the capacity of US LIS as a whole to serve diverse populations as well as achieve a diverse workforce as the norm? Here is Australia, the population is still so white (and the library workforce so small numerically as a proportion of the population) that I think it would be impossible to recruit enough people from different groups, even allowing for all the overlaps in identity that one person can have, to reflect the diversity in the population as a whole. The library workforce here, in my opinion, ought to be able to operate cross-culturally regardless of whiteness (which most of us are, as far as it’s been measured). Optimally of course there would be more library staff from a myriad of backgrounds or identities; but I think the role whities have to play in making libraries places where people from other groups want to be, is pretty key too. I guess you’re not saying that white librarians don’t have a role; just that your focus is the experience of people of colour. Pingback : Latest Library Links 16th October 2015 | Latest Library Links Rolando Milian 2015–10–20 at 10:42 pm The main issue of this opinion piece -which is by no means is a research article- is the poor definition of the variables and the assumption (without evidence) that one variable affects the other. Here are the two: Variable A= recruitment. Variable= B retention. The author assumes that recruitment is wrong (no evidence shown) so retention fails. Variable A= Recruitment: Diverse initiatives (including the ARL Career Enhancement Program) have been effective and successful in recruiting a huge number of librarians from diverse backgrounds. I recognize many of my colleagues from the references the author uses to support its arguments. Many others- thank to the leadership component of these programs- have been able to secure positions (even managerial ones) at very prestigious institutions that would be unimaginable before the implementation of such diversity initiatives that the author attack here. I am happy meet with many of my previous diversity fellows at professional events, workshops, etc. “Each of these requirements [essay, resume, assumes that applicants are situated in positions of white, middle-class, cisgender normativity” This is an author’s not these program’s assumption. The author forgets that these initiatives are recruiting for a PROFESSION and that the number of applicants is bigger that the positions in the programs- IT HAS TO BE COMPETITIVE. First, they have to demonstrate that they can do the job. For example, positions in medical and law librarianship will require candidates that will have to compete with applicants (from non-diverse background) with previous education in law and biomedical sciences. How come are you going to select candidates without a proper essays skills and education that will later fail to compete (with the non-diverse pool) for a position at an academic library? Variable B= Retention May or may not depend on the recruitment process. There is no evidence in this opinion piece (nor in any previous work to my knowledge) showing a relationship between recruitment of diverse background librarians and their retention. Would it not be logical to think that what we need is to study, analyze and determine what are those variables negatively affecting retention? I hope someone comments on that out-of-context picture used to support the article- e.g. where was the picture taken, what is the person doing, why a B/W picture and not a color one? Why not using a figure legend to provide the context? Unfortunately, opinion pieces like this, far from creating the basis for a revolutionary transformation, destroy those that have already been the result of recruiting programs like the ARL Career Enhancement Program. Rolando Milian Pingback : a difficult book | hls Pingback : Each One, Teach One: Diversifying the Archival Profession | SNAP roundtable Pingback : In the Library with the Lead Pipe » Editorial: Introductions All Around Pingback : In the Library with the Lead Pipe » The Quest for Diversity in Library Staffing: From Awareness to Action Pingback : What’s Your Normal?: “Five Generations of Asian Americans” by Molly Higgins | APALA Pingback : Open But Not Equal: Open Scholarship for Social Justice | At The Intersection Comment navigation Newer Comments → This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195 About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct 
www-isetl-org-3517	----	7-IJTLHE 3386 International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2018, Volume 30, Number 2, 262-276 http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/ ISSN 1812-9129 The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics Nicholas B. Colvard University of Georgia C. Edward Watson Association of American Colleges and Universities Hyojin Park Ewha Womans University There are multiple indicators which suggest that completion, quality, and affordability are the three greatest challenges for higher education today in terms of students, student learning, and student success. Many colleges, universities, and state systems are seeking to adopt a portfolio of solutions that address these challenges. This article reports the results of a large-scale study (21,822 students) regarding the impact of course-level faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER). Results indicate that OER adoption does much more than simply save students money and address student debt concerns. OER improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students. They also improve course grades at greater rates and decrease DFW rates at greater rates for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education. OER address affordability, completion, attainment gap concerns, and learning. These findings contribute to a broadening perception of the value of OERs and their relevance to the great challenges facing higher education today. The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Student Success Metrics The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) performed a member survey of its 1,400-member institutions in 2017 to better understand the challenges facing colleges and universities today (AAC&U, 2018). In regard to students, student learning, and student success, among the greatest challenges were issues surrounding retention and completion, the quality and assessment of student learning, and the affordability of higher education. As you survey the higher education landscape and consider state and national initiatives with the widest presence, it comes as little surprise that these challenges are being voiced. As an example, with 39 states currently in their alliance, Complete College America exists to “significantly increase the number of students successfully completing college and achieving degrees… and close attainment gaps for traditionally underrepresented populations” (Complete College America, 2018). Their recommendations for higher education focus predominantly on how to keep students in college and accelerate their time to a degree. Furthermore, a key component of the larger completion agenda involves attainment gaps (AAC&U, 2015; Perna & Finney, 2014; Tinto, 2012). The attainment gap refers to the rates at which different ethnicities earn college degrees. The U.S. Census Bureau tracks educational attainment, and in 2016, they reported that 37.3% of White Americans over the age of 24 had received a bachelor’s or higher degree. For African Americans in 2016 the attainment rate was 21.8%, and for Hispanic Americans the rate was 15.4% (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). AAC&U encourages the use of equity-minded practices to enable higher education to better address attainment gaps. Among the recommendations they promote is encouragement for institutions to disaggregate their student data to better understand disparities in student learning outcomes and degree attainment by considering socioeconomic status, as well as race and ethnicity (AAC&U, 2015; Gavin, Bolton, Fine, & Morse, 2018). In truth, the attainment gap has long been recognized, but as demographics continue to shift in the United States, it is becoming a national imperative that higher education better serve all populations. While strategic attention is being placed on issues of retention, completion, and attainment, it is also argued that “the quality shortfall is just as urgent as the attainment shortfall” (AAC&U, 2010, p. 1), and there are a number of initiatives and organizations nationally that are designed to address quality. The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education exists to promote quality through improved teaching and learning practice and is the central professional association for those engaged in faculty development. Quality is central to the work of AAC&U’s LEAP Initiative, which promotes excellence in learning through faculty development, general education reform, high impact educational practices, and authentic assessment (Finley & McNair, 2013; Kuh & O’Donnell, 2013). In truth, most institutions are at work today developing a portfolio of solutions that address issues of quality, retention, completion, and attainment. Tuition, Textbooks, and Student Debt Although completion and quality are central to higher education’s work, the dominant public concern for most outside of higher education is cost (Humphries, 2012). Since the mid-1980’s, the cost of a post-secondary degree in the United States has been rapidly increasing (Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006) due to increased tuition and associated miscellaneous costs, such as textbooks Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 263 (Paulson & St. John, 2002; Senack & Donoghue, 2016). Indeed, increases in tuition have been a direct response to the shift of cost away from the public in the form of taxes to students and/or their families (Humphries, 2012). Years of cuts in state funding for public colleges and universities have driven up tuition and harmed students’ educational experiences by forcing faculty reductions, fewer course offerings, and campus closings. These choices have made college less affordable and less accessible for students who need degrees to succeed in today’s economy (Mitchell, Leachman, & Masterson, 2016). Although tuition has been the largest contributor in the equation of student debt, textbooks and ancillary materials are a key variable as well, especially since many students find it challenging to budget for the cost of books because they typically don’t learn about the true scope of those expenses until the beginning of a semester. Depending on the specific course or discipline, the associated traditional commercial textbook can cost students several hundred dollars each semester (Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, & Wiley, 2015; Hilton, 2016). While the increasing costs of attending college affect all students, low-income individuals and their families face greater difficulties than other socioeconomic groups in paying rising tuition and textbook fees (Kuh et al., 2006). This can directly affect their decision regarding where to apply and ultimately decide to attend college. Students with unmet financial need are more likely to delay their college enrollment or may not even attend college (Paulsen & St. John, 2002; Provasnik & Planty, 2008). This, of course, can have a cascading impact on future career decisions and employment opportunities (St. John, Paulson, & Carter, 2005). For individuals who do enroll in higher education institutions, some will make the financial decision to take courses without purchasing the textbook (Watson, Domizi, & Clouser, 2017), presumably negatively affecting their understanding of the course material, their subsequent performance (i.e., grade) in the class, and potentially their persistence in the discipline (Buczynski, 2007; Fischer et al., 2015). Open Educational Resources In an effort to curb the inflating cost of a postsecondary education and reduce student debt, there has been a growing movement in higher education regarding the authoring, adoption, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in course settings. OER are broadly defined as “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use, and adaptation by a community of users for non- commercial purposes” (UNESCO, 2002, p. 24). Within the higher education context, OER typically encompass free, online learning content, software tools, and accumulated digital curricula that are not restricted by copyright license and available to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute (Hilton, Fischer, Wiley, & Williams, 2016). Within the context of this study, OER refer to free, open textbooks, which replaced previously adopted expensive, traditional, commercial textbooks. The narrative traditionally supporting the adoption and implementation of OER textbooks has focused on cost savings by making high-quality educational resources freely available to the students. It is well documented in the literature that high- quality OER can lead to significant financial benefits for students and/or institutions, as well as reduce the potential of financial debt (Bliss, Robinson, Hilton, & Wiley, 2013; de los Arcos, Farrow, Perryman, Pitt, & Weller, 2014; Farrow et al., 2015; Fischer et al., 2015; Hilton, Gaudet, Clark, Robinson, & Wiley, 2013; Watson, Domizi, & Clouser, 2017). In empirical studies by Bliss, Robinson, Hilton, and Wiley (2013) and Hilton, Robinson, Wiley, and Ackerman (2014), college teachers and students reported significant cost savings on textbooks due to the implementation of OER in classes. Furthermore, several studies have shown evidence that the affordability of OER can effectively support at-risk learners in their efforts to finish their studies (de los Arcos et al., 2014; Farrow et al., 2015; Winitzky-Stephens & Pickavance, 2017). Additionally, previous studies have found that a majority of faculty and students perceive OER to be equal to, or better than, commercial textbooks in terms of quality (Allen & Seaman, 2014; Bliss et al., 2013; Watson, Domizi, & Clouser, 2017). Many students preferred using OER instead of traditional textbooks (Feldstein et al., 2012; Petrides, Jimes, & Hedgspeth, 2012), citing the benefits of cost, access, and attributes of online textbooks (Bliss et al., 2013; Watson, Domizi, & Clouser, 2017). When evaluating faculty perception, a majority of the faculty rated OER equal or superior to traditional resources in terms of current content (91.2%), ease of use (88.1%), efficacy (84.6%), trusted quality (73.6%), and cost (97.9%) (Allen & Seaman, 2014). While studies focusing on cost savings and student and faculty perceptions have dominated the OER research landscape, there has been less research that has looked at the impact OER have on student learning. Several studies have shown that implementations of OER may result in similar or improved academic performance in addition to saving students’ money (Bowen, Chingos, Lack, & Nygren, 2014; Feldstein et al., 2012; Hilton & Laman, 2012; Lovett, Meyer, & Thille, 2008; Pawlyshyn, Braddlee, Casper, & Miller, 2013). It was found that students enrolled in courses that have implemented OER as the textbook perform just as well, if not better, in comparison to students enrolled in courses that use traditional commercial textbooks (Hilton, 2016; Hilton et al., 2016). Faculty also described OER as having prepared Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 264 students at the same level of rigor, and in some cases more so, as traditional textbooks (Bliss, Hilton, Wiley, & Thanos, 2013; Bliss et al., 2013). Further, some studies suggest that OER may indirectly improve student performance through increased satisfaction, engagement, and interest in the subjects (de los Arcos et al., 2014; Farrow et al., 2015; Pitt, 2015). In regard to measures of student performance (i.e., final grades), several studies suggest that courses that have implemented OER result in higher student grades (Feldstein et al., 2012), higher pass rates (Fischer et al., 2015; Pawlyshyn et al., 2013), or lower failing and withdrawal rates (Feldstein et al., 2012) than courses that do not use OER materials. However, other studies do not find any significant difference in grades between OER adoption and traditional textbook use (Croteau, 2017; Feldstein et al., 2012; Lovett, Meyer, & Thille, 2008). Of the studies that have evaluated student performance in OER vs. non-OER courses, we have not found any that examine differences between full- and part-time student performance, although research has shown that part-time students are less likely than full- time to graduate (Shapiro & Bray, 2011). Further, we are not aware of any research that has evaluated student performance with regard to student financial need or disaggregated student data to better understand the impact OER might be having on various student sub- populations, especially those that might be at the greatest risk of leaving college. In truth, one would not necessarily anticipate that OER would positively impact the performance of a student who would have otherwise been able to purchase a traditional commercial textbook; however, one would imagine that a free textbook would indeed help those students who might choose to forgo a textbook in a course due to the cost. Purpose and Research Questions The purpose of this research, then, was to better understand how courses employing OER impact student success metrics and student academic achievement by disaggregating student performance based upon federally determined financial need (Federal Pell Grant status), ethnicity, and registration status (part-time vs. full-time). We predicted that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds that require substantial financial assistance to attend college would exceedingly benefit from courses that have adopted a free textbook when compared to previous semesters when traditional, commercial textbooks were used (for the purposes of this paper are referenced as “non- OER” courses). Additionally, we predicted that all students perform better in courses that have adopted OER— regardless of socioeconomic or demographic background— as all students will indeed possess the materials needed to succeed in the course. In order to address these research predictions, we sought to answer the following questions: 1) What is the impact of OER textbooks on student academic performance, quantified by evaluating final grades and DFW (D, F, and withdrawal letter grades) rates? 2) Does the use of OER textbooks affect students from a low socioeconomic background (quantified by Federal Pell Grant eligibility status) disproportionately compared to students who do not qualify for Federal Pell Grant status? 3) Does student performance increase significantly for those from underserved populations when a free OER textbook is used instead of a traditional textbook? Ultimately, we sought to determine if OER might address all three of the great challenges facing higher education today. Method Context of Study The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of Georgia (UGA) began encouraging faculty to adopt OER in the summer of 2013. Like many institutions pursuing OER, the goal was to decrease the cost of higher education and student debt by helping faculty find and adopt free, high quality, online textbooks. With limited resources, the CTL developed a model that they anticipated would maximize cost savings for students while also minimizing the scope of work for the Center. They chose to pursue faculty who taught large enrollment courses and who were also currently using an expensive textbook or textbook/technology package. In this way, it was theorized that significant savings would be had by students with only a relatively small number of faculty adoptions of free textbooks. As a result of this course profile, the majority of the courses transitioned were large enrollment general education courses at the 1000-level. By the end of the Fall 2017 semester, it is estimated that 35,985 students had been enrolled in a UGA course that had switched from an expensive textbook to a free textbook. It is further estimated that these students had collectively saved $3,266,930 as a result of this adoption (Watson & Colvard, 2018). While several different OER textbooks were used in this initiative, the majority were created by OpenStax, a nonprofit OER textbook publisher based at Rice University that is largely funded through philanthropic foundations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and several others (OpenStax, 2018a). The OpenStax publication process mirrors processes implemented by the “big five” textbook publishers: faculty author and Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 265 Figure 1 Timeline of the eight courses and adoption of OER. The black cells represent when the instructor did not teach that respective course for the given semester. The white cells represent when the instructor taught the respective course but used a traditional, commercial textbook. The gray cells represent when the instructor taught the respective course and used an OER for the course text. Table 1. Count of Student Grade-Level for All Students Enrolled in non-OER and OER Courses. The Grade-Level: Other accounts for Transient, Graduate, and Unclassified students. Grade-Level Non-OER OER Freshmen 4328 3689 Sophomore 5001 3782 Junior 1560 1735 Senior 768 908 Other 24 27 Total 11681 10141 peer review of these textbooks. OpenStax’s textbooks are 100% free and openly licensed (OpenStax, 2018b). The open license enables faculty to make changes to the textbooks if they so choose. As a result of OpenStax’s publication approach and their OER’s editable attributes, the CTL chose to focus the majority of their OER adoption efforts on titles provided by OpenStax. Courses This study evaluated historical student academic performance data (i.e., final grades) for eight different undergraduate courses at the University of Georgia (UGA) from Fall 2010 – Fall 2016. These courses were selected because they adopted OpenStax OER textbooks in place of traditional commercial textbooks. The eight courses in question span a range of disciplines, including science and social science courses: • American History since 1865 • American History to 1865 • Anatomy and Physiology II • Basic Concepts in Biology • Elementary Psychology • Introduction to Sociology • Organismal Biology • Principles of Biology All of these are large introductory courses within their respective departments. Some of the courses are designed for majors, whereas most are designed to satisfy UGA’s general education requirements. While UGA launched its OER initiative in Fall 2013, the semester of adoption of the OER differed across these eight courses, but all courses used OpenStax OER textbooks. The courses under consideration used OER textbooks between two and seven semesters (see Discipline Course Fall 2010 Spring 2011 Fall 2011 Spring 2012 Fall 2012 Spring 2013 Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Fall 2016 Biology Basic Concepts in Biology Organismal Biology Principles of Biology Anatomy and Physiology II History American History to 1865 American History since 1865 Psychology Elementary Psychology Sociology Introduction to Sociology Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 266 Figure 1 for course by course specifics). Additionally, only sections of courses taught by the same instructor were considered. This was done to control for instructor bias in the analysis of pre- and post-OER adoption. For example, we did not consider sections of Principles of Biology taught by anyone other than the instructors who eventually adopted OER for their courses. Participants The timeframe selected for this study provided two large groups of students bridging multiple disciplines, as well as provided two groups of students of similar size. Specifically, there were 11,681 students in the group who were in courses using traditional commercial textbooks, and there were 10,141 students in the group who were in courses using free, OER textbooks. The grade-level breakdown of students enrolled in the non-OER courses and OER courses is listed in Table 1, with a majority of the students enrolled in the eight courses of interest for this study being largely comprised of lower level classmen (Freshmen and Sophomores, n=9,329 students for non- OER courses and n=7,471 students for OER courses) compared to the number of upper level classmen (Juniors and Seniors, n=2,328 students for non-OER courses and n=2,643 students for OER courses). In total, there were 21,822 students in this study. Of those, 5,427 (24.9%) were Federal Pell Grant recipient students. Our study’s Pell eligibility percentage closely approximates UGA’s overall Pell eligibility percentage of 23.8%. In Fall 2016 UGA had a total undergraduate enrollment of 27,951 students with a sex distribution of 43.7% male and 56.3% female students. In this study, 35% of the students were male while 65% were female. For the purposes of this study, Pell eligibility served as a proxy for student socioeconomic status, and therefore, by evaluating student performance within the context of Pell eligibility, it allowed us to make an inference on how OER affected the grades of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. In Fall 2016, the ethnic origin characteristics of UGA undergraduate students consisted of 4,835 non- White students (17.30%; not accounting for the Asian student population = 3,226, 11.54%) and 19,672 White students (70.38%). The ethnic origin characteristics of the students enrolled in courses under consideration for this study were 4,078 non-White students (18.69%; not accounting for the Asian student population = 2,549, 11.68%) and 14,938 White students (68.45%). Therefore, the breakdown of student ethnic origin in this study is representative of the student demographics of the university. All student ethnicity data were self-reported, so students that were classified as “Not Reported” were removed from the analysis (n= 257 students, 1.18%). Additionally, the aggregation of “non-White” student ethnicities did not account for Asian students who are outperforming White students in terms of degree attainment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). Our non-White category represents ethnicities that have been historically underserved by higher education and are attaining college degrees at significantly lower rates than White students and Asian students. The non-White category is comprised of American Indian or Alaskan Native, Black or African American, Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino, and “Two or More Races” students. Additionally, the registration status of undergraduate students enrolled at UGA in Fall 2016 was 26,328 (94.19%) full-time students and 1,623 (5.81%) part-time students. There were 19,419 (88.99%) full-time students and 2,403 (11.01%) part- time students enrolled in the courses of interest. However, when evaluating the registration status respective for the OER courses (between Fall 2013 and Fall 2016), the number of full-time students (9,649; 95.15%) and part-time students (492; 4.85%) more closely follows the breakdown in student registration status for the university in Fall 2016. Data and Sources Examination of student academic performance consisted of a multi-level approach. First, we evaluated academic performance of all students enrolled in select courses pre- and post-OER adoption. We then disaggregated the data to evaluate differences in academic performance for Federal Pell Grant recipient students and for non-Pell grant recipients. Finally, we again disaggregated based on student demographic data—student ethnic origin (White and non-White) and registration status (full-time and part-time)—and again compared academic performance pre- and post-OER adoption. Our data set consisted of all letter grades (+/-) and aggregated DFW grades, and all were de-identified to ensure student anonymity. All letter grades were converted to numerical representations (i.e., A = 4, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, and so on) for statistical analyses. For all three sets of comparisons, we evaluated grade distribution, average course grade, and percent DFW grades for these respective student populations. At UGA the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) possesses student course grade information and most student demographic information; however, the Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) is the institutional steward of Federal Pell Grant status. OSFA, working within strict and emerging federal guidelines, required that each course grade grouping contain at least 20 students within each category. This requirement was designed to protect student identities and thus required that we collapse the D, Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 267 Table 2. Percent Student Grade Distribution Data for All Students Enrolled in non-OER and OER Courses. Grade Non OER OER A 17.96 23.46 A- 11.33 19.06 B+ 12.99 14.13 B 22.10 17.02 B- 9.25 7.94 C+ 6.75 3.90 C 7.75 5.55 C- 1.01 0.74 DFW 10.87 8.19 Table 3. Percent Student Grade Distribution Based on Pell Eligibility in non-OER and OER Courses. Non-Pell Recipients Pell Recipients Grade Non-OER OER Non-OER OER A 19.48 24.90 13.48 18.97 A- 11.72 19.83 10.17 16.66 B+ 13.70 13.90 10.88 14.84 B 22.49 16.46 20.95 18.77 B- 8.92 7.54 10.20 9.16 C+ 6.30 3.87 8.11 4.01 C 6.88 5.20 10.30 6.65 C- 0.89 0.72 1.35 0.81 DFW 9.62 7.57 14.56 10.13 Figure 2 Average grade (Final grade) of students enrolled in courses pre-OER adoption (Non-OER) and post-OER adoption (OER). This analysis compared students that were not recipients of the Federal Pell Grant (Non-Pell) and students that did receive the Federal Pell Grant (Pell). The numbers over each bar represent the total number of students in that respective classification. 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 Non-Pell Pell Av er ag e G ra de Non-OER OER (8721) (7674) (2960) (2467) Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 268 Figure 3 Percent of DFW students comparing Non-Pell and Pell recipients in course pre-OER adoption (Non-OER) and post- OER adoption (OER). F, and W (Withdrawal) letter grades into a single DFW grade category. This collapsed category is also a metric of interest at UGA and many other institutions interested in DFW rates. Further, all “other” final grade classifications (e.g., Medical Leave, Military Leave, etc.) were deleted prior to analysis as such reasons for course withdrawal would not be related to course performance, financial need, or OER adoption. To analyze the data for all students and groups involved in the study, two sample t-tests were used to compare non-OER to OER courses. To compare student financial aid status (Pell and non-Pell recipients), ethnic origin characteristics (White and non-White students), and registration status (full- time and part-time) with regard to enrollment in non- OER and OER courses, we used two-way ANOVAs with grade as the dependent variable and OER status and student demographic information as fixed factors. All analyses were completed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Macintosh, Version 22.0. This study received IRB approval from the University of Georgia Human Subject Division in the Office of Research. All data received from OIR and OSFA were de-identified in order to maintain student privacy and anonymity. In compliance with the IRB approval, all data were stored, analyzed, and interpreted on one computer device. Results All Students We first compared academic performance of all students categorized into two groups – non-OER courses and OER courses – without stratification based upon financial need or student demographics, and there was a statistically significant improvement in final course grades for students in the OER courses (M = 3.048, SE = 0.011) compared to non-OER courses (M = 2.806, SE = 0.011) (t(21,820) = -15.95, p < .001). Table 2 displays the grade distributions for both groups of students, showing there was a decrease in the percent of DFW through B grades and an increase in the percent of B+ through A grades in courses using OER. For A grades, there was a 5.50% increase after OER adoption, a 7.73% increase for A- grades, and an 1.14% increase for B+ grades. Importantly, the presence of OERs decreased the DFW rate by 2.68% for all students enrolled in the respective courses. Federal Pell Grant Recipient Students Analysis of student performance for Federal Pell Grant recipients maintained the same trend as described for all students, with a statistically significant difference when comparing student Pell eligibility status (F(1,21818) = 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Non-Pell Pell % o f S tu de nt s Non-OER OER Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 269 173.54, p < .001), OER use (F(1,21818) = 232.161, p < .001) and Pell eligibility ́OER use, F(1,21818) = 9.348, p = .002). This study found there was a notable increase in B+ through A grades and a decrease in B through DFW grades. For non-Pell recipients, after OER adoption there was a 5.42% increase for A grades, a 8.11% increase for A- grades, and a 0.20% increase for B+ grades. For Pell recipients, after OER adoption we observed a 5.49% increase for A grades, a 6.49% increase for A- grades, and a 3.96% increase for B+ grades (see Table 3). For non-OER courses, the final average course grade was 2.878 ± 0.012 (±SE) for non-Pell recipients and 2.594 ± 0.022 for Pell recipients; for OER courses, the final average course grade was 3.091 ± 0.012 for non-Pell recipients and 2.914 ± 0.023 for Pell recipients (Figure 2). This resulted in a 6.90% increase in non-Pell recipients’ end-of- course grade and a 10.98% increase for Pell recipients end-of-course grade with the adoption of OER into the courses. In this analysis, OER adoption resulted in a 2.05% reduction in DFW grades for non-Pell recipients and a 4.43% decline in DFW grades for Pell recipients (Figure 3) Student Ethnic Origin When evaluating White and non-White students’ academic performance, there was a statistically significant difference in student ethnic origin (F(1,19012) = 195.56, p < .001), OER use (F(1,19012) = 306.98, p < .001), and student ethnic origin ́OER use (F(1,19012) = 10.374, p = .001). There were statistically significant differences in grade distribution for White and non-White students’ academic performance; however, both groups’ academic performance increased in the OER courses. Additionally, non-White students had a greater increase in B through A grades relative to the grade distribution of White students (Table 4). When comparing average course grades for these two demographic groupings, the results demonstrated a narrowing in the gap in academic performance between these student groups following the adoption of OER (Figure 4). In non-OER courses, White students (n = 8152) had an average course grade of 2.925 ± 0.012 compared to 2.525 ± 0.027 for non-White students (n = 2029). Once OER were adopted for these courses, the average course grade increased for both groups, specifically to 3.132 ± 0.013 for White students (n = 6,786), and to 2.857 ± 0.025 for non- White students (n = 2,049) (Figure 4). This resulted in a 7.09% increase in average grade for White students and a 13.13% increase for non-White students. Additionally, there was a large decline in DFW grades once OER were adopted in these courses. For White students, DFW grades accounted for 8.70% of the final grades before OER adoption, and that percentage dropped to 7.19% after OER adoption. For non-White students, we observed that DFW final grades accounted for 15.28% when traditional Figure 4 Average grade (Final grade) of students enrolled in courses pre-OER adoption (Non-OER) and post-OER adoption (OER). This analysis compared self-identified White students and Non-White students – aggregating all other self-identified ethnicities, excluding Asian. The numbers over each bar represent the total number of students in that respective classification. 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 White Non-White Av er ag e G ra de Non-OER OER (8152) (2029) (6786) (2049) Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 270 Table 4. Percent Student Grade Distribution Based on Ethnicity in Non-OER and OER Courses. White Students Non-White Students Grade Non-OER OER Non-OER OER A 20.22 26.27 11.83 15.96 A- 12.51 19.95 8.33 17.23 B+ 13.85 14.65 10.45 13.91 B 22.42 16.05 22.08 19.52 B- 8.91 7.54 10.40 8.44 C+ 5.96 3.24 9.27 5.47 C 6.59 4.48 10.89 8.10 C- 0.85 0.62 1.48 1.22 DFW 8.70 7.19 15.28 10.15 Figure 5 Percent of DFW students for non-OER and OER based courses for White and Non-White students. Students classified as “Asian” were removed from the analyses. textbooks were used, and we noted a disproportionally greater decline in DFW grades to 10.15% with the adoption of OER (a decline of 5.13%) (Figure 5). Student Registration Status Finally, we evaluated the impact of OER when considering student registration status by comparing full-time and part-time students. When evaluating grade distribution data for full-time and part-time students before and after OER adoption, there were two striking results that emerged. First, the shift to higher- level grades, while present for both groups of students, was more pronounced for part-time students than full time students after OER were implemented. Second, DFW grades dropped significantly more for part-time students than full-time students with OER (Table 5). We found a significant difference in student registration status (F(1,21818) = 141.90, p < .001), OER use (F(1,21818) = 968.41, p < .001), and student registration status ´ OER use (F(1,21818) = 59.68, p < .001) for both full-time and part-time students. For both groups, OER adoption helped to raise average course grades (full-time: M = 3.080, SE = 0.011; part- time: M = 2.420, SE = 0.067) compared to course grades prior to OER adoption (M = 2.986, SE = 0.010; 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 White Non-White % o f S tu de nt s Non-OER OER Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 271 Table 5 Percent Student Grade Distribution Based on Registration Status in Non-OER and OER Courses. Full-Time Students Part-Time Students Grade Non-OER OER Non-OER OER A 20.25 23.70 6.28 18.70 A- 12.67 19.47 4.45 10.98 B+ 14.05 14.41 7.54 8.74 B 22.85 17.15 18.26 14.43 B- 9.11 7.80 9.94 10.57 C+ 6.32 3.87 9.00 4.67 C 7.48 5.49 9.11 6.71 C- 0.99 0.73 1.10 1.02 DFW 6.28 7.38 34.33 24.19 Figure 6 Average grade (Final grade) of students enrolled in courses pre-OER adoption (Non-OER) and post-OER adoption (OER). This analysis compared students enrolled in the university at least 12 credit hours per semester (Full-time) to those students enrolled in at least 6, but no more than 12 credit hours per semester (Part-time). The numbers over each bar represent the total number of students in that respective classification. part-time: M = 1.889, SE = 0.033). OER helped to narrow the gap in performance by increasing average course grades by 3.18% for full-time students and by 28.13% for part-time students (Figure 6). When evaluating the impact OER had on DFW rates, we observed a slight increase from 6.28% to 7.38% in DFW grades for full-time students, though for part-time students OER adoption resulted in a decrease in DFW grades from 34.28% to 24.19%, which was a 10.14% decline (Figure 7). Closer analysis of these data showed the trend in DFW grades increasing for full-time students in OER courses, and this was attributed to more reported Withdrawal grades (from 173 to 405 students) and fewer D and F grades (299 and 142 to 171 and 136 students, respectively), when compared to full-time students enrolled in non-OER courses. However, we did not evaluate why students withdrew from a course. Discussion While the financial benefits of OER are well- documented (Dimeo, 2017; Lieberman, 2018; Watson & Colvard, 2018), this study sought to determine if OER 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 Full-time Part-time Av er ag e G ra de Non-OER OER (9770) (9649) (1911) (492) Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 272 adoption (in our case, free OpenStax textbooks) by faculty in course settings has additional benefits beyond saving students money. Statistically significant and important additional benefits were discerned. Without disaggregating the data, it was first found that students tend to perform better in course settings when OER textbooks were used in place of expensive, commercial textbooks. DFW rates also decreased. Following recommendations from AAC&U (AAC&U, 2015; Gavin, Bolton, Fine, & Morse, 2018), we obtained demographic information which allowed us to disaggregate our data by Pell eligibility status, ethnicity, and registration status. This enabled us to look more deeply into the data to better understand course performance outcomes for subpopulations of interest. While end of course grades increased for all groups considered, DFW rates decreased dramatically for student populations we hypothesized would benefit the most from free textbooks (e.g., Pell eligible students, underserved populations, and part-time students). When considering Federal Pell eligibility, we observed an increase in A through B+ letter grades and a decrease in B through DFW grades when evaluating courses that have implemented OER at the University of Georgia. A significant decrease in DFW rates for Pell- eligible students was found (a 4.43% change) when OER were adopted as the textbook for the class. These results reveal a measurable decrease in the number of students failing or withdrawing from a course when OER are adopted, and that decrease in the number of failing or withdrawal grades is more significant for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (see Figure 3). This research also evaluated student demographic metrics – ethnic origin and registration status – which helped to provide a more nuanced understanding of student academic performance with regard to OER adoption. This research revealed significant differences in academic performance (average final grade) for both White and non-White students enrolled in OER courses compared to previous semesters when OER were not yet adopted. The finding that students’ final grades improved in courses that adopted OER is encouraging, but the magnitude in which non-White students’ grades improved is very compelling. Additionally, the benefits of OER are significant for part-time students. This study found a 53.12% increase in average course grade and a 29.54% decrease in DFW rates for students who were not enrolled full- time at UGA. These findings uniquely highlight the impact openly accessible content has on this non- traditional student population. Part-time students are an often overlooked population in higher education, and 71% are on their own financially (Bombardieri, 2017). It is not surprising that those enrolled part-time in college benefitted from free textbooks. Figure 7 Percent of DFW students comparing Full-time and Part-time students in courses pre-OER adoption (Non-OER) and post-OER adoption (OER). 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Full-time Part-time % o f S tu de nt s Non-OER OER Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 273 As noted earlier, students at UGA have collectively saved approximately $3,266,930 since the launch of the initiative in 2013. The cost of higher education and the associated debt have a well-documented connection to drop-out rates (Goldrick-Rab, 2016); however, there is more to the OER story than simply reducing debt. Given the findings of this large-scale study, we believe the conversation regarding OER should change significantly. While compelling, the argument for OER as primarily a cost saving measure is incomplete and minimizes the value of OER. This study suggests that OER speaks to all three of the great challenges facing higher education today: affordability, retention and completion, and quality of student learning. Although drop-out rates were not examined as part of this study, it is logical to deduce that reducing the number of students who fail would have a positive impact on retention. As noted above, OER were found to significantly decrease DFW rates across a range of demographics. They also have a more pronounced impact on grades for those who start further behind, are in financial need, and/or are among populations that have been historically underserved by postsecondary education. OER speaks to the aforementioned attainment gap as well. Still further, there is an expectation that grades are an indicator of student achievement within course settings, and by simply ensuring that all students, regardless of need or background, have access to course materials on the first day of class, the quality and extent of learning appear to be improved. Study Limitations It should be noted that there are limitations and assumptions made for this study. The analysis provided within this article only considers students at a single, large, doctoral-granting research university. This should be taken under consideration as readers evaluate the generalizability of these findings. Some of the course transitions to OER textbooks represented in this study included assistance from UGA’s CTL, and it is probable that the adoption of the OER-based textbook served as a catalyst to further the instructors’ engagement with their own teaching. Additionally, this study only evaluated end of course grades, though there are a number of course assessments that went into generating the final grades for these respective classes. The degree to which OER influenced individual assignment or assessment grades was not explored by this study and could not be determined based on the nature of the data set. Finally, this study evaluated large, introductory courses spanning a range of disciplines; therefore, upper class (juniors and seniors) students were a small percentage of the population under consideration. Conclusion This research suggests OER is an equity strategy for higher education: providing all students with access to course materials on the first day of class serves to level the academic playing field in course settings. While additional disaggregated research is needed in a variety of postsecondary contexts such as community college, HBCU, and other higher education settings to increase the generalizability of this notion, this study provides an empirical foundation on which to begin to change the advocacy narrative supporting OER. A new opportunity appears to be present for institutions in higher education to consider how to leverage OER to address completion, quality, and affordability challenges, especially those institutions that have higher percentages of Pell eligible, underserved, and/or part-time students than the institution presented in this study. References AAC&U. (2018). 2018-22 strategic plan: Educating for democracy. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/ab out/AACU_StrategicPlan_2018-22.pdf AAC&U. (2015). Step up and lead for equity: What higher education can do to reverse our deepening divides. Washington, DC: Author. AAC&U. (2010). The quality imperative: Match ambitious goals for college attainment with an ambition vision for learning. Washington, DC: Author. Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2014). Opening the curriculum: Open educational resources in U.S. higher education, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/open ingthecurriculum2014.pdf Bliss, T. J., Hilton III, J., Wiley, D., & Thanos, K. (2013). The cost and quality of open textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. First Monday, 18(1). Retrieved from http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/1378/ Bliss, T. J., Robinson, J. T., Hilton III, J., & Wiley, D. A. (2013). An OER COUP: College teacher and student perceptions of open educational resources. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 25. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.5334/2013-04 Bombardieri, M. (2017). Hidden in plain sight: Understanding part-time college students in America. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education -postsecondary/reports/2017/09/06/438341/hidden- plain-sight/ Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 274 Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2014). Interactive learning online at public universities: Evidence from a six-campus randomized trial. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(1), 94-111. Buczynski, J. A. (2007). Faculty begin to replace textbooks with “freely” accessible online resources. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 11(4), 169–179. Complete College America. (2018). About. Retrieved from https://completecollege.org/about/ Croteau, E. (2017). Measures of student success with textbook transformations: The Affordable Learning Georgia Initiative. Open Praxis, 9(1), 93-108. de los Arcos, B., Farrow, R., Perryman, L.-A., Pitt, R., & Weller, M. (2014). OER evidence report 2013- 2014. OER Research Hub. Retrieved from http://oerresearchhub.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/ oerrh-evidence-report-2014.pdf Dimeo, J. (2017). Saving students money. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital- learning/article/2017/06/28/report-saving- students-money-oer Farrow, R., Pitt, R., de los Arcos, B., Perryman, L. A., Weller, M., & McAndrew, P. (2015). Impact of OER use on teaching and learning: Data from OER Research Hub (2013-2014). British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(5), 972–976. Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton III, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbook and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance, and E- Learning, 15(2). Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?p=archives&year=2012&h alfyear=2&article&article=533 Finley, A., & McNair, T. (2013). Assessing underserved students’ engagement in high impact practices. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Fischer, L., Hilton III, J., Robinson, T. J., & Wiley, D. A. (2015). A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 27(3), 159–172. Gavin, M., Bolton, K., Fine, R., & Morse, A. (2018). Building and sustaining an equity-minded campus. In A vision for equity (pp. 1-7). Washington, DC: AAC&U. Goldrick-Rab, S. (2016). Paying the price: College costs, financial aid, and the betrayal of the American Dream. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hilton III, J. L. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: A review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64(4), 573-590. Hilton III, J. L., Fischer, L., Wiley, D., & Williams, L. (2016). Maintaining momentum toward graduation: OER and the course throughput rate. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(6), 18–27. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/ 2686/3967 Hilton III, J. L., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(4). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/152 3/2652 Hilton III, J., & Laman, C. (2012). One college’s use of an open psychology textbook. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 27(3), 265-272. Hilton III, J. L., Robinson, T. J., Wiley, D., & Ackerman, J. D. (2014). Cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 15(2), 67–84. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1 700/2833Humphrey, D. (2012). What’s wrong with the completion agenda: And what we can do about it. Liberal Education, 98(1), 8-17. Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J. A., Bridges, B. K., & Hayek, J. C. (2006). What matters to student success: A review of the literature. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kuh, G. D., & O’Donnell, K.. (2013). Ensuring quality and taking high-impact practices to scale. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Lieberman, M. (2018). Textbook alternatives take hold at community colleges. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital- learning/article/2018/05/09/two-year-institutions- report-significant-savings-oer-initiatives Lovett, M., Meyer, O., & Thille, C. (2008). The Open Learning Initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 14, 1–16. doi:10.5334/2008-14 Mitchell, M., Leachman, M., & Masterson, K. (2016). Funding down, tuition up: State cuts to higher education threaten quality and affordability at public colleges. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Digest of education statistics: 2016. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/ OpenStax. (2018a). About us. Retrieved from https://openstax.org/about Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 275 OpenStax. (2018b). Peer-reviewed. Openly licensed. 100% free. Retrieved from https://openstax.org/subjects Paulsen, M. B., & St. John, E. P. (2002). Social class and college costs: Examining the financial nexus between college choice and persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 73(2), 189-236. Pawlyshyn, N., Braddlee, D., Casper, L., & Miller, H. (2013). Adopting OER: A case study of cross- institutional collaboration and innovation. EDUCAUSE Review. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/11/adopting- oer-a-case-study-of-crossinstitutional- collaboration-and-innovation Perna, L. W., & Finney, J. E. (2014). The attainment agenda: State policy leadership in higher education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Petrides, L. A., Jimes, C., & Hedgspeth, C. (2012). Knowledge sharing and collaboration as indicators of learning in OER communities. In A. Okada, T. Connolly, & P. J. Scott (Eds.), Collaborative Learning 2.0: Open Educational Resources (pp. 38–50). New York: IGI Global. Pitt, R. (2015). Mainstreaming open textbooks: Educator perspectives on the impact of OpenStax college open textbooks. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(4). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/238 1/3497 Provasnik, S., & Planty, M. (2008). Community colleges: Special supplement to the condition of education 2008. Statistical analysis report. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008033.pdf Shapiro, J., & Bray, C. (2011). Improving retention and enrollment forecasting in part-time programs. Continuing Higher Education Review, 75, 121-129. St. John, E. P., Paulsen, M. B., & Carter, D. F. (2005). Diversity, college costs, and postsecondary opportunity: An examination of the financial nexus between college choice and persistence for African Americans and Whites. Journal of Higher Education, 76(5), 545-569. Tinto, V. (2012). Completing college: Rethinking institutional action. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. UNESCO. (2002). Forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries: Final report. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001285/12 8515e.pdf Watson, C. E., & Colvard, N. B. (2018). Open educational resources (OERs): Another high impact practice? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC. Watson, C. E., Domizi, D., & Clouser, S. (2017). Student and faculty perceptions of OpenStax in high enrollment courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 18(5). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/246 2/4299 Winitzky-Stephens, J. R., & Pickavance, J. (2017). Open educational resources and student course outcomes: A multilevel analysis. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3118 ____________________________ NICHOLAS B. COLVARD, PhD, is a Lecturer and Academic Coach in the Division of Academic Enhancement (DAE) at the University of Georgia (UGA). He teaches Developing Literacies in the STEM Fields in addition to other university-level courses which support students as they transition into higher education and sustain their progress through the University’s unique academic environment. He is a 2017-2018 William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Open Educational Resource Research Fellow and is helping to champion OER adoption and implementation across UGA. Prior to his teaching role in DAE, he served as a Research Associate in the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning where he examined the impact and effect of OER on student success at UGA. He also served as the Instructional Laboratory Manager for the Odum School of Ecology at UGA. C. EDWARD WATSON, PhD, is the Associate Vice President for Quality, Advocacy, and LEAP Initiatives for the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) where he leads the association’s national and state-level advocacy and policy efforts to advance quality in undergraduate student learning. Prior to joining AAC&U in 2017, Watson was the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia (UGA). In that role, he designed, launched, and led UGA’s OER initiative; wrote and received multiple grants supporting UGA’s OER development, adoption, and advocacy efforts; led multiple OER research projects; served as the Affordable Learning Georgia Campus Champion for UGA; and is now a national advocate for OER as an equity strategy. He is also the co- author of the Care Framework (http://careframework.org), an OER stewardship model published in 2018. He continues to serve as a Fellow in the Institute of Higher Education at UGA. HYOJIN PARK, PhD, is a graduate of the Learning, Design, and Technology Program in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. Her dissertation is entitled Enhancing Veterinary Students’ Clinical Decision- making Skills by Promoting Revision of their Decision- making Process in Case-based Learning. Following graduation, she served as a post-doctoral fellow in UGA’s Colvard, Watson, and Park Open Educational Resources, Learning, and Retention 276 Center for Teaching and Learning where she worked on several research projects associated with Open Educational Resources. Park is currently a lecturer at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the University System of Georgia’s Affordable Learning Georgia Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their support of OER projects and this research at the University of Georgia. 
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www-marxists-org-4491	----	Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Twenty-Six Karl Marx. Capital Volume One Part VIII: Primitive Accumulation Chapter Twenty-Six: The Secret of Primitive Accumulation   We have seen how money is changed into capital; how through capital surplus-value is made, and from surplus-value more capital. But the accumulation of capital presupposes surplus-value; surplus-value presupposes capitalistic production; capitalistic production presupposes the pre-existence of considerable masses of capital and of labour power in the hands of producers of commodities. The whole movement, therefore, seems to turn in a vicious circle, out of which we can only get by supposing a primitive accumulation (previous accumulation of Adam Smith) preceding capitalistic accumulation; an accumulation not the result of the capitalistic mode of production, but its starting point. This primitive accumulation plays in Political Economy about the same part as original sin in theology. Adam bit the apple, and thereupon sin fell on the human race. Its origin is supposed to be explained when it is told as an anecdote of the past. In times long gone by there were two sorts of people; one, the diligent, intelligent, and, above all, frugal elite; the other, lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living. The legend of theological original sin tells us certainly how man came to be condemned to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow; but the history of economic original sin reveals to us that there are people to whom this is by no means essential. Never mind! Thus it came to pass that the former sort accumulated wealth, and the latter sort had at last nothing to sell except their own skins. And from this original sin dates the poverty of the great majority that, despite all its labour, has up to now nothing to sell but itself, and the wealth of the few that increases constantly although they have long ceased to work. Such insipid childishness is every day preached to us in the defence of property. M. Thiers, e.g., had the assurance to repeat it with all the solemnity of a statesman to the French people, once so spirituel. But as soon as the question of property crops up, it becomes a sacred duty to proclaim the intellectual food of the infant as the one thing fit for all ages and for all stages of development. In actual history it is notorious that conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, briefly force, play the great part. In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial. Right and “labour” were from all time the sole means of enrichment, the present year of course always excepted. As a matter of fact, the methods of primitive accumulation are anything but idyllic. In themselves money and commodities are no more capital than are the means of production and of subsistence. They want transforming into capital. But this transformation itself can only take place under certain circumstances that centre in this, viz., that two very different kinds of commodity-possessors must come face to face and into contact; on the one hand, the owners of money, means of production, means of subsistence, who are eager to increase the sum of values they possess, by buying other people’s labour power; on the other hand, free labourers, the sellers of their own labour power, and therefore the sellers of labour. Free labourers, in the double sense that neither they themselves form part and parcel of the means of production, as in the case of slaves, bondsmen, &c., nor do the means of production belong to them, as in the case of peasant-proprietors; they are, therefore, free from, unencumbered by, any means of production of their own. With this polarization of the market for commodities, the fundamental conditions of capitalist production are given. The capitalist system presupposes the complete separation of the labourers from all property in the means by which they can realize their labour. As soon as capitalist production is once on its own legs, it not only maintains this separation, but reproduces it on a continually extending scale. The process, therefore, that clears the way for the capitalist system, can be none other than the process which takes away from the labourer the possession of his means of production; a process that transforms, on the one hand, the social means of subsistence and of production into capital, on the other, the immediate producers into wage labourers. The so-called primitive accumulation, therefore, is nothing else than the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production. It appears as primitive, because it forms the prehistoric stage of capital and of the mode of production corresponding with it. The economic structure of capitalist society has grown out of the economic structure of feudal society. The dissolution of the latter set free the elements of the former. The immediate producer, the labourer, could only dispose of his own person after he had ceased to be attached to the soil and ceased to be the slave, serf, or bondsman of another. To become a free seller of labour power, who carries his commodity wherever he finds a market, he must further have escaped from the regime of the guilds, their rules for apprentices and journeymen, and the impediments of their labour regulations. Hence, the historical movement which changes the producers into wage-workers, appears, on the one hand, as their emancipation from serfdom and from the fetters of the guilds, and this side alone exists for our bourgeois historians. But, on the other hand, these new freedmen became sellers of themselves only after they had been robbed of all their own means of production, and of all the guarantees of existence afforded by the old feudal arrangements. And the history of this, their expropriation, is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire. The industrial capitalists, these new potentates, had on their part not only to displace the guild masters of handicrafts, but also the feudal lords, the possessors of the sources of wealth. In this respect, their conquest of social power appears as the fruit of a victorious struggle both against feudal lordship and its revolting prerogatives, and against the guilds and the fetters they laid on the free development of production and the free exploitation of man by man. The chevaliers d’industrie, however, only succeeded in supplanting the chevaliers of the sword by making use of events of which they themselves were wholly innocent. They have risen by means as vile as those by which the Roman freedman once on a time made himself the master of his patronus. The starting point of the development that gave rise to the wage labourer as well as to the capitalist, was the servitude of the labourer. The advance consisted in a change of form of this servitude, in the transformation of feudal exploitation into capitalist exploitation. To understand its march, we need not go back very far. Although we come across the first beginnings of capitalist production as early as the 14th or 15th century, sporadically, in certain towns of the Mediterranean, the capitalistic era dates from the 16th century. Wherever it appears, the abolition of serfdom has been long effected, and the highest development of the middle ages, the existence of sovereign towns, has been long on the wane. In the history of primitive accumulation, all revolutions are epoch-making that act as levers for the capital class in course of formation; but, above all, those moments when great masses of men are suddenly and forcibly torn from their means of subsistence, and hurled as free and “unattached” proletarians on the labour-market. The expropriation of the agricultural producer, of the peasant, from the soil, is the basis of the whole process. The history of this expropriation, in different countries, assumes different aspects, and runs through its various phases in different orders of succession, and at different periods. In England alone, which we take as our example, has it the classic form. [1]   Footnotes 1. In Italy, where capitalistic production developed earliest, the dissolution of serfdom also took place earlier than elsewhere. The serf was emancipated in that country before he had acquired any prescriptive right to the soil. His emancipation at once transformed him into a free proletarian, who, moreover, found his master ready waiting for him in the towns, for the most part handed down as legacies from the Roman time. When the revolution of the world-market, about the end of the 15th century, annihilated Northern Italy’s commercial supremacy, a movement in the reverse direction set in. The labourers of the towns were driven en masse into the country, and gave an impulse, never before seen, to the petite culture, carried on in the form of gardening.   Transcribed by Zodiac Html Markup by Stephen Baird (1999) Next: Chapter Twenty-Seven: Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land Capital Volume One- Index 
www-newyorker-com-5852	----	Poetry in a Time of Protest | The New Yorker Skip to main content Newsletter To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. Close Alert Sign In Search News Books & Culture Fiction & Poetry Humor & Cartoons Magazine Crossword Video Podcasts Archive Goings On Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Close Alert Cultural Comment Poetry in a Time of Protest By Edwidge Danticat January 31, 2017 Save this story for later. The poet and activist Audre Lorde.PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ALEXANDER / GETTY Save this story for later. The day that Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States, I went to hear the Alabama-based poet Ashley M. Jones read from her book “Magic City Gospel” at my local bookstore in Miami, a city that is home to one of the largest foreign-born populations in the United States. In his inaugural speech, Trump had repeatedly invoked “the people,” and said, “And this, the United States of America, is your country,” but it was hard to believe that he meant to include my black and brown neighbors, friends, and family, many of whom came to America as immigrants. Trump’s speech was dark, rancorous, unnuanced. Afterward, I wanted to fall into a poet’s carefully crafted, insightful, and at times elegiac words. At the bookstore, I listened as Jones read a poem about seeing a Ku Klux Klan uniform on display at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Behind the glass, it seems frozen, waiting for summer night to melt it into action . . . Jones also read a poem about Sally Hemings, the woman who was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson, the father of six of her children. And Jones read haikus about the 1963 Birmingham Children’s Crusade, in which dogs were unleashed and fire hoses were used as weapons against young people, six years and older, who were marching for their rights. Political language, like poetry, is rarely uttered without intention. When Trump said, unconvincingly in his speech, that “we are one nation, and their pain is our pain,” I knew that the They was Us, this separate America, which he continually labels and addresses as Other. “Their dreams are our dreams,” he added. To which I could hear the eternal bard of Harlem, Langston Hughes, shout from his grave, “What happens to a dream deferred?” or “I, too, am America.” The late Gwendolyn Brooks, a Chicagoan and the Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry in 1950, might have chimed in with “Speech to the Young,” a poem about one manner of resisting and what we now commonly call “self-care”: Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, "Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night." You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along. Looking to both living and dead poets for words of inspiration and guidance is now part of my living “in the along,” for however many years this particular “night” lasts. One of the bonds that many people in my community now share is a deep fear about what might come next. Twelve years ago, after fleeing unrest in our native Haiti, my eighty-one-year-old uncle Joseph, a cancer survivor who spoke with a voice box, died in immigration custody after requesting asylum in this city. He had a valid visa and family members waiting for him, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him anyway. His medications were taken away, and when he fell ill he was accused of faking his condition. As his health worsened, he was taken to a local hospital’s prison’s ward, where he died shackled to a bed, five days after arriving in the United States. Still, in later years I took some small comfort in the fact that Miami was generally considered a “sanctuary” city, where undocumented immigrants were not routinely turned over to the federal government for deportation. I also kept believing that our numbers, not to mention our vital economic, cultural, and political contributions to the city, would continue to protect all of those who call Miami home. Only a week into the Trump Presidency, we learned that we were wrong. On Sunday, dozens of us rallied in front of Miami International Airport, where my uncle was first detained, to protest Trump’s executive order barring all refugees, particularly those from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Since Trump’s xenophobic order was issued, the potential for my family’s nightmare to be repeated in the lives of other refugees and asylum seekers has increased considerably, particularly for those who are fleeing situations in which waiting even one more day can be a matter of life and death. At the airport rally, we carried signs that denounced the ban, but our presence also highlighted the erosion of civil liberties for people of color, Native Americans, women, L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants, and even journalists. One man carried a sign that, like mine, said, “No Human Being Is Illegal.” A woman held one that read, “Immigrants Are America’s Ghostwriters.” Another woman had simply scribbled on a piece of cardboard, in all caps, the word “No.” We shouted slogans like “No ban, no wall!” and “When black and brown bodies are under attack, what do we do? / Stand up, fight back! / When Muslims and women are under attack, what do we do? / Stand up, fight back!” We condemned the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Giménez, who was the first to fall in line behind one of Trump’s earlier executive orders threatening to withdraw funds from sanctuary cities that refused to act as an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We denounced Senator Marco Rubio, a former political rival of Trump, who now wants to join him in building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “Without community, there is no liberation,” the poet and activist Audre Lorde wrote, nearly thirty-five years ago. In our rallying and marching, we rediscovered community in one another. Throughout the rally, because I seek solace in words, my thoughts kept returning not just to my beloved uncle but also to Jones, Hughes, and Brooks, whose 1971 ode to the singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson echoes the words in our chants: . . . we are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond. I also kept returning to Lorde, who wrote that “poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.” Poetry, she said, is how we name the nameless. “It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.” Stripped of our usual bearings and sanctuaries, we must now decide on a daily basis what our tangible actions will be. Edwidge Danticat is the author of many books, including, most recently, “Everything Inside: Stories.” More:Donald TrumpMiamiPoetryProtest The New Yorker Recommends What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Enter your e-mail address Sign upWill be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy. 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www-progressivelibrariansguild-org-1816	----	PL46final.indd 135 November 8, 2016, the Public, and Libraries1 by John Buschman Our recent election provides ample reason to stop and analyze what is going on. The same political system that elected Abraham Lincoln with 39.8% of the vote produced majorities in enough states to ratify an onslaught of lies and bigotry.2 Economically, people voted against “expansion of health-insurance subsidies for low- and middle- income Americans; investments in education and retraining; middle-class tax cuts; and a higher minimum wage [which] would do far more to help the economically precarious … than … top-heavy tax cuts and trade wars.”3 This, I contend, is a problem. To pivot to libraries, Wayne Wiegand never tires of quoting a colleague that our scholarship usually focuses on “the user in the life of the library rather than the library in the life of the user,”4 and he asks instead what role do libraries play in the lives of people, if any? I reformulate his theme: what, if anything, has changed in the nature of the public in its expectations of and interactions with libraries? I look at users in a particular aggregate – as a public or as publics: what is the library in the life of its public now? And, what is the role of a library’s public now? Has it changed, and if so, how? I technically defi ne what a public is,5 but skipping to the results: the practical defi nition of a public that encounters a library is a) paying attention to the institution; b) receiving communication from the library; c) communicating to it; d) communicating among themselves about it; e) communicating about present benefi ts and future consequences of library decisions; and f) communicating in the context of common support for shared resources and services over time. Any one of these may be lessened at a given time – for instance in the level of attention given to library communication – but it also describes how a library engages its publics. So the question is: is that how publics engage libraries now? What is the library in the life of its given public now, and has it changed? I disavow a golden past, but there is considerable evidence that a broad and liberal (as in marked by generosity of experimentation) political public has John Buschman is Dean of University Libraries at Seton Hall University (john. buschman@shu.edu). Buschman is author of Dismantling the Public Sphere: Situating and Sustaining Libraries in the Age of the New Public Philosophy (2003). His most recent book is Libraries, Classrooms and the Interests of Democracy: Marking the Limits of Neoliberalism (2012). He holds an M.L.S. from Ball State, an M.A. in American Studies from St. Joseph’s University and a Doctor of Liberal Studies from Georgetown University. Keywords: neoliberalism, volunteerism, public sphere, libraries and society mailto:buschman@shu.edu 136 existed: a political consensus formed to invest in educational institutions in the 19th century and it was, after all, African Americans’ exclusion from schools and libraries – and segregated, substandard resources – that brought protest. Democracy and citizenship were once prime library and educational concerns. There were undercurrents of racism, sexism, and a distasteful normalization in these developments – Americanizing immigrants and other forms of social control – but the role of the library in the life of the public then was one of support and expansion of possibilities, opportunities, education, or just plain inexpensive leisure. Put simply, publics chose to build classrooms and libraries instead of other things with taxes and philanthropy. This is too broad a statement, but it contains enough of the kind of a “rough pragmatic resemblance to [the] reality”6 of the publics that then existed and it was successfully translated in political terms. So how have libraries’ publics changed? There is a broad scholarly consensus that we have lived for some time in a neoliberal age. Accounts of neoliberalism are largely critical, but its arguments “to let people have what they want, or to respect their freedom to choose” and to remove the “power to coerce … by removing the organization of economic activity from the control of political authority”7 were addressed to publics receptive to them. This means that neoliberalism8 isn’t purely done to the public, and the resulting effect on libraries’ relationship to its public is our focus. Neoliberal ideas have been translated in political terms: declining budget support, privatized alternatives supported at the public expense (like charter schools and vouchers), and responsibilizing citizens to advocate for their interests when engaging public services. Putnam9 has looked at thirty years of surveys and found a consistent pattern of declining membership and participation in groups and voluntary associations, a decline in time spent with friends and acquaintances, a decline in political participation and interest in politics and a corresponding decline in trust in political institutions, an increase in mobility – and therefore an increase in uprootedness, a declining parental presence in the home (more hours spent in paid work), and the ascendency of technologized and private forms of leisure during the times when people are together. These broad social patterns have clear relevance to the constitution of publics in the form of how people relate to each other via “trust and reciprocity [which are] crucial for social and political stability and cooperation.”10 These trends continue – especially in the fraying fabric of commonality and mutual respect and dependence that political problem-solving depends upon – as demonstrated by November 8 and more than two decades of political experience. Put simply, the long-term and persistent decline in social capital produces different publics – including those that interact with libraries. These two strands are connected: neoliberal practices, assumptions and policies erode the bases of social cohesion. Technology and neoliberal economic policies deeply affect the circumstances of and the constitution of publics: production efficiencies underwrite a highly unequal growth in wealth and consumerism, and a globalized neoliberal market culture uproots identities and communities producing polarized publics, making 137 democratic politics difficult. Stability of grouping and identity is assumed in a public that encounters a library, and right on cue, Inglehart has very recently plumbed his long-running data on postmaterialsm and found that “increasingly, high-income societies have winner-takes-all economies that tend [to produce an] overwhelming majority [with] precarious jobs [and as a result,] populist movements” on the left (fueled by inequality) and the right (fueled by “emotionally-charged cultural issues cutting across economic lines”), polarizing social and political environments.11 This is the broad sociology that characterizes the results of wide acceptance and ascendency of neoliberal economic, technological, social, and political policy arguments over a few decades. How then does this play out in a given public’s interactions with libraries? Some of the trends are well known. Funding – for materials and personnel – is, at best static, and at worst decreasing across all LIS sectors, with state-level public funds the most endangered. In a time of “constrained public dollars and political shifts … that call for smaller government,” libraries directly compete with other units for the same dollars – police, schools, and roads in municipalities, maintenance and teachers and public safety in educational settings. At the same time libraries are supposed to become “less about … checking out books and more about … engaging in the business of making … personal … identities. … Users may ‘customize’ the [library] platform … to their individual needs” and address trends such as the maker movement, the Internet of things, drones, fast casual and robots. If “the definition of the alternatives is the supreme instrument of power,”12 neoliberalism defines as alternative the public: that which is artificially insulated from the choices of consumers and bureaucratically centralized. Thus a public resource is undemocratic if a library’s public thinks of consumer choice as the equivalent of democratic choice. Likewise equity and equality are simply defined by how resources are deployed so that the basis of choices freely made are putatively neutral, ignoring the deficits of poverty or multiple jobs or health burdens or lack of insurance. The result is a library in the life of its public that, the thinking goes, should be paid for collectively but organized around private benefit. This represents a privatization of purpose of the library. Think of the rhetoric of “customer” service, or the coffee shop model to lure “customers.” Collectively this produces a change not just in spaces, but the meaning of spaces: institutions like the library are there to meet individual preferences and accommodate individual choices in the life of its public – a shift away from establishing and running an institution for the common good. These trends privilege a right of choice, but a public demanding these approaches from a library is itself now a particular slice of private interests. Library inclusion is thus another alternative defined by a neoliberal public in the life of the library: those in need are not a public in the life of the library. Returning to the practical definition of a library’s public as an analytical resource, we find some serious gaps. While present (individual) benefits are front and center, future consequences are sacrificed on the altar of the private, and common support for shared resources and services over time 138 are relegated to the status of alternative. The library is increasingly viewed as a private good in its publics’ lives: there is little evidence that they are communicating among themselves about the institution over future consequences or common support. It is worth pushing this logic a bit further. As a practical matter, a library is a large undertaking and fiscal support logically goes away when the private purpose is done with – and then returns with the need. How does the institution continue in those gaps? Libraries face, in short, a changed public whose support for institutions and public purposes – behind which lies an argument for a shared social good – has dwindled, and has accepted, at least to some degree and for the time being, the argument for individual choice over a collective set of goods – libraries among them. In conclusion, this is not simply a matter of setting up a definition that provides intellectual comfort to the LIS field and then complaining that the public is coloring outside the lines. We must come to grips with the contemporary reality that there is a deep hostility to collectivities within neoliberalism, and that includes libraries. Libraries may be a part of the educational and discursive infrastructure of a functioning democracy, but democracy’s and the library’s publics have become somewhat unmoored from that fact. Democratic politics is not necessarily valued for its own sake since popular sovereignty has too often expanded the state and interfered with the market in the neoliberal view, the ascendency of which was not in fact a mere matter of successful argumentation accepted by the public. Its rise was very much also a matter of corporate power, political deal-making, marketing and branding an idea, dissembling about its implications, and positioning the change as an inevitable wave of the future demanded by technology and economics which must be accommodated. The global does affect the local and the social, and has affected the library in the life of its publics at all levels. In the end, the picture is mixed. We have on the one hand a neoliberal argument that has become to an extent ingrained in our public life and discourse, and on the other longstanding and widespread discontent with the results. That shows up not only in the data, but in the Occupy movements, Slow Food, and the significant resistance to invasions of privacy by corporations and the NSA. Libraries are still held in high regard, but data also show that people worry that their local library will be closed, lessening their quality of life. Libraries face a public that has not reckoned with the economic, social, technological and political forces that have been unleashed, but the arguments and rhetoric in support of which they putatively agree. That is a big part of what November 8th tells us in my view. It is unsettled and de-centered public in whose lives the library plays a role, and this is perhaps the single most valuable lesson to carry forward. We do not want to wake up one day mindlessly catering to neoliberal choice ideologies and find ourselves with a public that has moved to the logical conclusion of these ideas – that it no longer has a place for libraries or has rediscovered its collective identity and finds an institution that no longer serves it. 139 Endnotes 1. This paper is adapted from two of my recent articles: Buschman, John. 2017a. “The Library in the Life of the Public: Implications of a Neoliberal Age.” Library Quarterly 87 (1): 55-70; and Buschman, John. 2017b. “November 8, 2016: Core Values, Bad Faith, and Democracy.” Library Quarterly 87 (3): 277-286. 2. See the sources and the account in Buschman 2017b, p. 279-281. 3. Rampell, Catherine. 2016. “Why the White Working Class Votes Against Itself.” Washington Post, December 22. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-white-working- class-votes-against-itself/2016/12/22/3aa65c04-c88b-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story. html?utm_term=.e723ba17a6cd. 4. In Buschman 2017a, p. 55, 5. See Buschman 2017a, p. 56-58. 6. Hofstadter in Buschman 2017a, p. 59-60. 7. Taylor and Friedman respectively in Buschman 2017a, p. 60; see also Buschman 2017b, p. 282-284. 8. One tally of neoliberalism’s deficits notes that “the market is insensitive to the distribution of income and wealth among … classes and geographical locations,” that “left to its own devices, the market does little to alleviate the burdens of the dislocations it induces [in the form of] the struggles of communities and regions [and their] declining economic sectors,” that “the market does little to ameliorate the tensions that women experience between workplace and family or to reduce persistent inequalities [or] discrimination,” that “the market does not achieve a self-regulating balance between consumption and investment [and] imperfect information[distorts market choice], externalities [are] not factored into … prices, [and there is] inadequate provision of public goods that undergird sustainable economic growth,” that the market will exhaust “global ‘carrying capacity’ [in] a rapacious and exploitative attitude toward nature” leading to ecological disaster, and that the market is indifferent to “the quality of human relationships it entails” along with the substantive quality of individual lives and work it engenders. See p. 37 of Galston, William A. 1993. “Political Theory in the 1980s: Perplexity Amidst Diversity.” In Political Science: The State of the Discipline II, edited by Ada W. Finifter, 27-53. Washington, DC: American Political Science Association. 9. In Buschman 2017a, p. 61. 10. Newton in Buschman 2017a, p. 61. 11. See p. 452 in Inglehart, Ronald and Pippa Norris. 2017. “Trump and the Populist Authoritarian Parties: The Silent Revolution in Reverse.” Perspectives on Politics 15 (2): 443-454. 12. Clark, et al. and Schattschneider respectively in Buschman 2017a, p. 62 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-white-working-class-votes-against-itself/2016/12/22/3aa65c04-c88b-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-white-working-class-votes-against-itself/2016/12/22/3aa65c04-c88b-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-white-working-class-votes-against-itself/2016/12/22/3aa65c04-c88b-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story 
www-publicbooks-org-5518	----	Trump Syllabus 2.0 | Public Books Trump Syllabus 2.0 a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Essays Interviews Sections View All Anthropology & Religion Art Borderlands Capitalism Digital Humanities Film Global Black History Higher Education Literary Fiction Literature in Translation Poetry Politics Print/Screen Sociology Sports Systems and Futures Technology TV Urbanism Videogames Series View All B-Sides The Book That Made Me Crisis Cities An Engineer Reads a Novel On Our Nightstands Public Streets Public Thinker Quizzical Shoptalk Syllabi Virtual Roundtables @X Partners Donate Facebook Twitter Instagram Trump Syllabus 2.0 An introduction to the currents of American culture that led to “Trumpism” 6.28.2016 Syllabi On June 19th, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a web version of a mock college syllabus that sought to explore the deep historical and political roots of Donald Trump’s political success ... By N. D. B. Connolly & Keisha N. Blain On June 19th, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a web version of a mock college syllabus that sought to explore the deep historical and political roots of Donald Trump’s political success during the 2016 Presidential campaign. The syllabus suffered from a number of egregious omissions and inaccuracies, including its failures to include contributions of scholars of color and address the critical subjects of racism, sexism, and xenophobia on which Trump has built his candidacy. In May 2016, Donald Trump became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for President of the United States. Not since Barry Goldwater’s 1964 bid has a major political party produced so polarizing a candidate. Many, including Trump himself, attributed the campaign’s success to factors unique to Trump, like his wealth, his celebrity, and his professed aversion for “political correctness.” Trump’s political ascendancy came, however, as his personal fortunes did: through inheritance. This course, assembled by historians N. D. B. Connolly and Keisha N. Blain, includes suggested readings and other resources from more than one hundred scholars in a variety of disciplines. The course explores Donald Trump’s rise as a product of the American lineage of racism, sexism, nativism, and imperialism. It offers an introduction to the deep currents of American political culture that produced what many simply call “Trumpism”: personal and political gain marred by intolerance, derived from wealth, and rooted in the history of segregation, sexism, and exploitation. Photograph by Gage Skidmore / Flickr The readings below introduce observers to the past and present conditions that allowed Trump to seize electoral control of a major American political party. By extension, this syllabus acknowledges the intersectional nature of power and politics. The course emphasizes the ways that cultural capital like Trump’s grows best under certain socioeconomic conditions. Trump’s open advocacy for race-based exclusion and politically motivated violence on matters both foreign and domestic cannot be separated from the historical and day-to-day inequalities endured by people of color, women, and religious minorities living in or migrating to the United States. Concerned less with Trump as a man than with “Trumpism” as a product of history, this course interrogates the connections between wealth, violence, and politics. The weekly readings are organized by themes captured by Trump’s own statements on the campaign trail during the 2016 presidential election. The syllabus is built for flexibility. The recommended books may be used in whole or in part. Primary sources can work under one theme or across weeks. A collection of assignments to accompany this syllabus appears on the website of the African American Intellectual History Society—with the contributing faculty member’s name provided for attribution. WEEK 1: “Trumpism’s” Antecedents “Let’s make America great again.” —Ronald Reagan   Secondary Readings Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression (Knopf, 1982). Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (Simon & Schuster, 1995). Stephen D. Kantrowitz, Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy (University of North Carolina Press, 2000). Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (Oxford University Press, 2007). Sean Wilentz, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 (Harper, 2008). Christopher S. Parker and Matt A. Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton University Press, 2013). Philip Bump, “In 1927, Donald Trump’s Father was Arrested After a Klan Riot in Queens,” Washington Post, February 29, 2016. Primary Sources and Multimedia Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” speech, July 5, 1852. George Wallace, “1963 Inaugural Address as Governor of Alabama,” speech, January 14, 1964. Barry Goldwater, “Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice,” speech, July 16, 1964. Richard Nixon, “Silent Majority Speech,” speech, November 3, 1969. Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, directed by Stefan Forbes (Interpositive Media, 2008). Photograph by Evan Guest / Flickr   WEEK 2: White Power and Plausible Deniability “I don’t know what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. I don’t know.”   Secondary Readings W. E. B. Du Bois, “The White Worker,” and “The Counter-Revolution of Property,” Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (Russel & Russel, 1935). Edmund S. Morgan, “Toward Racism,” in American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (Norton, 1975). Nancy MacLean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan (Oxford University Press, 1995). Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Color Blindness, History, and the Law,” in The House that Race Built: Black Americans, US Terrain, edited by Wahneema Lubiano (Pantheon, 1997). Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Lynne Rienner, 2001). Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth About our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury, 2016). Primary Sources and Multimedia American History X, directed by Tony Kaye (New Line Cinema, 1998). Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream, directed by Alex Gibney (PBS, 2012). WEEK 3: Blackness and Right-Wing Multiculturalism “Look at my African American over here! … Are you the greatest?”   Secondary Readings Stuart Hall, “Race, Articulation and Societies Structured in Dominance,” in Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism (Unesco, 1980). Manning Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society (South End Press, 1983). Ian Haney Lopez, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class (Oxford University Press, 2014). Leah Wright Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power (Princeton University Press, 2015). Angela Davis, Frank Barat, and Cornel West, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (Haymarket, 2016). Primary Sources and Multimedia Ben Smith and Byron Tau, “Birtherism: Where it All Began,” Politico, April 22, 2011. James Baldwin, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” in The Fire Next Time (Dial Press, 1963). The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, 1954–1990, edited by Clayborne Carson, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, Vincent Harding, and Darlene Clark Hine (Penguin, 1991). Race: the Power of An Illusion, directed by Christine Herbes-Sommers, Tracy Heather Strain, and  Llewellyn M. Smith (California Newsreel, 2003). WEEK 4: Immigration Policies and the Rise of Islamophobia “A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”   Secondary Readings Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton University Press, 2004). Leti Volpp, “The Citizen and the Terrorist,” UCLA Law Review, vol. 49, no. 5 (2001–2002), pp. 1575–91. Jonathan Hafetz, Habeas Corpus after 9/11: Confronting America’s New Global Detention System (NYU Press, 2011). Amaney A. Jamal and Nadine Christine Naber, Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects (Syracuse University Press, 2008). Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (Penguin, 2009) Douglas Cox and Ramzi Kassem, “Off the Record: The National Security Council, Drone Killings, and Historical Accountability,” Yale Journal on Regulation, vol. 31, no. 2 (2014): pp. 363–400. Primary Sources and Multimedia “A Guide to the Memos on Torture,” New York Times, June 25, 2004. Aziz Ansari, “Why Trump Makes Me Scared for My Family,” New York Times, June 24, 2016. WEEK 5: Illusions of National Security “I will build a great wall …”   Secondary Readings Alexander Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California (University of California Press, 1971). William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 (Oxford University Press, 2013). Kelly Lytle Hernández, Migra!: A History of the US Border Patrol (University of California Press, 2010). Ana Elizabeth Rosas, Abrazando el Espíritu: Bracero Families Confront the US- Mexico Border (2014). Francisco Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez, Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, rev. ed. (University of New Mexico Press, 2006 [1995]). Sarah Mahler, American Dreaming: Immigrant Life on the Margins (Princeton University Press, 1995). Primary Sources and Multimedia Theodore Schleifer, “Trump Defends Criticism of Judge with Mexican Heritage,” CNN, June 5, 2016. Photograph by Johnny Silvercloud / Flickr   WEEK 6: On Mexicans and Mexican-Americans “… And I will make Mexico pay for that wall.”   Secondary Readings George Sánchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945 (Oxford University Press, 1993). David Gutierrez, Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity (University of California Press, 1995). Vicki L. Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (2008 [1998]). Otto Santa Ana, Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse (University of Texas Press, 2002). Geraldo Cadava, Standing on Common Ground: The Making of a Sunbelt Borderland (Harvard University Press, 2013). Greg Grandin, “Why Trump Now? It’s the Empire, Stupid,” The Nation, June 9, 2016. Primary Sources and Multimedia Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, directed by Hector Galan (NLCC Educational Media, 1996). WEEK 7: Misogyny, Sexism, and Shaming the Female Body “Blood coming out of her … wherever”   Secondary Readings Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (Vintage, 1981). The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance and Behavior, edited by Rose Weitz (Oxford University Press, 1998). Janice Delany, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth, The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation (Dutton, 1976). Sheila Jeffreys, Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (Routledge, 2005). The Female Face of Shame, edited by Erica L. Johnson and Patricia Moran (Indiana University Press, 2013). Karen Tumulty, “Trump’s History of Flippant Misogyny,” Washington Post, August 8, 2015. Primary Sources and Multimedia Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” in Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, edited by Beverly Guy-Sheftall (Norton, 1995). Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture, directed by Thomas Keith (Cinema Politica, 2008). WEEK 8: Violence, Authoritarianism, and Masculinity “I’d like to punch him in the face.”   Secondary Readings Stuart Hall, “Authoritarian Populism: A Reply to Jessop et Al.” New Left Review, no. 151 (1985). Michael S. Kimmel, “The Cult of Masculinity: American Social Character and the Legacy of the Cowboy” in Beyond Patriarchy: Essays By Men on Pleasure, Power, and Change (Oxford, 1987). Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (Atheneum, 1992). Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Race and Gender in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 1995). David Rosen, “Donald Trump and the Crisis of Masculinity,” CounterPunch, February 26, 2016. Amanda Taub, “The Rise of American Authoritarianism,” Vox, March 1, 2016. Primary Sources and Multimedia Ida B. Wells, The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader (Penguin, 2014). Ta-Nehisi Coates, “On Homecomings,” The Atlantic, May 9, 2016. Selections from Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence, edited by Chad Williams, Kidada Williams and Keisha N. Blain (University of Georgia Press, 2016). WEEK 9: Racial Double Standards under Mass Incarceration “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”   Secondary Readings Neil Smith, The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City (Routledge, 1996). Khalil Gibran Muhammad, “Where Did All the White Criminals Go?: Reconfiguring Race and Crime on the Road to Mass Incarceration,” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 72–90. Elizabeth Kai Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (Harvard University Press, 2016). Steven Thrasher, “A Black Body on Trial: The Conviction of HIV-Positive ‘Tiger Mandingo,'” BuzzFeed, November 30, 2015. Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy (Pantheon, 2016). Primary Sources and Multimedia The Central Park 5, directed by Ken Burns (Florentine Films, 2013). Donald Trump, “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!,” New York Post, May 1, 1989. Accessed in Oliver Laughland, “Donald Trump and the Central Park Five: The Racially Charged Rise of a Demagogue,” The Guardian, February 17, 2016. Photograph by Gage Skidmore / Flickr WEEK 10: Racism, Real Estate, and the Strange Career of Trump’s Wealth  “I’ve never lost in my life.”   Secondary Readings Harry Hurt III, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump (Norton, 1993). David M. P. Freund, “Marketing the Free Market: State Intervention and the Politics of Prosperity in Metropolitan America,” in The New Suburban History, edited by Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue (University of Chicago Press, 2006), pp. 11–32. Kim Moody, From Welfare State to Real Estate: Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present (New Press, 2007). David Graham, “The Lie of Trump’s Self-Funding’ Campaign,” The Atlantic, May 13, 2016. Bryant Simon, Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (Oxford University Press, 2004). Primary Sources and Multimedia US Riot Commission, “The Kerner Report,” in Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders(Bantam, 1968), pp. 1–29. Bowery Boys. A Short History of Trump: The Roots of Donald’s Wealth, from Quiet Queens Beginnings to Glitzy Midtown Excess, podcast audio, The Bowery Boys: New York City History, 22:3, April 29, 2011. Michael Fletcher, “A Shattered Foundation,” Washington Post, January 24, 2015. WEEK 11: American Fables, Indigenous History “Who’s that, the Indian?”   Secondary Readings Native American Voices: A Reader, edited by Susan Lobo and Steve Talbot (Pearson Education, 2001). Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2004). Philip J. Deloria, Indians in Unexpected Places (University Press of Kansas, 2004). Reading Native American Women: Critical/Creative Representations, edited by Inés Hernández-Avila (Altamira Press, 2005). Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West (Harvard University Press, 2006). Gord Hill, 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance (PM Press, 2009). Primary Sources and Multimedia “Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee,” in The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1891, vol. 1, pp. 179–181. Ramon Roubideaux, interview by Joseph H. Cash, “‘It Set the Indian Aside as a Problem’: A Sioux Attorney Criticizes the Indian Reorganization Act,” Institute of American Indian Studies, South Dakota Oral History Center (University of South Dakota: 1934). Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment, database, Alexander Street (n.d.). WEEK 12: Disability and Disability Culture in America “What he looks like is his level of intelligence.”   Secondary Readings Joseph P. Shapiro, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement (Ballantine, 1994). Susan Wendell, The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability (Routledge, 1996). Eli Clare, “Stolen Bodies, Reclaimed Bodies: Disability and Queerness,” Public Culture, vol. 13, no. 3 (2001), pp. 359–66. Rabia Belt, “Contemporary Voting Rights Controversies through the Lens of Disability,” Stanford Law Review, vol. 68 (2016), pp. 1491–1523. Understanding Disability: Inclusion, Access, Diversity, and Civil Rights, edited by Paul T. Jaegar and Cynthia Ann Bowman (Praeger Publishers, 2005). Blackness and Disability: Critical Examinations and Cultural Interventions, edited by Christopher M. Bell (Michigan State University Press, 2011). Primary Sources and Multimedia It’s Our Story: Of, By and For … People with Abilities, YouTube channel, posted by It’s Our Story, 2010. Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement, database, The Regents of the University of California, July 14, 2004. WEEK 13: Sexuality and LGBTQ Rights “I’ll overturn the shocking gay marriage decision.”   Secondary Readings George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940 (Basic, 1994). Barbara Perry, “Doing Gender and Doing Gender Inappropriately: Violence Against Women, Gay Men, and Lesbians” in In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes (Routledge, 2001). Cathy J. Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” in Sexual Identities, Queer Politics, edited by Mark Blasius (Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 200–228. Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (Princeton University Press, 2009). Horacio N. Roque Ramírez, “‘That’s My Place!’: Negotiating Racial, Sexual, and Gender Politics in San Francisco’s Gay Latino Alliance, 1975–1983,” Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 12, no. 2 (2003), pp. -258. Kenji Yoshino, Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial (Crown, 2015). Primary Sources and Multimedia Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech. “Loving v. Virginia, 388 US 1 (1967),” Oyez. Daughters of Bilitis, “Statement of Purpose,” The Ladder, vol. 1 (1956). Audre Lorde, I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities, (Women of Color Press, 1980). Thomas B. Stoddard, “Why Gay People Should Seek the Right to Marry” (1989) in We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics, edited by Mark Blasius and Shane Phelan (Routledge, 1997), pp. 753–6. How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France (Public Square Films, 2013). WEEK 14: Trump’s GOP Takeover, Contextualized “The Republicans … have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but … I think I’m going to be forced to.”   Secondary Readings Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press, 2013). Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Guilford Publications, 2000). Jeffrey A. Winters, Oligarchy (Cambridge University Press, 2011). Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore and Thomas J. Sugrue, “The New Gilded Age, 1980–2000” in These United States: A Nation in the Making, 1890 to the Present (Norton, 2015), pp. 536-88. Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore and Thomas J. Sugrue, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall, Since 2000,” in These United States: A Nation in the Making, 1890 to the Present (Norton, 2015), pp. 589-626. National Review Symposium, “Conservatives Against Trump,” National Review, January 21, 2016. Brent Staples, “Donald Trump and Reconstruction-Era Politics,” New York Times, March 3, 2016. Primary Sources and Multimedia “Donald Trump: ‘I Don’t Want to Be President’—Entire 1987 CNN Interview (Larry King Live),” YouTube video, posted by CNN, May 9, 2016. “Confessions of a Republican (LBJ 1964 Presidential Campaign Commercial) VTR 4568-26,” YouTube video, posted by TheLBJLibrary, July 9, 2014. “Mitt Romney’s Full Speech Against Donald Trump” New York Times video, 17:09, posted by the Associated Press, March 3, 2016. Chris Deaton, “Kristol Explains ‘Never Trump’ Argument,” The Weekly Standard, March 19, 2016. Paul Ryan, “On the State of American Politics,” speech, March 23, 2016. WEEK 15: History in Trump’s America “Make America great again.” —Donald Trump   Secondary Readings Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (Basic, 1992). Wendy L. Wall, Inventing the “American Way”: the Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement (Oxford University Press, 2008). Aziz Rana, The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press, 2010). Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (Haymarket, 2016). Geoff Eley, “Fascism Then and Now,” Socialist Register vol. 52 (2016), pp. 91–117. Primary Sources and Multimedia “Trump 101,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 19, 2016. N. D. B. Connolly, et al., letter to the editor, “‘Trump Syllabus’ Is as White as the Man Himself,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2016. The authors wish to thank the over one hundred scholars who contributed titles for consideration in this project. Chad Williams, Leah Wright Rigueur, Stephen G. Hall, Caitlin M. Zaloom, and Sharon Marcus deserve special thanks for their editorial assistance. We also thank the editorial team at the Chronicle of Higher Education for inspiring and later supporting this project.  Featured image: Photograph by Tony Webster / Flickr American Studies Education Gender Politics Race Racism Syllabus Next Article Earnestine & Hazel’s in Memphis: A Place Known... By Brandy T. Wilson You Might Also Like Essays India in COVID-19: A Tragedy Foretold By Marine Al Dahdah et al. Essays More Mobility, More Problems By Shaun Ossei-Owusu Essays Political Life in the Age of Catastrophe By Davide Panagia Essays What Does Assimilation Mean? By Catherine S. Ramírez Essays B-Sides: Natalia Ginzburg’s “The Dry Heart” By Merve Emre Essays The Kardashians’ Multiracial White Supremacy By Ren Ellis Neyra Get Our Weekly Newsletter Most Viewed Does Chernobyl Still Matter? Whose Brooklyn? B-Sides: Graham Greene’s “Stamboul Train” Emily Dickinson, “The Greatest Freak of Them All”? Naomi Oreskes: Feminist Science Is Better Science Subscribe to RSS Editors’ Pick Preexisting Conditions: What 2020 Reveals about Our Urban Future Thomas J. Sugrue 11.16.2020 About Authors Submissions Advertise Events Contact Facebook Twitter Instagram Keep Updated:  © 2020 Public Books.TM All Rights Reserved 
www-splcenter-org-2341	----	Garrett Hardin | Southern Poverty Law Center Skip to main content Google Tag Manager Search splcenter.org Donate Menu Resources Features and Stories Extremist Files Hatewatch Case Docket Intelligence Report Publications Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative Law Enforcement In Memoriam Resources Roll Call Videos What We Do Fighting Hate Extremist Files Hate Map Teaching Tolerance Seeking Justice Civil Rights Memorial Civil Rights Martyrs History The Forgotten Wall of Tolerance Information for Visitors Our Issues Hate & Extremism Children's Rights Immigrant Justice Family Separation Rights of Asylum Seekers Local Policing and Immigration Enforcement Guest Workers Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative LGBTQ Rights Conversion Therapy LGBTQ Youth Rights Economic Justice Request for Legal Assistance — Economic Justice Criminal Justice Reform Voting Rights Voting Rights - AL Voting Rights - FL Voting Rights - GA Voting Rights - LA Voting Rights - MS Hatewatch Hate Map Podcast Donate Search Instagram Facebook Twitter About Us Press Center Ways to Give Donate Search splcenter.org Search Garrett Hardin Garrett Hardin was a prolific and controversial writer whose 1968 article “The Tragedy of the Commons” launched him onto the national stage as one of the intellectual leaders of the environmental movement. Extremist Info Born 1915 Died 2003 Group Federation for American Immigration Reform The Social Contract Press Ideology White Nationalist About Garrett Hardin Hardin used his status as a famous scientist and environmentalist to provide a veneer of intellectual and moral legitimacy for his underlying nativist agenda, serving on the board of directors of both the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform and the white-nationalist Social Contract Press. He also co-founded the anti-immigrant Californians for Population Stabilization and The Environmental Fund, which primarily served to lobby Congress for nativist and isolationist policies. In his own words: "Promoters of more diversity maintain that the more immigrants the better; and the greater the variety the richer America will become. Many of these promoters are ‘Europhobic' — fearful of, or revolted by, European civilization and values. They say we should stop taking in North Europeans, urging us instead to solicit the Filipinos, the Taiwanese and the Salvadorans… . Diversity is the opposite of unity, and unity is a prime requirement for national survival.” —“How Diversity Should be Nurtured,” The Social Contract, 1991 “During the first part of the 20th century, immigration to the United States was biased to favor those who were most like the people who created this legal entity — the northern Europeans. … Then popular anthropology came along with its dogma that all cultures are equally good and valuable. To say otherwise was to be narrow-minded and prejudiced, to be guilty of the sin of ethnocentrism… . That which was foreign and strange, particularly if persecuted, became the ideal. Black became beautiful, and prolonged bilingual education replaced naturalization.” —“Conspicuous Benevolence and the Population Bomb,” Chronicles, 1991 “The Ford Foundation (and other organizations financed by American money) have allotted many millions of dollars to nondemocratic Latino organizations that are determined to revise the political structure of the United States. … We have no reason to suppose that suicidal political organizations will never succeed in creating a chaotic NorteAmericano Central. The human species may not self-destruct; but what we like to call ‘human civilization’ may.” —“The Persistence of the Species,” Politics and the Life Sciences, 1999 “My position is that this idea of a multiethnic society is a disaster. That's what we've got in Central Europe, and in Central Africa. A multiethnic society is insanity. I think we should restrict immigration for that reason.” —Interview with The Social Contract, 1997 Background: For almost 60 years, Garrett Hardin used his authority as a respected, if controversial, ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to integrate nativist attitudes towards race and immigration into the American environmentalist movement. He portrayed overpopulation as an existential threat, and based many of his arguments on racist, pseudo-scientific assertions about immigrants’ fertility rates. Supported by grants from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation dedicated to the promotion of racist pseudo-science, Hardin prophesied a total collapse of civilization if immigration, particularly non-white immigration, was allowed to continue unabated. He worked within both academic and activist circles to make immigration an environmental issue by convincing the public that impending environmental disaster could only be averted by sealing the borders, cutting off relief efforts and foreign aid to poor nations, and working to purge as much ethnic and cultural diversity from the United States as possible. Hardin wrote for two very different audiences over the course of his career. His scientific publications targeted the educated public, and in them he worked to establish immigration as a plausible ecological threat while loudly disavowing any racist intent. At the same time, however, Hardin also published numerous articles in far-right publications, including The Social Contract, a nativist magazine founded by anti-immigration activist John Tanton and edited by Wayne Lutton, and Chronicles, a far-right magazine controversial even among conservatives for its racism and anti-Semitism. In these venues, he insisted that the United States and northern Europe were in danger of being overrun by non-white hordes, especially Latinos and Muslims. He framed these views in terms of ethnic struggle, claiming that “there are two forms [of genocide]. Active genocide is the sort one first thinks of — Hitler killing six million Jews. But there is another form — more subtle, less obvious, but potentially equally effective — that we may call passive genocide. The way this works was recently revealed in … remarks by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament… Translated bluntly, ‘We Muslims are going to outbreed you.’ … If two cultures compete for the same bit of ‘turf’ (environment), and if one of the populations increases faster than the other, then year by year, the population that is reproducing faster will increasingly outnumber the slower one. … This is passive genocide.” Hardin used the specter of environmental destruction and ethnic conflict to promote policies that can be fairly described as fascist. Concerned that ethnic solidarity would lead minorities in the United States to liberalize immigration policy, Hardin argued that “[t]he double question Who benefits? Who pays?suggests that a restriction of the usual democratic franchise would be appropriate and just in this case.” Moreover, he regularly insisted that to prevent catastrophe, American culture would have to adopt radically new values, especially regarding reproductive freedoms. In 1963, Hardin began publicly advocating for women’s reproductive rights. With the 1968 publication of “The Tragedy of the Commons,” however, he began calling for the United States to reject the UN Declaration of Human Rights, explicitly arguing that the government should adopt coercive measures to prevent women (especially, as he argued elsewhere, non-white women) from reproducing. According to Hardin, certain racial groups have “adopt[ed] overbreeding as a policy to secure [their] own aggrandizement,” and because of this, he argued, “the freedom to breed is intolerable.” Hardin was generally coy about what coercive measures he had in mind to prevent the “wrong” people from breeding, although in various outlets he praised China’s one-child policy and suggested that forcible sterilization was a viable option. In later interviews, he admitted that he used the rhetoric of women’s rights to cloak his true interest in abortion and sterilization, because “[t]o mention abortion's effect on population growth would be to arouse the suspicion that I was a nasty Nazi.” Unsurprisingly, Hardin evinced a lifelong interest in eugenics and racial differences. He fiercely denounced the “equalitarians” who pointed out that there was no evidence to support his racist beliefs in the intellectual, psychological, and moral inferiority of nonwhites. Hardin was one of 52 signatories to Linda Gottfredson’s infamous 1994 Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Mainstream Science on Intelligence,” which claimed, among other things, that the average IQ among the black population was only 85, and that the average black 17-year-old was the mental equivalent of the average white 13-year-old. His beliefs about black intellectual inferiority take on even darker connotations when laid alongside his assertion in an undergraduate biology textbook that “[t]here seems to be little danger of society’s being deprived of something valuable by the sterilization of all feeble-minded individuals.” Demonstrating definitively that his concern with overpopulation was primarily a cover for his racist ideology, Hardin opposed groups like Zero Population Growth, which encouraged their primarily white membership to remain child-free. Richard Lynn, another signatory of “Mainstream Science on Intelligence” and noted purveyor of racist psychological theories, praised Hardin for his willingness to argue “that this would be dysgenic because the peoples of the first world are more intelligent than those in the third world.” Hardin’s interest in curtailing both the immigration and reproduction of ethnic minorities in the United States was part of a broader program of white separatism. Hardin usually obfuscated this stance in mainstream publications; however, in 1990 he gave an interview to Californians for Population Stabilization, an anti-immigrant organization he co-founded. In this interview, he laid out his belief that nations should be segregated along ethnic and religious lines, arguing that “we will have the greatest success if the diversity is spatially isolated to a considerable extent; that is, if you get inside of one nation equal proportions of all the world’s cultures, all the world’s ethnic groups, all the world’s religions, you will have such a mixture that there’ll be nothing but internal warfare, and it’ll be absolutely dreadful.” When asked if he was advocating for segregation, he responded, “Segregat[ion] by nation, not by neighborhoods within a nation. See, that’s a different thing; the same word, segregation, but if we segregate by nations, then peace is possible.” Hardin’s anti-immigrant rhetoric often revolved around his belief that immigrants came to the United States in order to steal the wealth and privilege that they, and the cultures they came from, were incapable of providing for themselves. From this starting point, he argued that not only was immigration intolerable, but that foreign aid, particularly disaster relief, was allowing poor nations to live beyond their means, and should thus be cut off. The Environmental Fund, which was founded by Hardin and funded by Cordelia Scaife May, right-wing activist and heiress to the Mellon-Scaife fortune, lobbied against P.L. 480, the “Food for Peace” program that sells heavily subsidized surplus grain to famine-stricken nations. While unsuccessful at having it repealed, he took credit for convincing Congress to let the program “wither on the vine,” calling this “success” the Fund’s hallmark achievement. Hardin’s opposition to famine relief made his opposition to immigration even more striking. He singled out refugees in a number of his writings, portraying them as greedy freeloaders. One of his favorite rhetorical tactics was to describe nations as lifeboats, each with severely limited resources. Because of these limitations, it was morally acceptable to forbid any more people from boarding a lifeboat that was close to capacity, and in some cases it would even be acceptable to throw existing residents “overboard.” In his controversial 1974 essay, “Living on a Lifeboat,” Hardin portrayed refugees as cynically choosing to “fall out of their lifeboats and swim for a while in the water outside, hoping to be admitted to a rich lifeboat, or in some other way to benefit from the ‘goodies’ on board.” Ironically, he acknowledged that white Americans had no good moral claim to their own “goodies,” but when asked if the land their wealth was built on should be given back to the native population from whom it had been stolen, he said “[a]s an exercise in pure logic, I see no way to reject this proposal. Yet I am unwilling to live by it. … Suppose, becoming intoxicated with pure justice, we ‘Anglos’ should decide to turn our land over to the Indians… Then what would we non-Indians do? Where would we go?” Yet anyone asking the same question about nonwhite refugees was not only “irrational,” but “suicidal.” Despite all this, Hardin is still taken seriously as a scientific and environmental thinker by the broader educated public. Excerpted portions of “The Tragedy of the Commons,” in addition to being assigned in countless college courses, were included in The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, edited by Richard Dawkins, and American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau, edited by Bill McKibben with an introduction by Al Gore, both published in 2008. After his suicide in 2003, The New York Times published an obituary of Hardin in which its strongest criticism was simply that he “saw his harsh message on overpopulation as a form of tough love.” Over the course of his career, Hardin wrote 27 books and over 350 articles, many of which were frank in their racism and quasi-fascist ethnonationalism. Nevertheless, whenever Hardin’s views are presented to the public, the white nationalism that unified his thought is invariably glossed over. In general, the only places to find open discussions of the entirety of Hardin’s thought are on white supremacist websites, where he is celebrated as a hero. Articles and comments on VDARE.com, stormfront.org, and The Occidental Quarterly, not to mention publications Hardin personally contributed to like The Social Contract and Chronicles, recognize Hardin as one of the intellectual pillars of modern scientific racism and white separatism. After his death, John Tanton and Wayne Lutton founded the Garrett Hardin Society to continue Hardin’s mission of transforming environmentalism into a weapon to use against immigrants, minorities and poor nations. 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www-theatlantic-com-4541	----	America's Declining Investment in Higher Education - The Atlantic Skip to content Sign in My Account Subscribe Quick Links Dear Therapist Crossword Puzzle Manage Subscription Popular Latest Sections Politics Ideas Photo Science Culture Podcasts Health Education Planet Technology Family Projects Business Global Events Books Fiction Newsletter The Atlantic Crossword Play Crossword The Print Edition Latest Issue Past Issues Give a Gift Search The Atlantic Quick Links Dear Therapist Crossword Puzzle Manage Subscription Popular Latest Sign In My Account Subscribe Politics American Higher Education Hits a Dangerous Milestone As younger generations become more racially diverse, many states are allocating fewer tax dollars to public colleges and universities. Ronald Brownstein May 3, 2018 A student walks by the library at the Georgia State University campus in Atlanta. David Goldman / AP Link Copied Drawing almost no attention, the nation crossed an ominous milestone last year that threatens more economic polarization and social division: For the first time, public colleges and universities in most states received most of their revenue from tuition rather than government appropriations. This historic shift away from tax dollars funding the bulk of public higher education comes precisely as the nation’s youth population is crossing a succession of milestones to become more racially diverse than ever. As statisticians would say, it’s an open question whether these twin trends represent an example of causation or just correlation. But whether resources are shrinking because diversity is growing, or the two trends are proceeding independently, their convergence is still a dangerous development—not only for higher education, but also for the nation’s economic future. More diversity among students means higher education is drawing more deeply on those who have faced economic and academic inequities that reduce their odds of success. And yet the taxpayer resources that public institutions are receiving to guide them to completion are diminishing. That’s a recipe for widening economic inequality and declining national competitiveness, as kids of color comprise a growing share of the future workforce and tax base. Over the past several decades, demographic and financial changes have already profoundly reshaped the higher-education landscape. As recently as 2000, white kids comprised over three-fifths of all K-12 public-school students in the United States. But the National Center for Educational Statistics calculates that kids of color became the majority for the first time in 2014, and it projects their share will reach 55 percent within a decade. By June 2025, kids of color will, for the first time, comprise the majority of high-school graduates, the center recently projected. And soon after 2030, minorities—who represented just 30 percent of post-secondary students as recently as 2000 and constitute almost 40 percent now—are expected to become the majority on college campuses, too. Yet as this transformation has unfolded, states have notably retrenched their support for public higher education. The latest annual survey of state spending by the State Higher Education Executive Officers found that, since 1992, spending per student—measured in inflation-adjusted dollars—has declined at public colleges and universities by about 8 percent (even after a recovery in spending after states’ low point in 2012). In turn, per-student tuition revenue has increased by 96 percent. The result has been an enormous shift in cost from the public collectively to parents and students individually. In 1992, tuition accounted for slightly less than three-tenths of the total educational revenue for public colleges and universities. But by 2017, tuition supplied nearly half of the total revenue. In 28 states last year, tuition provided more revenue than public appropriations, SHEEO found. That was the first time a majority of states funded post-secondary education mostly through tuition. Over this long transition, neither red nor blue states have covered themselves in glory. But the biggest cutbacks in support have often occurred in states that combine large levels of racial diversity with governments that have been usually (or entirely) controlled by Republicans who rely preponderantly on white voters. According to the SHEEO report, since the recession in 2008, per-student appropriations for public higher education have declined by around one-sixth in Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina; by over one-fifth in Florida and Mississippi; by over one-fourth in South Carolina; by about one-third in Nevada and Alabama; and by over two-fifths in Arizona and Louisiana. [Readers respond: Why Is State Funding for Public Universities Declining?] Some Democrat-leaning states have also implemented big cuts in per-pupil support over that period, including Connecticut, Delaware, and Colorado. But the biggest blue states present some notable exceptions to this pattern. New York, Illinois, and California have all increased per-student spending since 2008; and Oregon, Hawaii, and Maryland have held spending almost steady. The states that now rely most on tuition to fund public higher education are a mélange of red, blue, and purple places, and in most cases their spending seems to reflect their respective traditions over how to apportion costs between parents and taxpayers. But there have been revealing changes in recent years: Previously unpublished data provided to The Atlantic by SHEEO show that it is primarily Republican-controlled states that have shifted responsibility most rapidly from tax resources to tuition since the 2008 recession. Louisiana, Arizona, Alabama, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina top that list. Small-government ideology undoubtedly explains part of this shift. But more academic leaders are openly questioning whether other motivations are contributing to it, too. Michael Sorrell, the dynamic and innovative president of Paul Quinn College, a historically black college in Dallas, is one of them. “There’s an argument to be made that part of the reason we see a reduction in support is because the legislators are looking at the students and not seeing themselves,” he told me at an Atlantic education-policy summit this week. “Listen, it could be an unlikely happenstance that people are reducing the support of public education when the students are increasingly diverse and increasingly low-income. Maybe.” If Sorrell is right, the irony—and tragedy—is that this cost shift threatens the economic security of not only younger minority families, but also older whites, who will depend on an increasingly nonwhite workforce to pay the taxes that fund their Social Security and Medicare in the years ahead. Nowhere is the interdependence of “the brown and the gray” more apparent than in the need to equip more kids of color with the education to reach the middle class. And yet nowhere is the nation more conspicuously failing to recognize its shared destiny than in the states’ faltering commitment to public higher education. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. Ronald Brownstein is a senior editor at The Atlantic. Connect Twitter About Our History Staff Careers Contact Help Center Contact Us Atlantic Brand Partners Press Podcasts Social Distance™ Floodlines The Ticket: Politics from The Atlantic Crazy/Genius Subscription Purchase Give a Gift Manage Subscription Download iOS App Newsletters Follow Privacy Policy Do Not Sell My Personal Information Advertising Guidelines Terms Conditions Responsible Disclosure Site Map TheAtlantic.com Copyright (c) 2020 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved. 
www-theguardian-com-3106	----	‘Impostor syndrome’ is a pseudo-medical name for a class problem | Class issues | The Guardian US edition US edition UK edition Australian edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home Search jobs Sign inSearch News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle ShowMoreShow More News US news Elections 2020 World news Environment Soccer US politics Business Tech Science Newsletters Opinion The Guardian view Columnists Letters Opinion videos Cartoons Sport Soccer NFL Tennis MLB MLS NBA NHL Culture Film Books Music Art & design TV & radio Stage Classical Games Lifestyle Fashion Food Recipes Love & sex Home & garden Health & fitness Family Travel Money Make a contribution Subscribe Search jobs Digital Archive Guardian Puzzles app The Guardian app Video Podcasts Pictures Inside the Guardian Guardian Weekly Crosswords Search jobs Digital Archive Guardian Puzzles app The Guardian view Columnists Letters Opinion videos Cartoons OpinionClass issues This article is more than 1 year old ‘Impostor syndrome’ is a pseudo-medical name for a class problem Nathalie Olah This article is more than 1 year old Let’s stop using this shifty term. It just encourages people to blame themselves for deep structural unfairness Two thirds of Boris Johnson’s cabinet were privately educated. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Two thirds of Boris Johnson’s cabinet were privately educated. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Wed 16 Oct 2019 02.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Oct 2019 14.17 EDT The term “impostor syndrome” has enjoyed a lot of airtime in recent years, yet it’s always troubled me. One person who I’m sure has never suffered from it is Boris Johnson. Between fortifying racists and humiliating our country on a daily basis, I’ll admit that there aren’t many positives to be taken from his shambolic premiership. But one thing it has done is finally shatter any illusion that many of today’s politicians – and by extension business leaders, media executives and even lawyers – are there on merit. I’ve got a radical idea that instead of focusing on the symptoms of poor mental health, as we so often do, we should begin to look at some of the causes, starting with the assumption that those in power got there entirely under their own steam, and that millions still struggle to make ends meet because of their own personal failings. Is Impostor Syndrome just for women? There are some men I can think of... | Catherine Bennett Read more Watching a leader such as Johnson bumble his way from one disaster to the next should make us all deeply sceptical about this idea of social mobility. Not only does the concept necessarily create losers, but it also neglects to mention the elusive, middle-class “club” mentality that underscores so many success stories. Decoding the language, styles and tastes of the upper classes creates a huge amount of uncredited and unremunerated labour even for those who do climb the ladder and manage to work the system to their advantage. And once they do achieve success, the sense that they are impostors, and that their success is somehow undeserved, seldom goes away. The seemingly medical nature of the term “impostor syndrome” is also problematic, suggesting a psychological shortcoming on the part of those who suffer from it. But far from being the product of a pathology, what seems more likely is that impostor syndrome is a rather natural reaction of anyone from a working-class, disadvantaged or minority background to the various biases they face on a daily basis. Consider the fact that while those who have been privately educated account for only 7% of the UK population, 65% of senior judges and a similar proportion of the current cabinet nevertheless went to private schools. The media and creative industries are even worse: according to a study published in 2018 and undertaken by Create London, in conjunction with sociologists from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Sheffield, only 18% of people working in music and the performing and visual arts grew up in a working-class household. In publishing ,it’s a pitiful 13%; in film, TV and radio, it’s only 12%. With this in mind, if you’re a state school graduate from a working-class background working in the media, then it’s understandable if you feel you are an impostor. What far-reaching and harmful message are we sending out when we paint the natural reaction of working-class and marginalised people as evidence of some kind of “syndrome”? Some will say it’s only a word, not a medical diagnosis, but it represents an attempt to individualise a structural issue, and to place the burden of responsibility at the door of the undervalued, or excluded. This only adds to the list of things that working-class and marginalised people already have to contend with in the continuing struggle to achieve any kind of self-esteem. When we think about “impostor syndrome”, there are several underlying biases we should address: the unquestioned deference towards the displays of confidence taught by private schooling, not to mention the painting of confidence-verging-on-egoism as “normal” and “sane”, while everyone else is painted as deficient. But every month I see fresh takes in the media on how to overcome the feeling of being an impostor, by ironing out tendencies that diverge from the prescribed, middle-class standards of professionalism, and embodying that same “confidence” taught by private schooling. It takes a huge amount of confidence to care for the elderly, to conduct yourself in front of a room full of screaming children, or to drive a bus on the streets of London. Yet the pervasive definition of confidence – the one that we’re told to perfect, if we want a white-collar job – precludes these notions. It’s about oratory, debating style and being able to push through your agenda at the expense of any kind of careful thinking, or discussion. How many instances of sociopathy have we collectively permitted as a result of this way of thinking? This column will change your life: do you feel a fraud? Read more In a society that is drunk on market logic, that sense of impostordom may just be the guiding light you need to see things clearly. However, while it may go against the ideas peddled by most self-help and management books, I would suggest we don’t internalise the structural shame imposed by the corporate workplace, as well as by certain seats of learning and certain social circles. It’s important for all of us to remain vigilant to the many ways in which it dehumanises us and strips us of our identity. With class very much back on the public agenda, it’s time to consider some of the quieter but no less harmful permutations of a deeply classist society – starting with the idea that the issue is in our minds, and not a deeply entrenched system of bias and discrimination. That’s where the problem really lies. • Nathalie Olah is the author of Steal As Much As You Can Topics Class issues Opinion Inequality Boris Johnson comment Reuse this content comments (0) Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion. comments (0) Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion. The Guardian view Columnists Letters Opinion videos Cartoons News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle About us Contact us Complaints & corrections SecureDrop Work for us Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms & conditions Help All topics All writers Digital newspaper archive Facebook Twitter Newsletters Advertise with us Guardian Labs Search jobs Back to top © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern) 
www-thejobnetwork-com-4539	----	Plus-sized women face shocking discrimination from hiring managers Career Advice Career Toolbox Getting Started Work Relationships Professional Development Changing Jobs Work-Life Balance Explore Careers Education Employment Trends Customer Service Office and Admin Healthcare HR and Recruiting Logistics Part Time Retail Get Hired Browse Popular Jobs Resume Samples Job Search Tips Resumes & Cover Letters Job Interview Tips Watercooler Sign Up Sign In Employers Post a Job Login Find Jobs Now Employment TrendsPlus-sized women face shocking discrimination from hiring managers, study shows by Guest Contributor Written by Guest Contributor Have you ever left a job interview feeling like the interviewer was more focused on your appearance than your responses? Chances are you have — and new research shows that if you’re a woman, that gut feeling is quite rational. A new study from my company, Fairygodboss, asked 500 hiring professionals to look at images of 15 professional women of varied ages and races who had different hairstyles, body shapes, and attire. Respondents chose three adjectives (out of 11) to describe each woman and selected the women they’d be most likely to hire. The responses revealed that appearance does play a significant role in how hiring professionals perceive women. The data In our survey, we first asked hiring managers to pick the top qualities they look for when assessing job candidates. The most frequently selected qualities were professionalism (chosen by 68.28 percent of respondents), reliability (chosen by 60.69 percent), and leadership material (chosen by 46.21 percent). The top hiring choice was a young, Caucasian brunette. She was described as professional, confident, and friendly. While only one of these qualities overlaps with the three top-rated qualities among respondents, she was still the most likely to be hired. If a candidate’s appearance varied from this woman, she was less likely to be hired, regardless of whether or not she had the qualities hiring managers were looking for. Hiring managers were particularly harsh when judging the heaviest candidate. She was more likely than any other woman to be described as lazy (20 percent of respondents matched her with this adjective). Even though 44.8 percent said she was professional and 32.8 percent said she was reliable, just 15.2 percent said they would hire her over the other candidates. This placed her 14th of 15 for hireability. When shown an image of an older candidate, respondents ranked her sixth (out of 15) for professionalism, third for leadership ability, and first for reliability — yet just 29.2 percent said they would hire her over other candidates. Women of color also seemed to be facing a strong bias. Respondents rated most of the women of color as more reliable and having more leadership ability than the Caucasian woman, but remarkably enough, they were all less likely to be hired. This is how the data breaks down: The Caucasian brunette was rated: Professional – 75.4 percent of respondents Reliable – 19.6 percent of respondents Leadership material – 27.8 percent of respondents Would be hired – 60.0 percent of respondents The African-American woman was rated: Professional – 64.8 percent of respondents Reliable – 29.8 percent of respondents Leadership material – 29.2 percent of respondents Would be hired – 45.6 percent of respondents The Asian woman was rated: Professional – 57.6 percent of respondents Reliable – 37.0 percent of respondents Leadership material – 27.6 percent of respondents Would be hired – 31.4 percent of respondents The Hispanic woman was rated: Professional – 42.2 percent of respondents Reliable – 19.6 percent of respondents Leadership material – 33.2 percent of respondents Would be hired – 26.6 percent of respondents What this means for women It’s an unfortunate reality that you are still largely judged by how you look and dress. Hiring managers might perceive that you possess all of the qualities they’re looking for, but depending on your appearance, you still may not get the job. Since your age and race — and to some extent your weight — are out of your control, what can you do? In some situations, even the best interview responses might not overcome these biases. It is worth mentioning, however, that not all people share the same prejudices. Our data suggests that some hiring managers are less biased than others. For example, younger hiring professionals (between 25 and 34 years old) were more likely to hire the older candidate. Thirty percent said they’d consider the older woman, while just 15.4 percent of respondents over age 54 would. This means that older job seekers shouldn’t be afraid to apply for positions at up-and-coming companies that are largely led by young employees. Our research also shows that most women of color are more likely to be hired if their interviewer is of the same race. Both African-American and Asian respondents said they would hire the candidate of the same race. While you cannot choose the age or race of your interviewer, you can do research on companies to determine whether they prioritize diversity. Before interviewing, check review sites to see what current and former employees have to say about the organization in terms of inclusion. In the end, women are going to face unique and unfair obstacles during the job search. Hiring managers will look at them and make assumptions about who they are based on their appearance. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to prove you’re worth hiring. About the author Georgene Huang is obsessed with improving the workplace for women. She’s the CEO and Co-founder of Fairygodboss, a marketplace where professional women looking for jobs, career advice and the inside scoop on companies meet employers who believe in gender equality. Previously she ran the enterprise business at Dow Jones and was a Managing Director at Bloomberg Ventures. She is a graduate of Cornell and Stanford Universities.    25 Shares 20     5 Want More Content Like This? Get TheJobNetwork's Latest Career Advice & Job Seeking Tips straight to your inbox Your email address is already registered. Log in here. Exclusive women in the workforce workplace The best cities for job seekers in 2018 The effects of making employee salaries public You may also like Employment Trends • Job Search TipsHow to Get a Job with a Liberal Arts Degree... Employment Trends • WatercoolerFortune 500 Company Perks That Will Make You Jealous... Employment Trends10 top places to work in 2018 Employment Trends • Part Time11 Flexible Jobs for Working Parents About the author Guest Contributor View all posts NEW posts Must Read Career Tips Most Popular 4 things you don’t want to see in a job listing Getting your resume ready for your next career move Homebodies need not apply: careers for nature lovers Need a future-proof job? These 3 industries are... 5 HR skills everyone should have on their resume Most Talked About 5 Clues That It’s Time to Quit13 Comments The Top 10 Secrets of All Nurses12 Comments Why You Should Say ‘Thank You’ Instead...9 Comments Top Resume Trends for 20177 Comments The Need for Electricians is on the Rise6 Comments PandoLogic Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Browse Jobs Term & Conditions Privacy Policy Write for Us [Free eBook Download] [Free eBook Download] 
www-thenation-com-9477	----	To Find Alternatives to Capitalism, Think Small | The Nation Ad Policy Skip to content Facebook Twitter Instagram Donate Log In Coronavirus Black Lives Matter Climate Opp-Art Podcasts Politics World Culture Festival Shop Ethical Economics To Find Alternatives to Capitalism, Think Small Current Issue Newsletters Subscribe Search Facebook Twitter Email Toggle Menu Share fb tw mail msg wa sms Festival Politics Election 2020 World Climate Activism Culture Podcasts Shop Subscribe Current Issue Newsletters Donate Log In Facebook Twitter Instagram By using this website, you consent to our use of cookies. For more information, visit our Privacy PolicyX Log In Email * Password * Remember Me Forgot Your Password? Log In New to The Nation? Subscribe Print subscriber? Activate your online access Ethical Economics Activism Feature August 28-September 4, 2017, Issue To Find Alternatives to Capitalism, Think Small To Find Alternatives to Capitalism, Think Small Why co-ops, regional currencies, and hackerspaces are pointing the way toward a new economic vision. By David Bollier August 9, 2017 fb tw mail Print msg wa sms Bookmark August 9, 2017 (Britta Pedersen/dpa Picture-Alliance/AP Images) Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s shocking election victory, a shattered Democratic Party and dazed progressives agree on at least one thing: Democrats must replace Republicans in Congress as quickly as possible. As usual, however, the quest to recapture power is focused on tactical concerns and political optics, and not on the need for the deeper conversation that the 2016 election should have provoked us to have: How can we overcome the structural pathologies of our rigged economy and toxic political culture, and galvanize new movements capable of building functional alternatives?1 Since at least the 1980s, Democrats have accepted, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the free-market “progress” narrative—the idea that constant economic growth with minimal government involvement is the only reliable way to advance freedom and improve well-being. Dependent on contributions from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Big Pharma, the Democratic Party remains incapable of recognizing our current political economy as fundamentally extractive and predatory. The party’s commitment to serious change is halfhearted, at best.2 While the mainstream resistance to Trump is angry, spirited, and widespread, its implicit agenda, at least on economic matters, is more to restore a bygone liberal normalcy than to forge a new vision for the future. The impressive grassroots resistance to Trump may prove to be an ambiguous gift. While inspiring fierce mobilizations, the politicization of ordinary people, and unity among an otherwise fractious left, it has thus far failed to produce a much-needed paradigm shift in progressive thought.3 This search for a new paradigm is crucial as the world grapples with some profound existential questions: Is continued economic growth compatible with efforts to address the urgent dangers of climate change? If not, what does this mean for restructuring capitalism and reorienting our lives? How can we reap the benefits of digital technologies and artificial intelligence without exacerbating unemployment, inequality, and social marginalization? And how shall we deal with the threats posed by global capital and right-wing nationalism to liberal democracy itself?4 In the face of such daunting questions, most progressive political conversations still revolve around the detritus churned up by the latest news cycle. Even the most outraged opponents of the Trump administration seem to presume that the existing structures of government, law, and policy are up to the job of delivering much-needed answers. But they aren’t, they haven’t, and they won’t.5 These projects reject the standard ideals of economic development, emphasizing instead community and the mutualization of benefits. Instead of trying to reassemble the broken pieces of the old order, progressives would be better off developing a new vision more suited to our times. There are already a number of projects that dare to imagine what a fairer, eco-friendly, post-growth economy might look like. But these valuable inquiries often remain confined within progressive and intellectual circles. Perhaps more to the point, they are too often treated as thought experiments for someone else to implement. “Action causes more trouble than thought,” the artist Jenny Holzer has noted. What is needed now are bold projects that attempt to demonstrate, rather than merely conceptualize, effective solutions.6 The challenges before us are not modest. But it’s now clear that the answers won’t come from Washington. Policy leadership and support at the federal level could certainly help, but bureaucracies are risk-averse, the Democratic Party has little to offer, and the president, needless to say, is clueless. It falls to the rest of us, then, to figure out a way to move forward.7 Current Issue View our current issue The energy for serious, durable change will originate, as always, on the periphery, far from the guarded sanctums of official power and respectable opinion. Resources may be scarce at the local level, but the potential for innovation is enormous: Here one finds fewer big institutional reputations at stake, a greater openness to risk-taking, and an abundance of grassroots imagination and enthusiasm.8 Beyond the Beltway’s gaze, the seeds of a new social economy are being germinated in neighborhoods and farmers’ fields, in community initiatives and on digital platforms. A variety of experimental projects, innovative organizations, and social movements are developing new types of local provisioning and self-governance systems. Aspiring to much more than another wave of incremental reform, most of these actors deliberately bypass conventional politics and policy. In piecemeal fashion, they unabashedly seek to develop the DNA for new types of postcapitalist social and economic institutions.9 The “commons sector,” as I call this bricolage of projects and movements, is a world of DIY experimentation and open-source ethics that holds itself together not through coercion or profiteering but through social collaboration, resourceful creativity, and sweat equity, often with the help of digital platforms. Its fruits can be seen in cooperatives, locally rooted food systems, alternative currencies, community land trusts, and much else.10 While these insurgent projects are fragmentary and do not constitute a movement in the traditional sense, they tend to share basic values and goals: production for household needs, not market profit; decision-making that is bottom-up, consensual, and decentralized; and stewardship of shared wealth for the long term. They reject the standard ideals of economic development and a return on shareholder investment, emphasizing instead community self-determination and the mutualization of benefits.11 Not surprisingly, the Washington cognoscenti have evinced scant interest in these emerging forms of social economy and their political potential. As the 2016 campaigns showed, mainstream politicians can barely discuss climate change intelligently, let alone imagine a post-fossil-fuel economy (as the climate-justice and transition-towns movements do) or apply deep ecological principles and wisdom traditions to politics (as Native Americans have done at Standing Rock). They are similarly oblivious to the hacktivists developing community-driven alternatives to Uber and Airbnb, and to the work of the social-and-solidarity-economy (SSE) movement to build multi-stakeholder cooperatives for social services.12 Related Article The Rise of a Cooperatively Owned Internet Nathan Schneider But that’s precisely why those seeking profound change should be paying attention to these experiments. The commons sector goes beyond the orthodox approach to social change and justice, which tends to privilege individual rights and the redistribution of wealth via the tax system and government programs. Instead, the animating ideals of the commons are collective emancipation and the “pre-distribution” of benefits by giving people direct ownership and control over discrete chunks of land, water, infrastructure, housing, public space, and online services.13 With greater equity stakes and opportunities for self-governance, people are remarkably eager to contribute to their communities, whether local or digital. They welcome an escape from consumerism, exploitative markets, and remote bureaucracies. These sorts of local and regional experiments not only advance effective structural solutions at a time when national politics is dysfunctional; they also provide meaningful ways for ordinary people to become agents of change themselves.14 Almost 50 years ago, Fannie Lou Hamer came up with a shrewd strategy for dealing with community disempowerment—in her case, the vestiges of the plantation system and exploitative white-owned businesses. The civil-rights leader purchased hundreds of acres of Mississippi Delta farmland so that poor blacks could grow their own food. “When you’ve got 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup for the winter, nobody can push you around or tell you what to say or do,” Hamer noted.15 This is roughly the same strategy that must be pursued today. Relocalizing and decommodifying production and services represents a compelling strategy for the small cities, towns, and rural areas that have been ruthlessly hollowed out by big-box stores, online retailers, automation, big agriculture, and outsourcing.16 In fact, that’s just what the local-food movement has done over the past few decades. Faced with a long list of agribusiness horrors—pesticides, processed foods, monoculture farming, seed monopolies, a loss of biodiversity, and more—countless champions of localism retrenched to create a semi-autonomous parallel economy on their own terms: community-oriented, fair-minded, humane, and ecologically respectful. Today, there are more than 1,650 community-supported agriculture (CSA) projects and more than 8,000 local farmers’ markets across the country. Organic farming is a robust market sector, and agroecology and permaculture are pointing the way to eco-friendly approaches.17 In California, the Food Commons Fresno project is one of the most ambitious regional efforts to reimagine the food system from farm to plate. Even though Fresno is located in the heart of prime agriculture lands, the region has been ecologically abused for decades and is a food desert for half a million low-income residents and farm workers. To develop systemic solutions, the Food Commons has established a network of community-owned trusts that bring together landowners, farmers, food processors, distributors, retailers, and workers to support a shared mission: high-quality, safe, locally grown food that everyone can afford.18 Instead of siphoning away profits to investors, the Food Commons mutualizes financial surpluses on a system-wide scale, reducing market pressures to deplete the soil, exploit farm workers, degrade food quality, and raise prices. This approach, writes the social thinker John Thackara, “marks a radical shift from a narrow focus on the production of food on its own, towards a whole-system approach in which the interests of farm communities and local people, the land, watersheds and biodiversity are all considered together.”19 New-economy renegades are not shy about engaging with the policy world, but many regard it as a rigged game. Another impressive innovation in regional self-determination is the BerkShares currency, launched in 2006 by the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (where I work) in the largely rural Berkshires of western Massachusetts. The goal is to strengthen the local economy and community life by reengineering the flow of money. Anyone can exchange $100 in US currency for $105 worth of BerkShares at any of four banks with a total of 16 branches throughout Berkshire County, and then spend them at 400 participating businesses. Consumers get a 5 percent bump in purchasing power from this buy-local strategy while boosting the regional economy and strengthening the region’s identity. The BerkShares story is part of a global trend in which dozens of localities worldwide are deploying their own currencies to reclaim some measure of control from hedge funds and banks.20 New-economy renegades are not shy about engaging with the policy world, but many regard it as a rigged game that won’t yield the transformations needed. In the meantime, they ask, why not grow our own greens and make our own gumbo soup? As in Fannie Lou Hamer’s day, the focus should be on securing tangible results and greater leverage for change.21 Relocalization strategies can also help reinvigorate democratic self-governance. Just as the rise of public-interest organizations in the 1970s propelled far-reaching changes, today our economic future is taking shape in new organizational forms. Innovative cooperative structures, pool-and-share projects, self-managed digital platforms, and collaborative global networks are changing the topography for pursuing social change.22 One of the most notable new forms may be the platform cooperative, a socially constructive alternative to Silicon Valley start-ups, which famously like to “move fast and break things.” Gig-economy companies rely on heaps of capital, proprietary algorithms, and political muscle to control new markets that leapfrog over government standards for public safety, fair labor, and consumer protection. Platform co-ops are attempting to write a different story: Instead of using networking technologies to extract money from communities for the benefit of investors and speculators, platform co-ops work with communities, workers, and consumers to share the gains.23 These dynamics play out at Stocksy United, a global co-op of photographers that sells royalty-free stock photos and video, and on service-swapping platforms like TimeBanks, which uses a currency of hours contributed to helping people meet needs and build circles of mutual support. Another vanguard player is Enspiral, a New Zealand–based cooperative that developed the popular Loomio platform for online deliberation and decision-making. (For more on platform co-ops, see The Internet of Ownership)24 When community commitment and digital platforms come together, they often give rise to “cosmo-local” production, as Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation calls it. This is a new model of manufacturing that allows “light” nonproprietary knowledge and design to be collaboratively produced on a global scale, while enabling “heavy” physical things to be produced locally at minimal cost. This fledgling model could greatly reduce carbon emissions and transport costs while building local economic capacity.25 The rudiments of cosmo-local production are evident at fab labs (short for “fabrication laboratories”) and so-called hackerspaces—participatory communities of socially minded artists, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and techies who use computer-assisted tools to produce vanguard industrial designs. This production approach has been dubbed “SLOC”—small and local, but open and connected—a framework that scrambles the standard understanding of the economy as controlled by nation-states and corporations. SLOC integrates the local and transnational into a remarkably creative provisioning sector—commons-based peer production—that is already developing farm equipment (Farm Hack, Open Source Ecology), furniture (Open Desk), houses (WikiHouse), animated videos (Blender Institute), and cars (Wikispeed).26 To conventional policy minds, altering the micro-dynamics of organizations may seem irrelevant to the task of making broadscale social change. But transforming organizational systems and cultures on a small scale may be one of the most effective ways to bring about macro-change. Just as the microprocessor and the telecommunications network changed the inner dynamics of business, eventually transforming the global economy itself, the rise of self-organized governance and networked collaboration is opening up strategic opportunities on a larger scale.27 Attempting to move beyond neoliberal capitalism may sound naive. But over the past two decades, some remarkable progress has already been made. Besides a range of relocalization strategies, a new sector of commons-based peer production has revolutionized software development, scientific research, academic publishing, education, and other fields by making their outputs legally and technically shareable. In the halls of government, however, policy-makers and even progressives show little interest in the profound political and economic implications of free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses, citizen science, data commons, open educational resources, and open design and hardware.28 Emulation and federation: These are the means by which a new participatory sector will expand. Most of these and other movements are seen as too small, local, unorthodox, or little-known to be consequential. They don’t swing elections. Their participants tend to eschew politics and policy, and often don’t regard their work as part of a unified movement. They see themselves as part of a pulsating pluriverse of autonomous projects, each working diligently in its own separate sphere.29 Counterintuitively, this pluriverse may fuel a true progressive revival. “The next big thing will be a lot of small things,” the designer Thomas Lommée predicted recently, neatly capturing the structural logic of postcapitalist movements and the generativity of the Internet.30 Acting on this insight calls for a new mind-set. Greater attention should be paid to places and players on distributed networks. The swarms of self-selected individuals and projects should be recognized as serious actors that can meet real needs in new ways. We also need to acknowledge the limits of markets and centralized bureaucracies, which are so often hell-bent on asserting total control, engineering dependencies, and eliminating the space for social deliberation and genuine human agency.31 By enabling self-organized groups to bypass large institutions and formal systems of authority, and to set their own terms for establishing social trust and legitimacy, we enter the headwaters of a new kind of politics, one that is more accountable, decentralized, and human-scale. The substantive, local, and practical move to the fore, challenging the highly consolidated power structures and ideological posturing that have turned our national politics into a charade.32 But, skeptics ask, can these countless small, irregular initiatives scale up? The question carries the false premise that some form of centralized management or hierarchical control is needed. As a creature of open networks and sharing, the new social economy will not be directed by a political headquarters or a federal program. That kind of control would kill it.33 The participatory local economy will expand only by engaging a diverse base of American pragmatists. That just might be possible, since it offers something for everyone. As my colleague Silke Helfrich puts it: “Conservatives like the tendency of commons to promote responsibility and community; liberals are pleased with the focus on equality and basic social entitlement; libertarians like the emphasis on individual initiative; and leftists like the idea of limiting the scope of the market.”34 To be sure, a constructive rapprochement with state power will have to be negotiated at some point, and in the meantime supportive laws and infrastructures would certainly help. But the success of the commons sector will hinge on the independent vitality of its projects, the integrity of its bottom-up participation, and the results it produces.35 Emulation and federation—these are the means by which a new participatory sector will expand. The point is to create the conditions for grassroots initiatives to self-organize and grow. It helps to recall that the New Deal didn’t spring fully grown from the brain of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but emerged over time as the policy’s many precursors nurtured brave experiments for years. We need to plant a field of new seeds today if we are going to have anything to harvest in the years to come.36 In defense of the neoliberal revolution in the 1980s, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously thundered a phrase that is often shortened to its acronym, TINA: “There is no alternative!” The result has been nearly 40 years of privatization, deregulation, austerity, and corporate governance, now reaching their farcical, destructive extremes. For those seeking to overcome this awful legacy, along with the oxymoron of “democratic capitalism,” it is time for a rejoinder: “There are plenty of alternatives!” The only question is whether the Democratic Party and mainstream progressives have any use for them.37 David BollierDavid Bollier is director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, and author of Think Like a Commoner. He blogs at Bollier.org To submit a correction for our consideration, click here. For Reprints and Permissions, click here.   Comments (2) Leave a Comment In order to comment, you must be logged in as a paid subscriber. Click here to log in or subscribe. Logged in as    Log out? Comment Keep Reading Ad Policy x Latest from the nation Today 8:30 am Creating American Carnage Dario Castillejos, Liza Donnelly, Felipe Galindo and Peter Kuper Today 5:00 am The Last Few Years Have Spelled a Resounding End to the ‘Jewish Vote’ Eric AltermanTwitter Today 5:00 am Don’t Abandon the Democratic Party—Take It Over Jonathan SmuckerTwitter Today 5:00 am Are Bill Gates’s Billions Distorting Public Health Data? Tim Schwab Today 5:00 am The Democratic Party Will Keep Betraying Labor. It’s Time to Launch a Workers’ Party. Paul BlestTwitter editor's picks VIDEO: People in Denmark Are a Lot Happier Than People in the United States. Here’s Why. 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www-vice-com-4425	----	Does Mindfulness Help With Work Stress? Sign InCreate Account + English Video TV The 8:46 Project News World News Tech Music Food Health Money Drugs Election 2020 Identity Games Entertainment Environment Travel Horoscopes Sex VICE Magazine Sign InCreate Account Video TV Podcasts Shop Apps VICE Voices The 8:46 Project News World News Tech Music Food Health Money Drugs Election 2020 Identity Games Entertainment Environment Travel Horoscopes Sex VICE Magazine About Jobs Partner VICE Voices Content Funding on VICE Security Policy Privacy & Terms © 2020 VICE MEDIA GROUP Health 'Mindfulness' Isn't the Answer to Our Completely Hellish Workplaces I would rather quit my job than strive to be “smooth, pleasant, and helpful.” by Katie Way Brooklyn, United States October 8, 2019, 7:07pm Share Tweet Snap Photo by fizkes via Shutterstock Practicing mindfulness on a regular basis is good for you and you should do it, if you aren’t already. This take isn’t controversial; it’s really barely even an opinion, given the abundant, well-established evidence that backs up the benefits of introducing some kind of practice—be it yoga, tai chi, or just meditation—into your life. Stress reduction, improvements in memory function and ability to focus, and decreases in emotional reactivity are just a few of the ways mindfulness can make your brain straight-up function better. But a new series of studies posits another neat thing that mindfulness can do: Improve your demeanor as a worker! The paper in question, published in the September issue of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, includes a trio of studies conducted by business professors. Researchers observed workers at an American insurance company and an Indian IT consulting center and concluded that even seven to eight minutes of meditation a day can “make people more helpful” in their work environment. “Even with a one-time intervention, you’re getting smoother, pleasant, more helpful workers,” said Lindsey Cameron, one of the paper’s co-authors and a University of Pennsylvania professor in an interview with Knowledge@Wharton. OK, “smooth, pleasant, and helpful” is a great way to characterize dolphins who rescue people from shipwrecks. But as a description of actual human beings, it rings a little more hollow. Mindfulness in the workplace has become increasingly common at massive corporations where offices double as adult playgrounds (or, like, very swanky dungeons). Cameron’s argument, and the argument in general, for marrying mindfulness to workplace productivity is that because work looms so large in our lives, it’s only reasonable that we dedicate as much physical and mental energy to it as possible. “We spend more time at work than we actually do with our family, and sometimes there can be frictions. People are working in teams, so mindfulness can act like a buffer to improve relational coordination and functioning,” Cameron said to Knowledge@Wharton. Not to be all “Have you guys seen the new season of Black Mirror?” but the idea of practicing mindfulness specifically to become a more pleasant employee is bleak and dystopian. Sorry, but if my Buddhist family members, the Outdoor Voices exercise dress, and that picture of Lindsay Lohan looking blissed out in front of a temple in Thailand haven’t convinced me to meditate for 15 minutes every day, the prospect of being a more pleasant employee is not gonna be my tipping point!!! It’s especially rich to see mindfulness touted as a tool for improving worker performance when work-related stress has been climbing for literal decades. Programs like Google’s Search Inside Yourself, a “mindful leadership initiative” that has since expanded into an independent training program, stand in stark contrast to the way the company treats its legion of contractors, some of whom just unionized last month in a historic first for white-collar tech workers. Employees don’t need to breathe deeply and purposefully or get into desk-bound yoga—we need adequate wages, benefits, parental leave, and a robust work-life separation. If the people I know are any indication, sleep-disrupting, relationship-impacting stress might be the only work trend hotter than mindfulness right now. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. Follow Katie Way on Twitter . Tagged:lifestyleyogaproductivitymindfulnesswork life balanceworkplace stress Get a personalized roundup of VICE's best stories in your inbox. Subscribe By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. Advertisement About Jobs Partner VICE Voices Content Funding on VICE Security Policy Privacy & Terms © 2020 VICE MEDIA GROUP 
www-vice-com-8173	----	How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome, According to Experts Sign InCreate Account + English Video TV The 8:46 Project News World News Tech Music Food Health Money Drugs Election 2020 Identity Games Entertainment Environment Travel Horoscopes Sex VICE Magazine Sign InCreate Account Video TV Podcasts Shop Apps VICE Voices The 8:46 Project News World News Tech Music Food Health Money Drugs Election 2020 Identity Games Entertainment Environment Travel Horoscopes Sex VICE Magazine About Jobs Partner VICE Voices Content Funding on VICE Security Policy Privacy & Terms © 2020 VICE MEDIA GROUP Advice How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome, According to Experts It's "a collective fiction we all believe." by Anna Goldfarb November 27, 2018, 8:36pm Share Tweet Snap Screengrab of Eyes Wide Shut Feeling like you’re a fraud and that whatever success you've managed to achieve came unearned can be debilitating. If you’ve ever doubted your achievements and were convinced it’s only a matter of time until people figure out you have no idea what you’re doing, you’re in good company. About 70 percent of people have grappled with imposter syndrome before, according to a 2011 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Science. It’s especially pervasive in high-achieving women, although it can affect anyone at any point in their lives. We asked an imposter syndrome expert (a real thing that exists!), self-help authors, psychologists, a neuroscientist, and a career coach how to overcome these troubling feelings. Here’s what they said. Answers have been edited for length and clarity. Consider the source of these feelings Advice Experts Say You Should Tell Yourself Nice Things Anna Goldfarb 07.05.18 There are situational factors that can lead to imposter syndrome like being a student, working alone, or working in an organizational culture that fuels self doubt. There are also certain fields where people are more prone [to feel this way]––creative fields (writing, acting, producing, art), medicine, and technology. And there’s a strong intersection between imposter syndrome and diversity inclusion. That’s because a sense of belonging fosters confidence. Conversely, the fewer people who look or perhaps sound like you, for many people it can and does impact how confident you feel. This is especially true whenever you belong to a group for whom there are stereotypes about competence. International students/workers, first-generation college students or successful women, people of color, people with disabilities all experience pressure to represent their entire group which can contribute to imposter feelings. That in mind, the only way to stop feeling like an imposter is to stop thinking like an imposter. You do this by becoming consciously aware of the conversation going on in your head and then step back and reframe that conversation the way a non-imposter would. - Dr. Valerie Young, imposter syndrome expert, speaker and author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women Get healthy and speak out I have seen clients in every industry and every continent experience this regardless of age, gender, wealth or level of seniority. Practice positive affirmations: replace any doubts or negativity with a positive statement until this becomes the default pathway in your brain. Keep your brain and body in peak condition with good quality sleep, nutrients, hydration, exercise, and mindfulness. As we speak out loud (or write in a journal), we release survival emotions such as fear and shame. We also reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol through aerobic exercise and by taking magnesium supplements. I have written about imposter syndrome in a blog on LinkedIn and in my book Neuroscience for Leadership. Raising awareness of this in ourselves and our colleagues by being conscious of what it is and the effect it has on our performance is key. - Dr. Tara Swart, neuroscientist, executive advisor, and author of the forthcoming book The Source Tally wins and don’t overcompensate Check your receipts! Get a pen and paper and write down all the evidence that supports your greatness. I think a mistake that a lot of people make when faced with imposter syndrome is overworking themselves as a way to compensate for a perceived deficit. You want to prove so badly that you're worthy that you might begin taking on extra projects, etc. That could lead to burnout and may actually make you appear less competent which is what you were afraid of in the first place. - Dr. Joy, licensed psychologist and host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast Exert effort and have gratitude All that separates an imposter from a real person is the willingness to grow. As long as you push your comfort zone a little bit each day, you're never an imposter. self-help How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others, According to Experts Anna Goldfarb 04.25.18 Most people overlook all the work they've put in. They think they're just lucky and they don't truly deserve their successes. Instead, they need to be mindful while they're putting in ANY kind of effort, big or small. Then they need to show themselves gratitude for the actions they've taken, regardless of outcome. As long as you're trying to push forward, you're the real deal. Ask five people you respect if they've had similar feelings about themselves. You'll soon realize you're not alone. Everyone feels this way––even the people you'd least expect. The imposter syndrome is a collective fiction we all believe. - Nick Notas, dating and confidence expert Embrace fears and examine beliefs Fear doesn't have to mean you're not ready or able; it can just mean you're on a growing edge. Notice your thoughts when you get anxious or fearful and find evidence that they're not true. If you feel like an imposter, ask yourself when you've actually stepped up in the way you're afraid you cannot? Find evidence of the truth! After all, your mind is malleable and you can mold it as you choose when you become more aware of what's happening in it. I made a popular podcast episode on this issue. It was about worthiness in love, but it applies to this subject too. - Ashley Stahl, career coach and host of the You Turn Podcast Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. Follow Anna Goldfarb on Twitter. Tagged:Lifecoping strategiesfake it till you make itimposter syndromecoping mechanisms Get a personalized roundup of VICE's best stories in your inbox. Subscribe By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. Advertisement About Jobs Partner VICE Voices Content Funding on VICE Security Policy Privacy & Terms © 2020 VICE MEDIA GROUP 
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