Book Reviews  539

have emerged in libraries—and at whose expense? Subject headings increase discoverability, 
but taxonomies are inherently reductive. As we eliminate barriers and increase access to re-
sources, what labor demands are we normalizing? What is ICE doing with all that data from 
LexisNexis and Westlaw? To what extent are libraries themselves logistical media, optimizing 
the dissemination of information products at huge profits to vendors? 

All-encompassing as these dilemmas seem, Assembly Codes finds hope for change through 
its analyses and through analysis as a practice. As Dickinson puts it, engaging the interworkings 
of logistics, media, and capitalism equips us to “press for a greater awareness of how instead 
to strike meaningful allegiances with others under the thumb of globally mobile commerce, 
rather than greasing its wheels through more elite cross-border affinities” (180).—Lynne Stahl, 
West Virginia University

Notes
 1. Anna Tsing, “Supply Chains and the Human Condition,” Rethinking Marxism 21, no. 2 (April 2009): 148, 

https://doi.org/10.1080/08935690902743088.
 2. Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups (St. Paul, MN: 

Minnesota Historical Society, Change Work, 2001).

LIS Interrupted: Intersections of Mental Illness and Library Work. Miranda Dube and Car-
rie Wade, eds. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2021. 346p. Paperback, $35.00 (ISBN: 
978-1634001083).

LIS Interrupted presents a collection of analyses and personal narratives 
about mental illness written by library workers. The book is divided into 
three sections. 

The first section, “The Process of Becoming,” focuses on graduate 
students and new professionals entering the field of librarianship. Kaelyn 
Leonard’s “The Space between Neurodiversity and a Degree: Misinter-
pretations of ADHD in Higher Education” discusses their experience 
with ADHD while working on their MLS, providing suggestions to other 
neurodivergent students looking to pursue a graduate degree. A particu-
larly intense statement hit me like a ton of bricks: “When did it become 
a merit badge to make it through the sleepless nights? Why would the 

impact on my mental and physical health rank as utterly inconsequential, as long as I could 
produce the quintessential good work?” (10) Zoë Nissen discusses her experience with an eat-
ing disorder while working on a graduate degree and entering the library workforce. Karina 
Hagelin takes the reader through her personal experiences with assault and mental illness and 
presents valuable suggestions regarding how libraries can create a culture of what she calls 
radical vulnerability. Marisol Moreno Ortiz navigates her diagnoses with OCD, generalized 
anxiety disorder, and depression while working as a new Diversity Scholar in the Diversity 
Program (DSP) at Oregon State University Libraries. Christy Bailey-Tomecek discusses her 
experience with generalized anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder and how it has helped her 
develop a safe space for coworkers who are working with sensitive materials in the archive. 
She offers steps she took to aid students working on emotionally challenging projects and how 
her own coping mechanisms helped students experiencing distress. Nina Clements describes 
the diagnosis of depression and anxiety, navigating disclosure, and creating a more compas-

https://doi.org/10.1080/08935690902743088


540  College & Research Libraries May 2022

sionate workplace environment around disclosure, something that is needed in the workplace. 
Chelsea Tarwater talks about her depression while working as the Youth Services Specialist 
at Blount County Public Library and working on her MLS while living as a gay woman in a 
conservative environment. The section wraps up with a strong chapter titled “On Surviving” 
by Allison Rand, who survived the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. The author discusses 
living with PTSD while attending graduate school and her eventual job as a librarian. 

The second section, “Critical Perspectives and Narratives,” includes chapters with more 
research-based content. In “Full Disclosure? Issues around Disclosing Mental Illness in an 
Academic Library Workplace,” Alice Bennett examines mental health disclosure in western 
academic libraries. Carolyn Hansen looks at problematic Library of Congress subject head-
ings regarding mental health, a deeply needed discussion. Michelle Ashley Gohr and Andrew 
Barber use Marxist philosophy and disability, queer studies, and feminist theories to look at 
LIS staff with depression and anxiety in terms of systems of oppression and neoliberalism in 
libraries. While this chapter is particularly dense, it is an essential read for librarians striving 
to create a healthier environment for their staff. Pamela Andrews and Melissa Freiley examine 
the use of humor on social media to address librarian stereotypes and how they affect library 
workers. Sara Harrington explores the expectations of emotional labor from front-facing 
public library workers and how this has an impact on the mental health of said workers, the 
intersection of gender and mental illness in the library field, and offers a few steps libraries can 
adopt to create a safe working environment. Brad Lundy discusses communication disorders 
and problematic language in the library field and suggests solutions to addressing vague and 
confusing terminology, including language used in job descriptions. Stacey Astill looks at 
the effect that the exposure to sensationalized health news has on library staff with anxiety, 
focusing on UK libraries. Ian Ross Hughes addresses the stress that the interview process 
can have on candidates with mental illness, with useful suggestions to help the interviewees 
foster an inclusive interview experience. Stephanie S. Rosen uses her experience with what 
she calls academic depression. Marie Campbell, Clayton Hume, Max Powers, and Ann Sen 
share their experiences in a toxic workplace while facing their individual mental illnesses and 
the coterie they formed in the midst of it all.

The third section, “The Situated Experience,” concentrates on professionals with mental 
illnesses and how they navigate their work. Chaundria Campos, a Black woman and a veteran, 
discusses her experience with a typical response regarding workplace resources, “we have 
resources for that,” and how it is not as helpful as people think. Jamine Rizer looks at her 
mental health journey and how her conditions influenced how much they want to disclose 
as a library employee, concluding that ultimately “no one has the right to tell you that you 
must give up your privacy for the sake of capital-R Representation” (254). Evelyn E. Nale-
pinski discusses the need for librarianship to be a more inclusive realm for neurodivergent 
employees. John Cohen used his condition to positively guide his role in leadership. Avery 
Adams aptly describes the brain fog that can come with depression and anxiety and how it 
affects daily life and work in the library. Jodene R. Peck Pappas’ chapter addresses her expe-
rience as a cataloguer living with depression and obsessive compulsive personality disorder 
(OCPD), including background, professional work, and treatment. I’m not afraid to state that, 
as a metadata librarian with a similar diagnosis, this chapter was extremely relevant to my 
own thoughts and experiences. In “Librarian vs. The Machine That Goes Beep: Professional 
Adventures on the Autism Spectrum,” Jess Alexander frames the chapter using their fight 



Book Reviews  541

with the titular nefarious machine and how their self-awareness helps them in their career, 
ultimately recognizing that they matter. The book wraps up with “A Critical Conversation 
about LIS Interrupted with Miranda Dube and Carrie Wade,” which presents an informal 
discussion regarding the creation of this book and their own experiences. 

Most of the chapters included a content warning at the beginning and a bibliography. The 
book as a whole includes a useful index. The authors mention that there are multiple ways the 
book may be read. For the sake of this review, I read it cover to cover. I don’t typically reread 
many books, but this one is something I will keep on my personal reference shelf. The authors 
indicate that the audience for LIS Interrupted is “library workers, educators, and students in a 
variety of environments as a text, resource, guide, and place of refuge.” This book is needed 
in the field, and libraries should consider this for their collections. 

On a personal note, it took me quite some time to finish reading LIS Interrupted, simply 
because I reread chapters discussing conditions I live with. I discovered that I am not alone. 
Neither are you.—Lizzy Walker, Wichita State University Libraries

Mariame Kaba. We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. 
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Press, 2021. 240p. Paper, $16.95 (ISBN: 164259525X). 

“Prisons haven’t always existed. They came into being…”
“I don’t believe in self-care: I believe in collective care…”
“…hope is a discipline and…we have to practice it every single day.”

These three sentiments continuously repeat in my mind, over and 
over again, since reading Mariame Kaba’s We Do This ’Til We Free Us: 
Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. Filled to the brim with 
thoughtful, liberating, and radical essays and interviews on the prison 
industrial complex, prison abolition, and all that lies in between, Kaba 
manages to create an accessible tome for collective abolition activism 

while never becoming reductive.
Calls to defund the police and for the abolition of the many layered carceral systems 

prevalent in the United States reached mainstream ears during the protests of the summer of 
2020. Amid national mourning over the unending disregard for black life, Kaba’s book came 
at a time, one could argue, when we need it most. Every instance of police brutality, unjust 
incarceration, and the myriad traumas that come from the White Supremacy–laden institu-
tion of policing and the justice system contributes to the messages we hear repeating on a 
loop: countless calls for “reforms” that only further bolster the prison industrial complex’s 
pockets with our money. We are told by our politicians that their “thoughts and prayers” are 
with us and that these issues are but consequences of a “few bad apples.” It becomes easy, as 
someone who wishes for change, to fall into a cycle of petition signing, social media posting, 
and, eventually, sitting in a sense of demoralization as the powers that be once again show 
us that they are wholly uninterested in the material change we deeply need.

We Do This ’Til We Free Us is a break in this cycle of demoralization. Kaba gracefully 
distills the complexity of our justice system to the most clearcut issue: harm. So much of 
how we view crime and punishment is through the lens of harming the harmer as a form of 
restitution. However, as Kaba states in her essay “Transforming Punishment: What Is Ac-