Progressive Community Action: Critical Theory and Social Justice in Library and Information Science by Bharat MehraMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this because I was looking for existing work bringing together critical theory, social justice and libraries for a degree I am doing. I wanted to see the current state of writing in this area, and this book contributed very useful information. I had already read some other material by some of the contributors.
It is published by Library Juice Press. They do a great job bringing together complex ideas in a way which makes sense. I had to resort to buying my own copy because at present three libraries in Australia are listed as holding this title. My copy has post it notes and annotations as I needed to connect the ideas to help with my own planned research. One of the ideas which came through strongly was that libraries themselves can be a 'type of tool to further social justice' (p17).
Reading this was a good reminder that there is value in reading more theoretical material to help us understand the very practical work of libraries. This book helps explore assumptions, which is the point of critical theory.
This work provides many more writers to explore and also challenges the reader to apply critical theory to the library they work in.
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