Documenting ordinary stories: Local studies collections in public libraries - a couple of papers and a thesis

Documenting ordinary stories: Local studies collections in public libraries

This paper describes research to consider how practices for local studies collections in Australian public libraries might need to shift to ensure that as well as including the historical past, that recent and current concerns and interests of the community are appropriately collected and reflected in their collections. This research used ethnography as a method to explore one public library in detail. Drawing on the metaphor of mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors, the research results describe how a social justice framework for local studies collecting in public libraries could ensure greater inclusion and equity. Such approaches can amplify voices that may have been silenced and enable people and themes with little visibility to be much more visible within local studies collections in public libraries. The conclusion is that a social justice approach to local studies collections in public libraries has the potential to provide a more representative record of the community as a wider range of voices and stories are documented, collected, preserved and made available for research and other uses. For this paper you may need to contact your friendly aggregator https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000624129031

 We collect ‘everything’: A case study of a local studies collection in an Australian public library 

This paper about research which I undertook, was recently published in Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association The abstract is here: This paper describes research exploring a local studies collection in an Australian public library. It includes the current collecting practices and paradigms and their impact on what is added to this collection. This research was to discover how contemporary content, including items from rapid response collecting are incorporated in a local studies collection. It uses a social justice approach to investigate how current collecting practices represent the whole of the community in a public library local studies collection to provide multiple stories and perspectives. Ethnography was the research method used to enable in-depth understanding of the collecting practices of one public library. The results of the research show a tendency for library staff to rarely say no to unsolicited donations, as well as a focus on emotional and decision making based on relationships. This led to donations based on relationships and the risk of collecting from cliques and resulted in an increased cataloguing backlog for the local studies collection. The conclusion is that for more of the community to be represented in a public library local studies collection, changes in collecting practices need to be undertaken to include a social justice focus. You should be able to access the paper to read it at this link https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2024.2386642

If you want to access the papers and can't please contact me. 

If you really want to read more, my thesis:

If we don't take that who will: an ethnographic exploration of a local studies collection in an Australian public library is available to read here  (and you can read the abstract there too).

A few thoughts on the book Archives and special collections as sites of contestation

Archives and Special Collections as Sites of Contestation by Mary Kandiuk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book focuses on the need to disrupt some archival and library practices, for example the need to have items catalogued in the language they are written in (for example Spanish or Japanese) and not only in English. It also has helpful examples of how to describe and provide access to archives with racist content in a way which provides a better understanding of their creator/s. This is not to change the past, but to improve the understanding of it.

This book shows the importance of building new collections which address the importance of social justice, to include those who have historically been excluded from collections, while being visible in the communities. Building new audiences for archives (both old and new) is shown as crucial, for sustainability and for understanding the historical context (recent or further in the past). Elizabeth Hobart reminds us that
Cataloguing is an ethical act, ensuring the discoverability of library resources regardless of content...Without a detailed, accurate record, items literally remain hidden . This applies to many collections in libraries.

There are many ideas of relevance to local studies collections in the different chapters in this book.

This is yet another excellent publication from Library Juice Press. My copy has lots of annotated post it notes sticking out, with notes on them for follow up.

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A few thoughts on the book Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS by Rose L. Chou

Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS by Rose L. Chou
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is yet another interesting publication from Library Juice. The title of the book gives you a strong idea of what the content is. This is a book for many library staff to read, as it provides helpful information, and some strategies for making improvements in the library as work place and the library as library. This is a book about collections, services, maker spaces, readers' advisory work and much more. I have lots of notes in this book to follow up on. I keep deleting other sentences, because the most helpful thing I can say is, go and read this book.

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a few thoughts on the book Reference Librarianship & justice: history, practice & praxis

Reference Librarianship & Justice: History, Practice & Praxis by Kate Adler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is yet another impressive Library Juice publication. It explores reference and information services provided by libraries including public libraries using a social justice approach. Different theoretical frameworks are used for each chapter, but they all relate to how social justice is addressed by libraries. There is a focus on information for people who have been silenced, and who are powerless.

In the forward it says 'as described by this book, reference work advances the work of social justice through collecting and making accessible materials pertaining to groups who would normally be erased or dismissed, as well as through the people in doing such work, such as approaching reference work through a lens that seeks to humanize what is sometimes a dehumanizing process, the vulnerability of having a need and asking someone to meet that need.'

This book is important for highlighting that reference and information work can have a social justice role. With the many changes to reference and information services that role is by no means certain, and many of the service changes seem designed to remove that service for the community. This book reminds us of why the ability for someone to come to the library and ask a question, or the library to go out and about to help people with their questions is important, and can be literally life changing.

Reading this books challenges one to look at how reference and information services are provided at your own library, both in and outside the building. Whose enquiries are you privileging?

This book is not always easy reading, but it is well worth reading. I have many ideas I want to follow up on as a result of reading this book.

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A few thoughts on the book : Progressive community action: critical theory and social justice in library and information science

Progressive Community Action: Critical Theory and Social Justice in Library and Information Science by Bharat Mehra
My 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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a few thoughts on Teaching for Justice: Implementing Social Justice in the Lis Classroom

Teaching for Justice: Implementing Social Justice in the Lis Classroom by Nicole A Cooke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first Library Juice Press publication I have read. The title may seem to be only relevant for people who are teaching people to be librarians, however, there is much of relevance for library practitioners as the different chapters explore theoretical frameworks as well as teaching. Many of the exercises described by the authors of the different chapters could be applied or modified for a workplace. It is helping me think about professional development to work on, building on some work already being done to address social justice in libraries.

A strong point in this books is about social justice being a key part of every library service. It is part of who is not using the library, who is included in the collections (and this is all collections from those for children to local studies), and who is targeted in programs and services. What languages are collected and have programs or services provided in also matters.

I read this book slowly because it is the kind of book which needs to be read and thought about, and now parts need to be reread.

Each chapters has detailed bibliographical information making additional reading easy to do. This book is written by people in the USA, but there is much of relevance for Australian (and other) library staff.

The book would be useful reading for many library staff. It would be an interesting one for a staff reading group discussion.

My copy now has post-it note flags sticking out from it, some with writing on them for additional prompts. This is why ebooks can be handy, for less messy note taking, but paper is also fine for reading.

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