Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries

ISBN-13: 9781783304974 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 224 str.

Content Jess Crilly (Associate Director; A Regina Everitt (Director of Libraries

Opis

The demand to decolonise the curriculum has moved from a protest movement at the margins to the centre of many institutions, as reflected by its inclusion in policies and strategies and numerous initiatives in libraries and archives that have responded to the call, and are critically examining their own historic legacies and practices to support institutional and societal change. Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries explores the ways in which academic libraries are working to address the historic legacies of colonialism, in the context of decolonising the curriculum and the university. It acknowledges and explores the tensions and complexities around the use of the term decolonisation, how it relates to other social justice aims and approaches, including critical librarianship, and what makes this work specific to decolonisation. The book is international in scope, and considers the contextual nature of decolonisation, with discussion of the impacts of settler colonialism, and post-colonial contexts with authors from Canada, the United States and Kenya, as well as universities and the British Library in the UK. Split into two sections, the book first addresses experiential contexts, discussing the environment in which the academic library is enmeshed: legacy knowledge systems, the neo-liberal university, the pervasive Whiteness of the higher education sector, the global publishing industry - how these structures are constitutive of coloniality and how they can be challenged. It then brings together theory and practice featuring case studies interpreting what it means to 'decolonise' in information literacy, collection management, inclusive spaces, LIS education, research methods and knowledge production through the lens of critical pedagogy, critical information literacy and Critical Race Theory (CRT). The book also addresses the impact and implications of the Whiteness of university library staffing. Bringing together the theory and practice of an area of critical concern to the academy, this book is an important reference for academic librarians, educators and researchers in LIS, education and sociology.

Spis treści

Introduction: Decolonise or 'Decolonise'?; Part 1 Contexts and Experiences; Decolonising the Library: From Personal Experience to Collective Action; Intelligent Leaders, Intelligent Spaces; Decolonising Research Methodologies; Do Black Employees' Rights Matter? The Lived Experience of BAME Staff in UK Academic Libraries; Decolonising the Academic Library: Reservations, Fines and Renewals; Critical Information Literacy and Structural Oppression: Reflecting on Challenges and Looking Forward; Part 2 In Practice; The Contribution of Library and Information Science Education to Decolonising; Indigenising Canadian Academic Libraries: Two Librarians' Experiences; Liberate the Library: What It Means to Decolonise and Why It Is Necessary; Opening Spaces for Creative and Critical Enquiry; Towards Decolonising the British Library; Cataloguing, Classification and Critical Librarianship at Cambridge University Libraries; Re-membering Kenya: Building Library Infrastructures as Decolonial Practice; Challenging Its Imperial Origins: Towards Decolonising the School of Oriental and African Studies Library; Decolonising Library Collections: Contemporary Issues, Practical Steps and Examples from London School of Economics