In this episode we got to sit down with Ean Henninger and Ted Lee to talk about precarity in the library, archival, and information field. It’s a fascinating conversation, ranging from the challenges of addressing the lack of diversity in LIS to the mental and physical toll of precarious work, to the inevitable question: how do we dismantle capitalism!?
Read along with the transcript.
Resources
> Follow Ean on Twitter: @rhymewithzinger; @LISprecarity
> Follow Ted on Twitter: @teioh
> Isabell Lorey’s book “The State of Insecurity”
> SAA19 Archivist Salary Transparency Open Spreadsheet (updated October 2019)
> Ted’s tweet about the postmodern condition and his thread about precarity and capitalism
> April Hathcock’s twitter and her article “White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS"
> LIS Precarity’s research page
> Alaniz, D. (2019). Reflections on temporary appointments and innovation/diversity culture in libraries and archives.
> Bacevic, J. (2019). Knowing Neoliberalism. Social Epistemology 33(4), 380-392.
> Henninger, E., Brons, A., Riley, C., & Yin, C. (2019). Perceptions and experiences of precarious employment in Canadian libraries: An exploratory study. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 14(2).
Fact checking!
> The City of Burnaby’s $1 billion surplus that Allison mentions isn’t a surplus, it’s a reserve fund.
> From Matthew Battles’ Library: An Unquiet History: Dewey developed a serious cough after being caught in a fire and doctors thought he wouldn’t live long, so he became obsessed with efficiency. “In superficial retrospect, the decision [to admit women to the School of Library Economy at Columbia] looks like a pioneer move in women’s rights. But as his biographer Wiegand points out, Dewey actually used the admittance of women to the college to the same end he used their hiring in the library: to define the profession down. Women were already socially subordinate to the men who filled faculty roles; for Dewey, this subordination nicely mirrored the professional subordination of librarians to professors and other experts—a subordination he deemed necessary to the efficient workings of the library.” (144)
The cover art is done by our friend Andrea Lukic.
You can reach us at:
> Email: organizingideaspod [at] gmail [dot] com
> Twitter: @OrganizingPod
> Website: https://organizingideaspod.wordpress.com
