Class and Librarianship

Essays at the Intersection of Information, Labor and Capital

Editors: Erik Estep and Nathaniel Enright

Price: $40

Published: July 2016

ISBN: 978-1-936117-74-1

186 pages

The current crisis of capitalism has led to the renewed interest in Marxism and its core categories of analysis such as class and exploitation. In our own discipline — Library and Information Science — voices and ideas that have long been confined to the critical margins have been given buoyancy as forms of critique have gained traction. This volume allows for a fresh look at at the interaction of information, labor, capital, class, and librarianship.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Academic Library as Crypto-Temple: A Marxian Analysis, by Stephen Bales

Social Reproduction in the Early American Public Library: Exploring the Connections Between Capital and Gender, by Alexandra Carruthers

From Steam Engines to Search Engines: Class Struggle in the Information Economy, by Amanda Bird and Braden Cannon

Working with Information: Some Initial Enquiries, by Steve Wright

Crisis Talk, by Toni Samek

Poverty and the Public Library: How Canadian Public Libraries are Serving the Economically Challenged, by Peggy McEachron and Sarah Barriage

Lost in the Gaps: The Plight of the Pro Se Patron, by Carey Sias