Platform Power and Libraries

Number 3 in the Series on Critical Information Organization in LIS, Violet Fox and Kelsey George Sigle, series editors.

Building on research in critical library systems studies, Platform Power and Libraries traverses the divide between library, communication, and cultural policy research in the realm of platform studies. Organized through the model of what Nielsen and Ganter (2022) call “the five most important aspects of platform power” this book dissects the power dynamics inherently embedded to platforms that library practitioners and patrons must navigate. From information asymmetry to the power of making and breaking connections and beyond, this book brings light to the often overlooked and underexplored power that platforms can hold in libraries.

Christine F. Smith (she/her) is the Head of Acquisitions and Serials at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. Smith has diverse experience across the library and information sector and has sat on committees, working groups and boards of directors of provincial, national, and international library associations. She holds a B.S. in Communication and an M.L.I.S. Her current research focuses on impacts and implications of systems and structures – both technological and socially-constructed.

Nielsen, R. K., and Ganter, S. A. (2022). The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society. Oxford University Press.

Contents

Preface
Christine F. Smith

Acknowledgments

Platform Power and Libraries
Christine F. Smith

Challenging Digital Property Regimes in Public Libraries
Elena Rowan

Entanglements: How Academic and Commercial Streaming Film Platforms are Reshaping Academic Libraries, Research, and Learning
lisa Hooper

Digital Heritage after Platformisation: Double Binds at Two Legal Deposit Libraries
Kieran Hegarty

The Closed-Loop: Academic Publication and the Data Surveillance Conundrum
Jordan S. Sly and Joseph A. Koivisto

Biographies

Index