The dialectic of academic librarianship : a critical approach

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Where to find it

Information & Library Science Library

Call Number
Z675.U5 B285 2015
Status
Checked Out (Due 5/20/2024)

Authors, etc.

Names:

Summary

Oftentimes, academic librarians are not fully conscious of the role that their libraries play in late-capitalist society or how they, as information professionals, help to perpetuate this role. Adopting a dialectical materialist perspective, Stephen Bales investigates the modern academic library as an institution and academic librarianship as a profession. The author examines the academic library's position as a culturally and historically situated producer and curator of knowledge and its instrumental role in driving social reproduction and the status quo. The book then considers the effect of academic librarians in bolstering dominant ideologies and argues instead for a transformative, engaged librarianship that recognizes and implements the academic library as a locus for positive social change. To these ends, the book serves as a tool for deepening the theoretical consciousness of practicing academic librarians and as a point of entry for praxis.

Contents

Introduction : dialectics and the modern capitalist academic library -- Understanding the MCAL non-dialectically -- Dialectical material monism as alternative way to understand the MCAL -- The MCAL and ideology -- The counter-hegemonic academic librarian -- Conclusions (and beginnings).

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