I am very fortunate to work in a profession that values compassion, empathy, and education for our communities. I’m always pretty amazed by librarians’ tremendous dedication to help people access information and develop knowledge for a more informed society. Whenever I attend a conference, symposium, or workshop, any kind of cynicism that may have seeped in from our external political world, melts away by a true sense of humanity in our deeds, small or large.
It has been more than a full week of the administration of the 45th president. We’ve seen executive order after order signed and sealed that can have lasting impacts on our communities: from a woman’s right to reproductive health, affordable health care, to immigrant or refugee status in the United States. We’ve also seen considerable resistance to the administration’s orders through massive rallies not just around the country but around the world. Truly, we are all concerned about our futures.
So the question for us is what do we in this time of fear and insecurity? What does it mean for our institutions and specifically for our libraries? Where do we stand? I believe we need to have a discussion in our state specifically about how we defend our values and members of our community who may come under attack from the new administration’s policies.
Soon after the election the American Library Association through several regretful press releases caught itself in hot water for complacently accepting the current administration without evaluating what kind of policies and values the 45th president’s administration’s policies would have on libraries and education in general. The alarming, and quite frankly abhorrent, choice of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary should have everyone in education shaking in their boots. We cannot follow the “business as usual policy” that the ALA was complying to. I'm glad they've recently released a new statement concerning the executive actions on refugees and bans on people from some Muslim countries.
I hope that this message opens up the discussion for us in the New Jersey academic library community to come together to meet and discuss, define and solidify our values in such an important time. Maybe we can get together this spring for a one-day unconference? I’m sure we can find in our collective powers to muster it up like the thousands who sprang up in airports to protest the ban on immigration from some Muslim countries and refugees. Also of importance: sharing our stories about how our communities are being affected and how we’re resisting can build communities of solidarity which are essential.
I hope that we can come together as soon as possible to unite across the state!
In Struggle,
Romel Espinel
PS. Please comment below on how we can get started or email me at respinel[at]
5 comments:
Hi Romel,
Thanks for your post!. Please count me in for an unconference/discussion group.
Maria
Thank you, Romel! Please sign me up. There are so many issues, but all the advice I'm seeing is to focus on one or two issues very closely.
I was reading the ACRL statement and I was stuck by these lines:
As professionals, we readily foster intellectual freedom and promote net neutrality and open access....
We are committed to representing many backgrounds and advocating for social justice on campus and in our communities. We oppose actions used to suppress free expression, academic freedom, and intellectual freedom in academe and condemn the use of intimidation, harassment, bans on entry to the United States from Muslim-majority countries, and violence as means with which to squelch free intellectual inquiry and expression. Together our distinct identities and beliefs reflect the richness of our global society.
I don't know if this really narrows it down enough but it helped my local group chose a focus after we spent over an hour talking about the issues nearest to our hearts.
I'm in! Things are so uncertain at this time, it's difficult to know exactly what to plan, but action is essential. Academic libraries have the privilege of encountering young Americans who are likely just starting on their journey of civic engagement, and I think one thing (of many) that we need to do is encourage, urge, support, and educate them on how to do that!
Thanks for starting this discussion; I'd like to participate. From an instructional standpoint, I'm interested in how do you teach students to think critically on these issues and to question traditional sources of authority without telling them what to think? And without forcing my own politics on to these issues? I mean, I think the answer is you can't, all this stuff is political, but us telling students that climate change is a "controversial issue" also feels like problem.
Hi,
As educators we try have our students think critically and creatively by allowing them to take agency. This is in itself a political act when much of the time under "banking" models of teaching has students act as consumers. I think also by acknowledging political perspectives is one way to go about it. Then there instances like the vaccine debate where correlation with autism has been severely been debunked we can show instances of how we must be careful of who we trust for our information.
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