Countering “Conditions Which Demand a Perseverance Verging On the Superhuman”: Teaching and Learning Anti-Carceral Librarianship Through Reference by Mail
Panel | Monday, May 17, 2021 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm EST
People who are incarcerated’s ability to access information is heavily constrained. They may not have access to leisure materials, educational materials, and most often are deprived access to the Internet. Reference by Mail provides a practical opportunity for incarcerated people to access library services to meet their life-affirming information needs and desires. San Francisco Public Library has overseen this service for three years, and offers internships to library students seeking to build reference skills and awareness of incarceration.
This panel will incorporate reflections on supervising and participating in the Reference by Mail internship, drawing from critical pedagogy to engage with what it is like to provide information to people inside of carceral facilities. Panelists will share their perceptions of incarceration and information access prior to involvement with the service, how information requests reflect the information landscape within carceral facilities, and what they collectively learned in the process of the internship.
Presenters: Lawrence Maminta, Jeanie Austin & Jeremy Abbott
Lawrence Maminta (they/them) is from Long Beach, CA and a recent graduate of UCLA’s MLIS program. They are currently participating in the SafeLAPL campaign to reinvest $12.5 million of the Los Angeles Public Library’s budget into community-centered public safety programs.
Jeanie Austin earned their PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their research interests and activities include the provision of library services to people in juvenile detentions, jails, and prisons. They primarily examine the complex political and social systems that surround this work.
Jeremy Abbott is a doctoral student in UCLA’s Department of Information Studies. His research centers on the confluences of spatial and legal infrastructures that act to control information access in public library spaces. He is currently focusing on the impact of library codes of conduct upon patrons experiencing homelessness.