Breaking Bureaucracy and the Status Quo: A Conversation About the Systems That Shape Library Culture Versus Radical Change
Workshop | Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm EST
Anthropologist and activist David Graeber called bureaucracy “the water in which we swim,” and Max Weber, a century before him, used the metaphor of an inescapable “iron cage.” Bureaucracy manifests as “dead zones of the imagination,” and props up the status quo, and yet, a phenomenon called “the iron law of liberalism,” states that any effort to lessen or remove bureaucracy will ironically produce more bureaucracy! Efforts to foster more humane workplaces can instead produce “toxic positivity,” or what Karen Nicholson has referred to as “soft-touch hegemony.” What is an activist librarian to do? Chelsea Jordan-Makely and Emma Karin Eriksson share a passion for abolition, organizing, and imagining a better future for libraries. Our aim is to facilitate a conversation about these big theoretical ideas and problems in which participants from libraries of any type will feel safe and inspired to share their experiences and ideas for change.
Presenters: Chelsea Jordan-Makely & Emma Karin Eriksson
Chelsea Jordan-Makely – I’m a small town library director who has also worked in urban, resort, academic, and state libraries. My focus in librarianship has been to raise the bar on the service experience, especially for the most vulnerable members of our communities, and to center libraries as a forum for exploring new and difficult ideas. My research has focused on libraries as bureaucracies, and more recently, on public library services for people impacted by the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) . I’ve served on the PLA’s Digital Literacy Committee since 2018, and am excited to co-lead the ALA’s Library Services to the Justice Involved (LSJI) interest group beginning this year. I also volunteer with a local Books Through Bars organization, and a local group of abolitionist library workers. Beyond libraries and organizing, I like riding bikes and gardening. Check out my website at renewedlibraries.org.
Emma Karin Eriksson is a Young Adult Librarian at the New York Public Library. She is also the Organization Facilitator, Design Lead, and Social Media Manager for the Prisoner Library Support Network. In her downtime, she creates zines, most famously Radical Domesticity, and teaches workshops on zine-making. To learn more about her and her work visit www.bit.ly/emmakarin.