“You’re a Pal and a Confidant”: Challenging Bureaucracy in Libraries through Supportive and Inclusive Collegial Practices
Event Type
Panel
Location
Ahmanson Auditorium
Start Date
21-7-2023 9:45 AM
End Date
21-7-2023 11:00 AM
Description
Despite libraries positioning themselves as “welcoming to all,” they are embedded within larger institutions where an overreliance on bureaucratic practices including meetings-for-the-sake-of-meetings, secrecy, and a devotion to hierarchy allows power structures to go unchecked; these norms are so deeply foundational and ingrained in libraries that most workers are unaware of the low morale and burnout they’re experiencing until it’s too late. For Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) navigating these practices in the workplace, the impacts can be immeasurably damaging. However, Critical Race Theory (CRT) as well as other theoretical frameworks such as Validation Theory and Relational-Cultural Theory provide us with the vital language to critique “traditional” librarianship and re-envision how we facilitate authentic and liberatory engagement, not only with the communities we serve, but also among our colleagues, and for ourselves.
In this panel presentation, librarians from Cal State University San Marcos will provide a grounding in some of the theories that inform our relational approaches and further explore how creating supportive and inclusive collegial environments can be a balm for healing the effects of bureaucratic practices that threaten to subsume us.
“You’re a Pal and a Confidant”: Challenging Bureaucracy in Libraries through Supportive and Inclusive Collegial Practices
Ahmanson Auditorium
Despite libraries positioning themselves as “welcoming to all,” they are embedded within larger institutions where an overreliance on bureaucratic practices including meetings-for-the-sake-of-meetings, secrecy, and a devotion to hierarchy allows power structures to go unchecked; these norms are so deeply foundational and ingrained in libraries that most workers are unaware of the low morale and burnout they’re experiencing until it’s too late. For Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) navigating these practices in the workplace, the impacts can be immeasurably damaging. However, Critical Race Theory (CRT) as well as other theoretical frameworks such as Validation Theory and Relational-Cultural Theory provide us with the vital language to critique “traditional” librarianship and re-envision how we facilitate authentic and liberatory engagement, not only with the communities we serve, but also among our colleagues, and for ourselves.
In this panel presentation, librarians from Cal State University San Marcos will provide a grounding in some of the theories that inform our relational approaches and further explore how creating supportive and inclusive collegial environments can be a balm for healing the effects of bureaucratic practices that threaten to subsume us.
