Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

The structural inequalities perpetuated by the caste system are a grave challenge to creating a just society. The education system pays short shrift to this topic and caste discrimination is spoken about without holding caste privilege accountable. Historically, social justice is a core mission of libraries. This project worked closely with a…

This paper explores nostalgia as both a limiting cultural force in the lives of school librarians and a practice that can be used to more accurately portray library work. The stereotype of the shushing, lone school librarian, based on restorative nostalgia, is related to a nostalgic oversimplification of the school librarian's historical role.…

Given the increasing power and prominence of political figures in the United States who openly espouse xenophobic, misogynistic, white nationalist positions, it is only natural to anticipate encountering students who express these views in our libraries and classrooms. This essay uses a classroom encounter with a student expressing xenophobic…

This article asks the question: How well versed are school librarians on issues related to labeling and rating systems? As school librarians continue to design and implement resource location schemes to assist patrons, they must recognize the difference between using labels to create interest in books or implementing labeling and rating systems…

Literature for children and young adults is written for many different reasons. It is written purely to entertain, to help children and young adults understand the world they live in, or to help cope with problems they face. It can also be written to introduce new places, ideas, or situations to its readers, or to portray characters with whom…

The controversy involving the challenge and possible banning of books has existed since the first person set pen to paper. These challenges have historically been based upon political and religious differences, but as time has passed, have become increasingly more to do with sex, race and culture. With these issues facing libraries, the role of…

A recent American Library Association (ALA) report has shown that less than 1% of credentialed librarians are African American males. This article discusses possible reasons for this dearth; and, in an effort to inform future LIS recruiting and marketing campaigns, the included study attempted to discover which factors lead African American males…

This article traces historical uses of the phrase "why girls go wrong" to provide a context for analysis of Progressive Era reading guidance for girls and then turns to actual girls' responses to reading. The historic context depicts the milieu in which young women and the advisors who sought to guide them lived and read as a time of intense…

The history of the Progressive Librarians' Council is traced from its inception, 1939, through 1944. Was it a left-wing organization? Yes, if one concedes that much that was left in 1939-44 has become center or right-of-center in 1972. (10 references) (Author/NH)

The author describes the extreme censorship imposed on all forms of publication by the government of South Africa. Particularly disturbing is the support of government policies by a majority of librarians. (JS)

Suggests ways and means by which libraries and librarians should change to keep pace with changing needs in our society, and to be responsive to them. (AB)

This document, which discusses the image of librarians in 20th century murder mysteries, suggests that the image initially evolved from an elitist spirit that was the result of the missionary zeal and cultural superiority of early librarians, and that the image of the old maid librarian was probably based on the reality that early women college…

Obituaries can reveal much about the way a profession is conceived and structured in the popular imagination. This article examines obituaries of librarians in the "New York Times" between 1977 and 2002 to determine how librarians were presented to the general public by a major newspaper. Although librarianship is a female-intensive profession,…