Episode 1: Rethinking Libraries in the Wake of Protests and the Pandemic
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
11:00 a.m. EDT/8:00 a.m. PDT
"The crises we face today—in public health, in our economy, and in confronting the structural racism in our society—demand that we rethink everything," wrote R. David Lankes in a recent Publishers Weekly column. "Including what we've always considered virtuous institutions, like libraries, schools, and publishers."
We've all seen the statements of solidarity from various institutions following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in May. But what do these statements mean in practice? How do libraries back up their words with actions? And how do libraries pursue change in the midst of a public health crisis and the economic and social disruption wrought by the pandemic?
In this webinar, Lankes and Nicole A. Cooke, authors, educators and colleagues at the University of South Carolina, will take stock of this unprecedented cultural moment and kick off a discussion on how libraries can proceed on the path to becoming the anti-racist, truly equitable institutions our society needs.
Nicole A. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching interests include human information behavior, critical cultural information studies, and diversity and social justice in librarianship. She was awarded ALA's Equality award in 2016, and she was the 2019 ALISE Excellence in Teaching Award recipient. She has edited and authored several books, including Information Services to Diverse Populations (ABC-CLIO, 2016) and Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-truth Era (ALA Editions, 2018).
R. David Lankes is director of the University of South Carolina's School of Information Science and author of The Atlas of New Librarianship (MIT Press); and The New Librarianship Field Guide (MIT Press). Lankes is a passionate advocate for libraries and their essential role in today's society, earning him the American Library Association's Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship in 2016. He has been a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, the Harvard School of Education, and was the first fellow of ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy.
Andrew Richard Albanese is Senior Writer at Publishers Weekly. He has covered the publishing and information technology fields for more than 20 years for numerous publications around the world. He is a former associate editor of American History at Oxford University Press, and is the author of The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight.
Can't make the live event? No worries. All interviews will be archived so you can watch it at your convenience.
