It’s All About the Money, Honey
Libraries in the Context of Capitalism is a week and a half away! We’re very nearly sold out, but you can still purchase an online-only ticket to view our livestream.
Over a day and a half, about fifty of us will be unpacking what it means to operate in the public interest during a time of increasing austerity. Our over-arching research question for the day is: what does it mean for libraries, archives, and museums to serve the public interest in a cultural environment in which profit is all-important? What pressures do we face in a money-driven world, on an institutional level and as individuals?
Our excellent symposium presenters will share their experiences working within these pressures (including the way in which information literacy and organizing can play a positive role), explore new modes of ascribing value to our work and operating in dialogue with one another, and dissect how economic issues impact the ways in which we perform labor.
The event opens with a keynote presentation by Barbara Fister, who will detail how “libraries have always interacted with, adopted, and at the same time resisted capitalist assumptions about human behavior,” channeling the past while envisioning a future in which the ethos of providing access to all expands beyond library walls.
Dan Greene, our closing keynote speaker, will discuss how libraries and archives are mired in the contradictions of capital: we depend on it for our livelihoods, and yet we’re dependent public funding from those who’d just as soon stop paying taxes altogether. His keynote will explore how library workers navigate these contradictions and how they might organize the “radical, community potential always present in libraries in order to build power and strengthen these institutions.”
Along the way, we’ll have plenty of time to re-imagine the tension points between libraries and capital. What does a more equitable system look like? Can we develop a shared vision? What steps can we take to get there? The good news is, this is a great time to enact this change.
