Is Contemporary Readers' Advisory Populist?: Taste Elevation and Ideological Tension in the Genreflecting Series

Lawrence, Emily

doi:10.1353/lib.2017.0012

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…3. Biting the bullet Elsewhere, I have argued that contemporary RA conforms to three principles that make up a moral framework for best practice: principles of (1) respect for autonomy, (2) egalitarianism, and (3) the idea that reading is (intrinsically and/or extrinsically) valuable, and thus worth promoting (Lawrence, 2017). Adherence to that framework would seem to require an affirmative answer to the question articulated above.…”

Section: A Thought Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the problem of oppressive tastes in the public library

Lawrence

2020

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PurposeContemporary adult readers' advisory aims to adhere to (what I term) a pure preference satisfaction model in which librarians provide nonjudgmental book recommendations that satisfy their patrons' aesthetic tastes rather than improve upon them. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether readers' advisors really ought to treat all such tastes as essentially benign, even when doing so may conflict with core commitments to diversity and social responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes a thought experiment to interrogate our intuitions regarding the practice of recommending recreational materials featuring marginalized protagonists. The author also draws on theoretical insights from feminist aesthetician A.W. Eaton's innovative work on taste in bodies to formulate argumentation addressing the ethical dilemma presented here.FindingsOur reading tastes can, in fact, be oppressive, working to maintain unjust power relations that are often thought to be the product merely of bad beliefs. On the view advanced here, oppressive tastes function as real obstacles to collective self-governance because they systematically distort our judgments of the credibility, empathic accessibility, and fundamental worth of our fellow democratic citizens. Librarians' obligation to protect and promote democracy, therefore, provides practitioners with a crucial justification for recommending diverse books to all readers, even (and perhaps especially) those who actively disprefer them.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates how contemporary work in analytic (and specifically feminist) aesthetics can furnish LIS scholars with the intellectual resources to resolve political problems in the library. The author's analysis also lays the groundwork for further consideration of alternative ideals for readers' advisory that will capitalize on the service's educative and emancipatory potential.

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Section: A Thought Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the problem of oppressive tastes in the public library

Lawrence

2020

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“…For example, directed reading programs during the first real RA push of the 1920s suggested books that might uplift readers' spirits or elevate their taste (Saricks, 2005). Lawrence (2017) summarizes the trends in RA, from the directed RA interviews of the 1920s in which librarians produced customized bibliographies for the patron, to its mid-century decline and its renaissance in the 1980s. Dilevko and Magowan (2007) point out many reasons for the reemergence of RA in the 1960s: technical education was on the rise, and libraries offered a chance to bolster liberal education for the masses, who also needed bibliotherapy because of societal problems.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Reader-Generated Language to Describe Multicultural Literature

Adkins¹,

Bossaller²,

Sandy³

2019

IJIDI

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How do readers describe multicultural fiction works? While in library and information science (LIS) we have the language of appeal factorsand genre trendsto describe works of fiction, these linguistic choices may not be used by readers to describe their own responses and reactions to works that provide cultural affirmation of one’s own culture or exposure to learning different cultures. In this research, text mining processes are employed to harvest reader-generated book reviews and subsequently analyze the words readers use to describe award-winning multicultural fiction on the retailer site Amazon.com. Our goal with this study is to provide LIS professionals an insight into readers’ perspectives related to multicultural fiction. We describe our methodology of engaging in topic modeling as described by Jockers and Mimno (2013) as applied to multicultural fiction reviews. First, we explore the construction and processing of a corpus of reader reviews of multicultural fiction titles, then we model topics using a topic modeling toolkit to generate topics from these reviews. Through this analysis, we determine consistent terms used to describe multicultural fiction that can be used to indicate common reader experience and identify topics. Closing discussion reflects on whether librarians can use text mining of reader reviews to enhance their reader advisory services for readers seeking books that represent multiple and/or diverse cultures.

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“…The books that line this shelf are varied (including, as the old adage goes, “something to offend everyone”), while nearby signage is limited to “viewpoint-neutral directional aids” and organizational labels that help the patron navigate their potential selections without exerting any nontrivial influence over readers’ decision-making (ALA, 2015). Meanwhile, the benevolent librarian stands by, ready to assist at the patron’s behest as an impartial information intermediary or aesthetically-agnostic “matchmaker” (see Lawrence, 2020, 2017). In the latter case, the librarian will suggest recreational materials consistent with the reader’s existing preferences, which they bring with them into the library like precious and “private possessions … free from external control or interference” (Miller, 2006, p. 67).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Of acquisitions and interference: accounting for systemic threats to the freedom to read

Lawrence

2023

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PurposeLibrarianship’s dominant conception of the freedom to read is governed by a liberal principle of noninterference, wherein free readers are those who face no intentional intervention in their choice of materials. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how this account fails to adequately capture systemic threats that impoverish people’s reading lives.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper deploys informal argumentation to expose a flaw in the dominant account of the freedom to read. The author uses a case study of comparative titles or comps, an editorial decision-making and justificatory convention that reproduces racial inequality in Anglophone trade publishing.FindingsComps present one example of how everyday norms and practices of literary production render people’s reading lives pervasively unfree, even absent some intent to interfere in them. The going account of the freedom to read calls, at best, for a greater diversity of book-commodities from which consumers may choose. However, the comp case suggests that this distributive remedy will be insufficient without relevant changes to the institutional arrangements that condition readers' choices in the first place.Originality/valueThis paper draws together insights from Library and Information Science, political philosophy and print culture studies to illuminate limitations in librarianship’s standard conception of the freedom to read. This reveals the need for an alternative, structural account of that freedom with significant implications for practice.

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Is Contemporary Readers' Advisory Populist?: Taste Elevation and Ideological Tension in the Genreflecting Series

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

On the problem of oppressive tastes in the public library

On the problem of oppressive tastes in the public library

Exploring Reader-Generated Language to Describe Multicultural Literature

Of acquisitions and interference: accounting for systemic threats to the freedom to read

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