Libraries, Librarians, and the Discourse of Fear

The Portrayal of Librarians in Obituaries at the End of the Twentieth Century

“…More specifically, it falls within the tradition of studies that examine representations of librarians in adult fiction [e.g., 16, 17], children's fiction [18], films [e.g., 19,20], comic books [21], or media in general [e.g., [22][23][24].…”

Transgression or Stasis? Challenging Foucault in LIS Theory

“…However, it would be fair to characterize Radford over the years as focused more on specific library practices and images of libraries/librarians as the discourse to be unpacked. For instance, he often cites as a basis of analysis libraries' organized collections of texts and the "ensemble of rules [by] which the true and false are separated" [28, p. 418; see also 5,7] or the contrasts between the library as discourse under control/surveillance and the power embedded therein and the (sometimes) contrasting media discourse of stereotyped images of librarians [21,29]. He is the author most explicitly concerned with explaining Foucault and his meaning for the field and arguing that discourse "itself [i]s a legitimate object of inquiry," going on to write in the article he wrote about the article he had written that was being read at that moment: "What is important is not what [a prior] sentence means, but that it has appeared in this article."…”

“…255-57]. Finally, Radford has explored the related power theme of librarian/library stereotyping and fear via a line of analysis grounded in Foucault [5,21,29]. Unattractive and disempowered stereotypes are seen themselves as an exercise in power (or "symbolic violence"), ironically/contradictorily played off against the "dangers" of uncontrolled discourse that libraries are culturally meant to be a bulwark against.…”

“…While the choice to analyze stereotypes in movies (Party Girl [21], Pagemaster, Sophie's Choice, and UHF [5]) and in commercials [29] serves to unpack those images, they still focus on an issue that the field has been rightly criticized for being obsessed with and trivializing of our work and research for many years. (Polly Thistlethwaite's essay "Old Maids and Fairies" captured why the "image problem" bothers us-particularly men-so much: because the "stereotypes read QUEER with a capital Q" [67, p.…”

“…Finally, a definitional note on the use of the terms "theory" and "theoretical" is also needed. A helpful recent study on the use of "theory" in the LIS literature reviews many working definitions of the term but casts "'theory' as broadly as possible [to] capture its widest range of use" by including articles in which a insights are adapted in various works that focus on LIS forms of power, discourse, archaeology, silences, exclusion, defining the "other," domination, and micropractices in the last fifteen years of critical-theoretical LIS scholarship (see, e.g., [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]). For instance, this journal, in issuing a call for papers (CFP) on "discursive approaches to information seeking in context" for a future issue, is sponsoring a line of analysis heavily influenced by Foucault Primary Foucauldian ideas such as discourse, socially constructed knowledge, and artifacts are embedded in that CFP.…”