Considering faith in the context of intersectionality highlighted several ideas that I connected to my context as a librarian.
Kwame Anthony Appiah’s (TED, 2014) comments on European travellers viewing religions they encountered through the lens of Christianity and comparing these new (to them) religions from the perspective of their similarity or difference to Christianity, immediately connected to the idea of information classification in libraries. Information is compared in order to organise it with the intention of making it locatable, however, it is incredibly difficult to condense knowledge to a single, categorisable, meaning (Keogh, 2017). Information is subjected to multiple hierarchies; internal (aka what is the single most important topic of a text for the readers who will encounter it in that library) and external aka how does that single topic fit within the system of that specific library) which is highly contextual and subjective.
Jawad (2022) and Rekis (2023) highlighting the way that neutrality disadvantages individuals – with the intersection of faith and other factors compounding this disadvantage – alongside Appiah’s (TED, 2014) suggestion that secularity is often perceived as a superior intellectual position, also reminded me of the position of the academic library within the university.
The risks associated with the perception of libraries are neutral spaces and the questions around the possibility of libraries being neutral spaces have been, and continue to be, discussed (American Libraries, 2018; Anderson, 2022; Cooke et al, 2022; Crow, 2023; Eckert, 2016; Gibson et al., 2017; Kurtz, 2022; RA for All, 2022). The hierarchies at play in knowledge organisation are more explicit than they once were (Keogh, 2017; Knight, 2021; Smith and Appleton, 2023; Woodcock, 2022) especially regarding the Dewey Decimal System (Gattullo Marrocolla, 2019; Joseph, 2021; O’Hara, 2021). However, I suspect more could, and should, be done to make overtly clear the lack of neutrality that is often needed to classify information. I also feel it is important that it is acknowledged that this lack of neutrality is not always due to negative or biased motivations.
Simran Jeet Singh’s (Trinity University, 2016) comments on engaging with difference in discussions to encourage constructive rather than destructive outcomes, reminded me of staff sessions I recently co-designed and co-delivered that consciously employed ‘conversation agreements’ including one adopted from facilitation practice of “seek to understand rather than persuade” (Liberating Structures, no date). This is an approach I intend to incorporate more explicitly into sessions with students, beyond my current approach of encouraging participation by providing multiple modes of communication in activities and reminding students that often there are ‘no right answers’ when it comes to information seeking behaviours.
With these thoughts in mind, I would be interested to find out if students have considered this, what their instinctive thoughts are on the idea of the library as a non-neutral space and explore how library sessions could better communicate this concept and frame information seeking within the contexts of: intersectionality, the requirements of classification, hierarchies of knowledge, and the difficulty and the issues when attempting, and assuming, neutrality in institutions.
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Bibliography
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Hi Jess, thanks for such a thoughtful and well-written post – once again so thorough and responding well to all your readings ! I found it really insightful. The idea of libraries not being neutral spaces really made me reflect on how we organise and present knowledge in all kinds of educational settings. I especially loved your point/ quote about “seeking to understand rather than persuade” – that really resonated with me and is something I’d like to bring into my own teaching practice in fashion. It’s such a useful mindset when encouraging students to explore creatively, where there’s rarely one right answer. Thanks again – I’ve definitely taken a lot from this!
Thanks Berni, I really appreciate your comment (as always!). I think “seeking to understand rather than persuade” might become my new catchphrase as I’ve used it in most of my posts now!
Your point about there rarely being one right answer really resonates with me, I often find myself saying that to students but I vividly remember not wanting to seem foolish or ‘get it wrong’ and so keeping quiet when I was an undergraduate (less so as time went on if I’m honest). I sometimes hope that my informal style of presenting encourages them to engage and realise we are all learning together especially as my expertise is in a different area to theirs so we can teach each other (without that sounding too trite). Thanks again Berni!
Hey Jess, this is a really thought-provoking post! I like how you map Appiah’s point about Europeans filtering new religions through a Christian lens onto the way libraries “shelve” knowledge. And I agree that pretending the system is neutral only hides the bias. They’re human choices afterall. I’m with you on making the system’s non-neutrality visible. When students realise that, they start spotting whose voices get lost or mis-filed!
Thanks Jacob, I love your comment about human choices and highlighting the non-neutrality. Some students on a course I support recently gave a presentation where they talked about how they are doing what they can with regards the archiving and classification of material by diasporic artists and they hope future generations will understand that and build on their work which I thought was incredible and reflects a lot of the content of this unit.