1. What do we do and
why do we do it?
Presented by Emily Ford
forder@pdx.edu

2. "Give the people what they want is a
brittle and shallow civic philosophy."
Pariser (2011)

3. I Went into the Maverick Bar
by Gary Snyder
"I went into the Maverick Bar
In Farmington, New Mexico.
And drank double shots of bourbon
backed with beer.
My long hair was tucked up under a cap
I'd left the earring in the car..."

4. "The purpose of the Library is to
preserve the integrity of civilization..."
Blyberg, Trainor, & Greenhill (2009)

5. “...librarians and others concerned
with the freedom to read asked
themselves about the effects on
library policy and practices of the
investigations of national and state
un-American activities committees,
state education committees, and
the widely publicized book-
centered conflicts which have
taken place in California since the
end of World War II.”
Fiske (1959)

6. "Contrasted to science, it [library
science] necessarily consists of
judgements of value that translate
a vision of the world into the social
engagement that follows from it."
Cossette (1979)

7. "The future of the web is about
personalization...now the web is about 'me.'"
Yahoo! Vice President Tapan Bhat (cited by Pariser)

8. March 24, 2012 11:30am
Yahoo! News
New York Times Front Page

9. Ombudsman = ?

10. Credits
Leeder, K. (2010) My Maverick Bar: A Search for Identity and the "Real Work" of Librarianship
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/my-maverick-bar-a-search-for-identity-and-the-real-work-of-librarianship/
Snyder, G. (1974) Turtle Island
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/901204
Booth, C. (2010) Librarians as __________: Shapeshifting at the Periphery
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/librarians-as-__________-shapeshifting-at-the-periphery/
Blyberg, Trainor, & Greenhill. (2009) The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians
http://www.blyberg.net/2009/04/03/the-darien-statements-on-the-library-and-librarians/
Fiske, M. (1959) Book Selection and Censorship: A Study of School and Public Libraries in California
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/710681
See also: Collier, E. (2010) The Fiske Report.
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/the-fiske-report/
Cossette, A. (1979) Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on the Philosophy of Librarianship
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/449283795
Pariser, E. (2011) The Filter Bubble
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/682892628
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/topgold/5883898308/
TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html
Librarian Photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingstonlibrary/4540133650/

11. What do we do and
why do we do it?
Presented by Emily Ford
forder@pdx.edu
Please bear with me for five minutes while I tell
you what’s on my mind.
I’ve been struggling with librarianship’s identity.
For me this is not a new struggle. Identity
tropes have been permeating our profession
for quite some time. They have been aided
and abetted by technological change,
disintermediation of information, the sudden
and hip popularity of earning a Master of
Library Science, and the myth of the “graying
of the profession.”

12. "Give the people what they want is a
brittle and shallow civic philosophy."
Pariser (2011)
Personalization on the net poses the same problem
Fiske identified in her report. As library workers our
professional conundrum lies in this scary place
between an un-articulated philosophy of praxis and
these ethical issues surrounding information.
Information is now tainted by automated personal
relevance. Worse, relevance algorithms can mirror
social problems such as classism, racism, sexism,
and other injustices.

13. I Went into the Maverick Bar
by Gary Snyder
"I went into the Maverick Bar
In Farmington, New Mexico.
And drank double shots of bourbon
backed with beer.
My long hair was tucked up under a cap
I'd left the earring in the car..."
In 2010 my friend and colleague from In the
Library with the Lead Pipe, Kim Leeder, wrote
an article called: My Maverick Bar: A Search
for Identity and the “Real Work” of
Librarianship. A month later, Char Booth
authored Librarians as __________:
Shapeshifting at the periphery in the same
journal.

14. "The purpose of the Library is to
preserve the integrity of civilization..."
Blyberg, Trainor, & Greenhill (2009)
In 2009, John Blyberg, Cindi Trainor, and
Kathryn Greenhill composed and endorsed the
The Darien Statements on the Library and
Librarians.
These are all recent examples of librarians
searching for the meaning of what we do.
These questions become especially important
in times when libraries, library funding, and
access to information are called into question.
When have they not?

15. “...librarians and others concerned
with the freedom to read asked
themselves about the effects on
library policy and practices of the
investigations of national and state
un-American activities committees,
state education committees, and
the widely publicized book-
centered conflicts which have
taken place in California since the
end of World War II.”
Fiske (1959)
But our introspections didn’t begin in the early
21st century. In 1959 Marjorie Fiske completed
a study titled: Book Selection and Censorship:
A Study of School and Public Libraries in
California. The study revealed that librarians
were struggling with questions of “quality or
demand” when it came to collecting materials.

16. "Contrasted to science, it [library
science] necessarily consists of
judgements of value that translate
a vision of the world into the social
engagement that follows from it."
Cossette (1979)
Twenty years later, in 1979 a Canadian
student named Andre Cossette authored the
essay Humanism and libraries: an essay on
the philosophy of librarianship. In it he asks
questions pertaining to library science’s
philosophical underpinnings. Today we still
grapple with these questions. Library workers
do not have one unifying philosophy.
Last month at OLA, we discussed this book
and questions of library philosophy. At one
point we concluded that “Librarians are
facilitating for everyone the lifelong

17. "The future of the web is about
personalization...now the web is about 'me.'"
Yahoo! Vice President Tapan Bhat (cited by Pariser)
Eli Pariser, one of the co-founders of
Moveon.org, wrote a book entitled: The Filter
Bubble. Many of you may have heard of it or
read it. Pariser discusses the inherent tension
between disintermediated information
production and delivery, and the internet
personalization craze. In short, internet
personalization is creating filter bubbles in
which we exist, where no one truth is the same
for any individual. In a previous era, content
was delivered to us by humans who have
ethical values, such as a newspaper editors
(or librarians).

18. March 24, 2012 11:30am
Yahoo! News
New York Times Front Page
Today, we see information that has been
deemed most relevant because people
within our networks, who have similar
profiles to us, have clicked on that link.
Relevance is no longer based on curation or
information’s impact on social and civic life.
The social and monetary capital of a click-
through is driving what we see.
As information consumers our worldviews are
being shaped by the systematically and
algorithmically filtered information we see.
Our filter bubbles illustrate and further
enable our social and political choices. Our

19. Ombudsman = ?
Despite Pariser’s provocative arguments, he
identifies some crucial needy spaces that
present opportunities for librarians. He points
to the need for information curators.
Furthermore, he argues “appointing an
independent ombudsman and giving the
world more insight into how the powerful
filtering algorithms work would be an
important first step [to help the common
good]”.

20. Credits
Leeder, K. (2010) My Maverick Bar: A Search for Identity and the "Real Work" of Librarianship
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/my-maverick-bar-a-search-for-identity-and-the-real-work-of-librarianship/
Snyder, G. (1974) Turtle Island
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/901204
Booth, C. (2010) Librarians as __________: Shapeshifting at the Periphery
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/librarians-as-__________-shapeshifting-at-the-periphery/
Blyberg, Trainor, & Greenhill. (2009) The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians
http://www.blyberg.net/2009/04/03/the-darien-statements-on-the-library-and-librarians/
Fiske, M. (1959) Book Selection and Censorship: A Study of School and Public Libraries in California
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/710681
See also: Collier, E. (2010) The Fiske Report.
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/the-fiske-report/
Cossette, A. (1979) Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on the Philosophy of Librarianship
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/449283795
Pariser, E. (2011) The Filter Bubble
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/682892628
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/topgold/5883898308/
TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html
Librarian Photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingstonlibrary/4540133650/
So, my dear colleagues, I don’t have any
solutions to these problems of philosophical
praxis, identity, and the ethical dilemmas we
face. I’m simply asking you to engage in
these questions and these navel-gazing
exercises with me. What do we do? And why
do we do it?
Thank you