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Libraries as Dysfunctional Organizations and Workplaces expands the "dysfunctional" concept in the professional and academic LIS discourse by exposing the internal problematics of libraries, especially at the social and organizational levels.
Including contributions written by LIS professionals and scholars, the book demonstrates that although many libraries do well at attending to users and managing external information they often fail at taking care of their own employees and addressing internal workplace issues. Acadia and the contributing authors explore the problem of dysfunctional libraries so that the LIS profession can come to terms with the systemic dysfunction in their institutions and begin solution-oriented progress toward new and sustainable functionality. The book analyzes the dysfunctional nature of modern libraries, while simultaneously proposing solutions to reduce and alleviate dysfunction. Through theory and application, it takes an explicit practice-based approach with the intent to inform and explain dysfunction as experienced in the library workplace at individual and structural levels and perspectives.
Libraries as Dysfunctional Organizations and Workplaces brings the dysfunction discourse to the attention of LIS academics and scholars so that further theoretical and empirical research can proceed from and subsequently be addressed in library and information schools. The book will also be essential reading for librarians and LIS students currently working or preparing to work in public, college, and university libraries.
List of contents
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Dysfunction in the Library Workplace; Chapter 2: The Dysfunctional Library and Academic Librarian Turnover; Chapter 3: Improving Dysfunctional Recruitment and Retention in Academic Libraries by Honoring the Whole Person; Chapter 4: Precarity Doesn't Care: Precarious Employment as a Dysfunctional Practice in Libraries; Chapter 5: Discrimination as Dysfunction: Why do Libraries Have a Problem with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?; Chapter 6: Workplace Dysfunction and Intellectual Freedom in Public Libraries; Chapter 7: The Saboteur in the Academic Library; Chapter 8: "Put the Fucking Salary in the Job Ad!": An Analysis of an Anonymous Corpus of Tweets; Chapter 9: You are Seen: An Analysis of Library Dysfunction Found in Online Memes; Chapter 10: A Descriptive Study of Workplace Bullying in U.S. Libraries during the COVID-19 Pandemic; Chapter 11: Work Alienation in Academic Libraries: A Marxist Analysis of Library Dysfunction; Chapter 12: Bamboo Ceiling Reframed: Exclusion through Social Practices and Structures in Libraries; Chapter 13: Combating Destruction: Organizational Power and Conflict in Academic Libraries; Chapter 14: Dysfunction by (Dis)organization: The Academic Library within University Structure and Organization.
About the author
Spencer Acadia is an assistant professor in the Research Methods and Information Science Department at the University of Denver, U.S.A.
Summary
Libraries as Dysfunctional Organizations and Workplaces expands the ‘dysfunctional’ concept in the professional and academic LIS discourse by exposing the internal problematics of libraries, especially at the social and organizational level.
