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Class and Librarianship: Essays at the Intersection of Information Edited by Erik Estep and Nathaniel Enright. (Labor and Capital, 2016). ISBN 978-1-936117-74-1
Reviewed by John Pateman
This publication by Library Juice Press http://libraryjuicepress.com/ is well timed to coincide with a resurged interest in Marx and how his ideas can be applied to librarianship. It is noted in the Introduction that 'books on class and librarianship have been few and far between' and that social class is the final taboo now that gender, race and other progressive topics have been engaged with by the profession. However, the North American focus of this publication does not reflect some important work that has been carried out in the UK - for a sample please see references to works by this reviewer at the end of this review.
The Academic Library as Crypto-Temple: a Marxian Analysis by Stephen E. Bales applies the French Marxist Louis Althusser's concept of the 'Ideological State Apparatus' (ISA) and argues that the public library is a state maintained, superstructural institution designed not to coerce but to persuade the public of the historical bloc's legitimacy by reinforcing the dominant culture. The historical mission of the public library is to maintain the political / economic status quo. The outcome is to exclude those who feel 'out of place' when using the library or who think they 'don't belong' there. They are treated as 'the other' by library staff and included patrons. Some people are excluded because they refuse to follow the necessary rituals of the library; or they self exclude themselves because of library anxiety. When functioning as an ISA the academic library acts as a stepladder for restocking capitalism's middle class technicians, white collar workers, small and middle executives and petty bourgeois of all kinds. In a call to action Bales suggests that librarians should recognise that they work in institutions that incorporate residual yet powerful ideological structures which support the exploitative tendencies of modern capitalism. He compares the symbolisms of temples and libraries and suggests that researchers should focus on how these symbolisms mold library patrons' actions related to library use or non-use.
Social Reproduction in the Early American Public Library: Exploring the Connections between Capital and Gender by Alexandra Carruthers contends that the...