Why Librarians MUST resist neoliberalism

Are you an ALA accredited librarian? If you are, one assumes you support the concepts of public good, democracy, and intellectual freedom espoused by the ALA:

ALA’s CoreValues of Librarianship webpage (June 2004) states: “A democracy presupposes an informed citizenry;” “ALA promotes the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of a learning society;” “We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom;” “… reaffirms the following fundamental values of libraries…that libraries are an essential public good and are fundamental institutions in democratic societies” and; “The broad social responsibilities of … [ALA] are defined in terms of the contribution that librarianship can make in ameliorating or solving the critical problems of society; support for efforts to help inform and educate the people of the United States on these problems and to encourage them to examine the many views on and the facts regarding each problem….”

IFLA’s Codeof Ethics, released in August 2012, states “Information service in the interest of social, cultural and economic well-being is at the heart of librarianship and therefore librarians have social responsibility.” Also, “Librarians and other information workers support and participate in transparency so that the workings of government, administration and business are opened to the scrutiny of the general public,” “…have the right to free speech in the workplace provided it does not infringe the principle of neutrality toward users,” “…counter corruption directly affecting librarianship, as in the sourcing and supply of library materials, appointments to library posts and administration of library contracts and finances”

Unfortunately the neoliberal ideology is one-dimensional in that the market is the “arbiter of social destiny (Rule, 1998)” and decisions under neoliberalism are determined by market imperatives. I’ve talked a bit about neoliberalism here. Under neoliberalism public good and intellectual freedom, along with democracy, are subservient and/or nonexistent as they are contrary to this ideology. Democracy as an ideology is diametrically opposed to neoliberalism. Democracy has an “affiliative and dialogic mode (Duggan, 2004),” where choice is paramount. There is no choice in neoliberalism as the market decides.

How does this play out? What activities/events occur to show the creep of neoliberalism into libraries? The attack on professional librarianship reflects the introduction of the neoliberal ideology in libraries. Are you noticing reduced or no discussion around pertinent professional issues? Are you hearing the term “management prerogative” more often? Do you even get to hear about issues that impact your professional responsibilities, except after the fact? There is a lack of transparency regarding decisions made by library administrators, a lack of discussion around decisions impacting the practice of librarianship, and when was the last time you saw your library’s budget? When was the last time your management accepted a recommendation that was contrary to their expressed wishes? Are your Committees handpicked by management versus elected? Are you being increasingly isolated by management, e.g. it  is not the failure of the library but you failing the library and you not keeping up your end of things…as opposed to us working together for the betterment of the library? Meetings for open dialogue degenerate as management prerogative rises (does anyone else notice the spooky resemblance to your parents’ response “because I said so?”) and requests to explain management positions and decisions are left unfulfilled. Do contract negotiations include controversy over control over your work, career (what career? says the cynic in me, I’m just a piece in a game of checkers, not even chess) and workload? How about Librarians as cheaper faculty? Depredations on academic freedom? 

Why is this important? It is important because neoliberalism in libraries narrows the scope for defining options/participating in a democratic dialogue for librarians, which ultimately impacts our users. Do wish to work in a place where management is given free reign to make market-based decisions about what is best for its workers and users without reference to either group? I’m pretty sure the workers (Librarians) can expect union-busting, since salaries and benefits are currently based on negotiations and not what the market decides. Open source, open access and freedom of information? Forget it. Information is a commodity and a market. And the users, well, they’ll have no voices, or representatives defending those voices, unless they represent a market with a large enough voices that can drive decisions.

 “Librarians and other information workers distinguish between their personal convictions and professional duties. They do not advance private interests or personal beliefs at the expense of neutrality. (IFLA 2012)” Luckily for us, neoliberalism is an ideology clearly in conflict with librarianship’s core values and ethics, which makes it obvious we should be resisting. There can be no neutrality when and where the public good comes under threat, intellectual freedom is resisted and democracy comes under fire, whether within our workplaces or society. It is clear that democracy is an ideology and we can certainly make a decision to resign this ideology in favour of another but that other shouldn’t be one that shuts down options and reduces decisions to unilateral, market based ones.

Those who support or implement neoliberal ideology are not the enemy. The enemy is the ideology itself and it is incumbent on every librarian to resist ideologies that threaten our core values and ethics, be you an administrator or line librarian. The difficulty has been in recognizing this as a threat, and continues to be in educating ourselves to this threat and to options for non-violent revolution.