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Dreads and Open Mouths: Living/Teaching/Writing Queerly
Author: Aneil Rallin
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-061-1
Physical description: 5.5X8,5; 216 p.
This timely, provocative, unruly, formally experimental/scholarly hybrid book charts an activist life of teaching/writing queerly over the past twenty years from the author’s subject position as a queer immigrant scholar/teacher of color situated in the field of rhetoric and composition.
Quirky and polemical, Dreads and Open Mouths blurs genres and challenges the boundaries between “scholarly” and “creative,” “literary” and “pedagogical,” “personal” and “political” as it explores and makes (dis)connections among literacy, writing, teaching, rhetoric, imagination, desire, sexuality, race, gender, politics, pleasure, resistance, education practices, assessment, global geopolitics, national boundaries, and students who have traditionally been marginalized in institutions of higher learning. It adds to the growing body of imaginative experimental activist work that refuses to be constrained by convention or to follow convention for the sake of following convention. It insists that queer inquiry eschew prescriptions for conventional academic discourse.
Its eleven interrelated chapters/provocations intervene into the interstices of critical pedagogy, queer theory, and contemporary politics; mingle “lust, intellect, and personal history”; and contest normative protocols of “scholarly” writing. In doing so, they produce what might be called queer rhetorics. Interceding into hegemonic knowledge and knowledge-making by offering rhetorical/methodological/activist alternatives to dominant disciplinary protocols or reimagining the subjects produced by these knowledge-making rhetorics/practices, each chapter sidesteps prescriptive expository protocols by constructing heterodox narratives, meta-narratives, interruptions in order to affect and disturb the master narratives; produces dissident (mestiza? circular? decolonial?) non-heteronormative rhetorical paradigms; takes pleasure in writing/thinking queerly; and generates theoretical and practical possibilities for queering scenes of teaching/writing.
Aneil Rallin grew up in Bombay, lives in Los Angeles, and does not drive. Aneil is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Soka University of America, and co-editor of the “queer and now” special issue of the journal The Writing Instructor. Aneil was previously Assistant Professor of English and the Center for Academic Writing at York University in Toronto, and Assistant Professor of Literature and Writing Studies and Director of General Education Writing at California State University, San Marcos.
Masked by Trust: Bias in Library Discovery
Author: Matthew Reidsma
Published: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-083-3
Physical description: 5.5X8.5; 204 p.
The rise of Google and its integration into nearly every aspect of our lives has pushed libraries to adopt similar “Google-like” search tools, called discovery systems. Because these tools are provided by libraries and search scholarly materials rather than the open web, we often assume they are more “accurate” or “reliable” than their general-purpose peers like Google or Bing. But discovery systems are still software written by people with prejudices and biases, library software vendors are subject to strong commercial pressures that are often hidden behind diffuse collection-development contracts and layers of administration, and they struggle to integrate content from thousands of different vendors and their collective disregard for consistent metadata.
Library discovery systems struggle with accuracy, relevance, and human biases, and these shortcomings have the potential to shape the academic research and worldviews of the students and faculty who rely on them. While human bias, commercial interests, and problematic metadata have long affected researchers’ access to information, algorithms in library discovery systems increase the scale of the negative effects on users, while libraries continue to promote their “objective” and “neutral” search tools.
Matthew Reidsma is the Web Services Librarian at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He was a co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of Weave: Journal of Library User Experience, a peer-reviewed, open access journal for Library User Experience professionals. He is the author of Responsive Web Design for Libraries published by ALA TechSource, Customizing Vendor Systems for Better User Experiences from Libraries Unlimited, and the forthcoming Masked by Trust: Bias in library discovery from Library Juice Press. He speaks about design ethics, user experience, and usability around the world. Library Journal named him a “Mover and Shaker” in 2013, which led to many unfortunate dance-related jokes in the Reidsma household.
Decolonizing the Caribbean Record: An Archives Reader
Editors: Jeannette A. Bastian, John A. Aarons, and Stanley H. Griffin
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-059-8
Physical Description: 7X10; 828p.
Little Gardens of Words: Bookseed’s Stories of Travel and Service
Author: Tim Deppe
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-019-2
Physical Description: 6X9; 436p.
Since 1994, Tim Deppe has been working through his small 501(c)(3) non-profit, Bookseed, to bring children’s books and seeds to hundreds of marginalized communities in Latin America and around the world. Bookseed helps establish children’s libraries in neglected primary schools and supplies organic seeds to subsistence farmers, co-ops, and school gardens. The stories in Little Gardens of Words reflect Deppe’s experiences living and working in some of these remote and forgotten communities, among dozens of different indigenous tribes. Part travelogue and part social commentary, these stories provide insight into the historical and cultural roots of these communities, as well as their current struggles. These inspiring tales show children’s eagerness to read and learn despite poorly equipped schools with few resources, and adults’ perseverance in face of hardships and oppression. These stories also show the damaging effects of militarism, racism, and poverty that threaten these communities’ survival, and readers will be challenged by seeing our own complicity in the international political and economic policies that help create these situations.
The more than twenty stories in this volume recount one man’s efforts to plant “little gardens,” promoting literacy and self-sufficiency, where they are needed most.
Love Activism
Author: Stacy Shotsberger Russo
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-055-0
Physical Description: 6X9; 136p.
Love Activism presents a daily, radical activism of kindness and a positive way to live against cruelty, violence, and injustice. This is realized through how we perform our work, what we do in our communities, and decisions we make each day. This form of activism is a holistic practice with eight beautiful elements: service, empathy, non-violence, self-care, hope, creativity, feminism, and mindfulness. Even when the dismantling of large and unjust structures, corporations, and institutions can seem daunting and disheartening, we can all make real impact in our daily lives. We can choose to live our lives as political statements. This is a profound and inspiring form of activism for ourselves, our communities, all living beings, and the earth.
Love Activism is a book for those who seek a more kind and peaceful world. It provides inspiration and support for activists. Through stories, examples, and lists of practices, readers discover the different elements of Love Activism and how they can bring these practices into their lives. The book also includes interviews with ten activists throughout the United States who are involved in various types of activism in their communities. These individuals include the founder of a community garden organization; an art therapist; the founder of a food justice organization; and an individual involved with educating his community on printmaking as a form of activism. Because this book is meant to build community and foster discussion, it concludes with questions for self-reflection and reading groups. Now is the time to be brave and love powerfully.
Stacy Russo, a librarian and professor at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, California, is a poet, writer, and artist. She believes in libraries as community spaces; lifelong learning; public education; peaceful living; feminism; and the power of personal story. Stacy is the editor of Life as Activism: June Jordan’s Writings from The Progressive (Litwin Books, 2014) and the author of We Were Going to Change the World: Interviews with Women from the 1970s and 1980s Southern California Punk Rock Scene (Santa Monica Press, 2017) and The Library as Place in California (McFarland, 2007). Her articles, poetry, and reviews have appeared in Feminist Teacher, Feminist Collections, American Libraries, Library Journal, Counterpoise, Chaffey Review, and Serials Review. She holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley; Chapman University; and San Jose State University. Stacy always takes her coffee black; eats chocolate every day; and loves to nap at the ocean.
Archival Research and Education: Selected Papers from the 2014 AERI Conference
Editors: Richard J. Cox, Alison Langmead, and Eleanor Mattern
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-020-8
Physical Description: 6X9; 436p.
SERIES ON ARCHIVES, ARCHIVISTS AND SOCIETY
This book is number 7 in the Series on Archives, Archivists, and Society, Richard J. Cox,editor.
The sixth annual Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences in July 2014, brought together doctoral students and faculty engaged in Archival Studies from around the world, although principally from the United States. Supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, these institutes are designed to strengthen education and research, as well as support academic cohort building and mentoring in the archival community.
This publication features fifteen essays by both emerging and established archival scholars and faculty from four continents. These contributions reflect the range of new archival research, the continuing maturation of archival education, and the growing international collaboration among archival scholars and faculty.
The volume is offered in memory of Terry Cook (1947-2014), the plenary speaker at the first AERI conference in 2009.
Islands in the Cyberstream: Seeking Havens of Reason in a Programmed Society
Author: Joseph Weizenbaum with Gunna Wendt
Translator: Benjamin Fasching-Gray
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-63400-000-0
Physical Description: 5.5X8.5; 170p.
Joseph Weizenbaum is best known in the English-speaking world for his 1976 popular critique of artificial intelligence, Computer Power and Human Reason. His reputation in Europe continued to flourish, however, as he wrote and spoke for German-speaking audiences until his death in 2008. Islands in the Cyberstream: Seeking Havens of Reason in a Programmed Societyis an extended interview with Weizenbaum, originally published in German in 2006. Imaginitive, iconoclastic, and always insightful about the role of computing in society, this book is a great introduction to the thought of Joseph Weizenbaum as it has evolved over the decades.
Learning from the BRICS: Open Access to Scientific Information in Emerging Countries
Editor: Joachim Schöpfel
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-936117-84-0
Physical Description: 5.5X8.5; 220p.
The market for scientific and technical information (STI) has been dominated by publishers from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands. This book takes a look at the interesting developments in publishing coming from the countries with emerging economies known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), which comprise 40% of the world’s population and whose GDPs comprise 18% percent of the world’s economy. Each of these countries has a unique economic system as well as differing systems of academic higher education and research. As a result, they have each developed different models of academic publishing for the dissemination of their research results, many of which are based on principles of open access.
This book closes a gap in the literature of academic publishing by examining the strategies employed in STI publishing in these countries. As a growing part of the international STI market, they will impact the ways in which information is produced and made available in the future. The models examined here can serve as alternative options for information delivery in developed countries, and may serve as more sustainable models for emerging economies in Africa and Latin America.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa all developed their own way to open access, based on specific blends of green and gold road, public investment and private initiatives. What they have in common, is their commitment to research as a driver of economic and societal development and to open science as a way to enhance quality, impact and access to scientific information. Open access is not an end in itself but a means to better science.
Each chapter tells a story, and each story is different. A virtual roundtable concludes the book, with a focus on shared values and engagement in the international community of open access and open science. This book provides an important overview of publishing trends in BRICS nations and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of academic publishing, including librarians, higher education researchers, and publishers. It also provides insights regarding copyright issues, the economics of publishing and STI, and international affairs.
Joachim Schöpfel is lecturer of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Lille 3 (France), director of the French Digitization Centre for PhD theses (ANRT) and member of the GERiiCO research laboratory.
Queers Online: LGBT Digital Practices in Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Editor: Rachel Wexelbaum
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-936117-79-6
Physical Description: 6X9; 228p.
SERIES ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN INFORMATION STUDIES
Number six in the Litwin Books’ Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies, Emily Drabinski, Series Editor
In the 21st century, there are more LGBT information resources than ever before. The challenges that arise both from the explosion of born-digital materials and the transformation of materials from physical to electronic formats has implications for access to these resources for future generations. Along with preservation concerns, making these numerous digital LGBT resources available to users becomes more difficult when they swim in an ocean of websites, EBooks, digitized objects, and other digital resources. Librarians, archivists, and museum curators must engage in a range of new digital practices to preserve and promote these numerous LGBT resources.
A “digital practice” in libraries, archives, and museums includes, but is not limited to, the digitization of physical objects; the creation of online resources and services that improve access to these objects; the use of online catalogs, databases, and metadata to categorize such objects; and the online social media and Web 2.0 tools used to connect users to these resources. Information professionals engaged in digital practices must also understand the information needs, online searching behaviors, and online communication styles of their patrons in order to make them aware of the digital resources that may be of use to them.
This is the first book to specifically address the digital practices of LGBT librarians, archivists, and museum curators, as well as the digital practices of seekers and users of LGBT resources and services. More broadly, this collection aims to address these issues in the context of the technical, social, economic, legal, and political challenges of creating LGBT-specific digital collections, electronic resources and services.
Piracy: Leakages from Modernity
Editors: Martin Fredriksson and James Arvanitakis
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-936117-59-8
Physical Description: 6X9; 370p.
“Piracy” is a concept that seems everywhere in the contemporary world. From the big screen with the dashing Jack Sparrow, to the dangers off the coast of Somalia; from the claims by the Motion Picture Association of America that piracy funds terrorism, to the political impact of pirate parties in countries like Sweden and Germany. While the spread of piracy provokes responses from the shipping and copyright industries, the reverse is also true: for every new development in capitalist technologies, some sort of “piracy” moment emerges.
This is maybe most obvious in the current ideologisation of Internet piracy where the rapid spread of so called Pirate Parties is developing into a kind of global political movement. While the pirates of Somalia seem a long way removed from Internet pirates illegally downloading the latest music hit or, it is the assertion of this book that such developments indicate a complex interplay between capital flows and relations, late modernity, property rights and spaces of contestation. That is, piracy seems to emerge at specific nodes in capitalist relations that create both blockages and leaks between different social actors.
These various aspects of piracy form the focus for this book, entitled Piracy: Leakages from Modernity. It is meant to be a collection of texts that takes a broad perspective on piracy and attempts to capture the multidimensional impacts of piracy on capitalist society today. The book is edited by James Arvanitakis at the University of Western Sydney and Martin Fredriksson at Linköping University, Sweden.
The Book Collecting Practices of Black Magazine Editors
Author: Thomas Weissinger
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-936117-63-5
Physical Description: 5X8; 120p.
The Book Collecting Practices of Black Magazine Editors focuses on the collecting habits and personal libraries of three black magazine editors. Ben Burns and Era Bell Thompson were editors of important popular magazines, the Negro Digest, Ebony, and Jet. Tom Dent edited Umbra and Nkombo, two important black literary magazines.
This study is of interest to librarians, library educators, bibliophiles, historians, laypersons, and students of American culture. Building upon prior research in black bibliography, the study examines the reasons why certain black press editors sought to assemble personal libraries of their own. It focuses on the minds of the persons who assembled these collections. It considers the effect of racial ideology on their collection building activities. The study also takes a look at how their collections are configured and what makes them useful.
A mixed-methods approach is used for data analysis. Historical analysis based on primary and secondary sources is used to discern the racial ideologies and personal experiences of the three bibliophiles. Text network analysis is used to analyze the structure and configuration of their personal libraries. Uncovered are the relations between important subjects and various forms and genre styles. These are prescriptive in nature and offer practical guidance in terms of how to build functional African American personal libraries.
Ephemeral Material: Queering the Archive
Author: Alana Kumbier
Publisher: Litwin Books
ISBN: 978-1-936117-51-2
Physical Description: 6X9; 266p.
SERIES ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN INFORMATION STUDIES
Number five in the Litwin Books Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies, Emily Drabinski, Series Editor.
Ephemeral Material: Queering the Archive articulates a queer approach to archival studies and archival practice, and establishes the relevance of this approach beyond collections with LGBTQ content. Kumbier argues that queering the archive (thinking through queer interests, experiences, explanatory frameworks, and cultural practices) allows us to think critically about established archival principles and practices. This project describes — and supports — the work of archivists, community documentarians, activists, and scholars seeking to preserve materials documenting queer lives and experiences, and imagines how we might respond to the particular demands of archiving queer lives. Further, this project intervenes in the repetition of practices that may exclude LGBTQ constituencies, render our experiences less-visible/less-legible, or perpetuate oppressive power relations between archivists and users or documented subjects. The project aims to make work by scholars in history, performance studies, queer studies, and other areas of the humanities who are encountering the limits of archives — and are developing strategies for working with them — legible and relevant to archivists and librarians. The book supports its conceptual work with concrete examples of collecting and documentation projects, a research ethnography, and analyses of popular media that represent — and critique — archival spaces and practices.