Reading Workplace Dynamics offers a renewed ethos for public librarianship synthesizing frontline practitioner outcomes with scholarship via a blend of chapters presenting innovative and bold testimony on ways in which COVID-19 forever changed public librarianship.
During the 2020-2023 years of the pandemic, when it came to the workplace, public librarians creatively adjusted their practices and their praxis to keep communities engaged with a myriad of virtual information services and distal information delivery during lockdown, lasting for often long and uncertain timeframes. Library staff then had to transition back to providing information services that resembled pre-pandemic services, but with added virtual options that library users had become accustomed to. How the pandemic affected librarian praxis has become a testimony of how librarian ethos has grown and become stronger for the lessons learned.
Defining the librarian ethos as the character of the librarian identity, Reading Workplace Dynamics offers a renewed ethos for public librarianship synthesizing frontline practitioner outcomes with scholarship via a blend of chapters presenting innovative and bold testimony on ways in which COVID-19 forever changed public librarianship. With a diverse geocultural scope, all chapters mindfully focus on the value of regionality and geoculture, centering and highlighting new voices to document the knowledge and wisdom of scholars and practitioners with front-line experience and longevity in public library services.
Reading Workplace Dynamics appeals to public library professionals globally interested and invested in their professional development, and wider readers seeking to understand experiences, practices, and initiatives in public libraries.
Foreword; John M. Budd
Introduction - The Symbiosis of Public Librarianship: Praxis and Ethos for a
Post-Pandemic Identity; Vanessa Irvin and Bharat Mehra
Section
1. Dynamics: Theoretical Lenses
Chapter
1. Public Libraries in Brazil: Conceptual Review in the Post-Pandemic
Era; Daniele Achilles, Renata Oliveira, Deise Sabbag, and Nanci Oddone
Chapter
2. "Reading" the Room in the COVID-19 Era as Womanist Canonical
Praxis: Black Motherhood and Public Librarianship; Shalonda Capers
Chapter
3. Voices in the (Information) Wilderness: Black Feminism(s) and
Informational Practices; LaVerne Gray, Joseph Winberry, and Yiran Duan
Chapter
4. When They Go Low: Preparing Information Professionals for
Threats of Violence in Library Workplaces; Beth Patin
Section
2. Practices: Operationalizing Protocols and Policies
Chapter
5. Commitment to Justice, Empathy, and Community During COVID-19:
Results from a Three-Phase Study of Public Libraries; Denice Adkins, Jenny
Bossaller, Ericka Butler, Wilson Castano, Hyerim, Cho, and Joe Kohlburn
Chapter
6. Equipping Librarians for Programming During and Post-Pandemic: A
Turning Point for the Free Library of Philadelphia; Veronica Britto and
Valerie Taylor-Samuels
Chapter
7. Exploring the Information Experiences of Immigrants Toward Public
Libraries in New York City; Jean Rene
Chapter
8. Blount County Public Librarys Response to COVID-19: A Library
Directors Pandemic Story; Kaurri C. Williams-Cockfield
Section
3. Connections: Inside/Outside Library Partnerships
Chapter
9. Partnerships and the COVID-19 Pandemic: From Threat to
Opportunity; Noah Lenstra, Nicole Peritore, and Christine Darpa
Chapter
10. Queer Reads And Resistance In Turbulent Times; Rae-Anne Montague
Chapter
11. Weaving Resilience: The Pandemic's Tapestry of Librarianship in
New Mexico; Eli Guinnee and Kathleen Pickering
Epilogue - Chasing the Long Tail of COVID: Envisioning a Renewed Ethos for
Public Librarianship; Claudia Martinez
Vanessa Irvin is Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Professions Master of Library Science Program, East Carolina University, USA.
Bharat Mehra is EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice and Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama, USA.
